Winner of nine Tony Awards, and the rare musical to also win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Broadway's legendary A Chorus Line will enjoy its first-ever Quad City Music Guild presentation July 6 through 15, demonstrating why the 1976 New York production ran a staggering 6,137 performances, and why the New York Times called its debut “a smoke signal to the world that the musical can touch unexpected depths in the human heart.”

There’s a new band in town – and they’re only around for two more nights. It’s Hedwig & the Angry Inch, and the Circa '21 Speakeasy is the perfect venue for a show that is simply a rock concert. With just enough Quad City references thrown in to make it seem like an actual tour, Hedwig (Anthony Natarelli) and her band (Kyle Jecklin on bass, Peter Letendre on drums, and Ben Kays on guitar) take you on a captivating musical recollection of the headliner's life.

A classic stage work that, according to the New York Times, is “rich in poetic imagery” while demonstrating that “even for the Greek gods, what goes around comes around,” Aeschylus' Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound serves as the latest production in Gensius Guild's 2018 season, its June 30 through July 8 presentation enacted by a cast of 16 and with its chief characters performing in period-appropriate masks.

At Friday night's final dress rehearsal of Genesius Guild's As You Like It, there were instances in which performers were forced to overcome numerous distractions from around the park. The distant sounds of children on the playground, a flock of birds singing their twilight song, an occasional motorcycle passing by … even the noise of a rushing freight train from the bottom of the hill.

One could make the case that these distractions would lessen the overall enjoyability of this Shakespeare production. But I found the opposite to be the case, for they reminded me that this is public theatre at its finest – an opportunity for all to come and enjoy classical theatre no matter the emptiness of their pockets (though donations are gratefully accepted), and even if performed in the sweltering mid-June heat, by actors with true love for and dedication to the art.