04 Jun 2008

Sons Raised, Sons Sent: "Empty Nest," at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse through July 19

By Mike Schulz

Eddie Staver III, Adam Michael Lewis, and Ashler Catherine Schmitt It takes considerable skill - to say nothing of nerve - to steal a show from the likes of Brad Hauskins, Adam Michael Lewis, and Eddie Staver III. But in the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's Empty Nest, actress Ashley Catherine Schmitt arrives halfway through the production, introduces herself to her co-stars, tucks playwright Lawrence Roman's comedy into her leg warmers, and all but dashes off with it. The play itself is too featherweight (albeit agreeably so) for this to be considered grand larceny, but it's certainly grand; Schmitt is like the guest you don't remember inviting who winds up being the life of the party.

04 Jun 2008

Flappers, Tappers, Kidnappers: "Thoroughly Modern Millie," at Clinton' Showboat Theatre thru June 15

By Mike Schulz

Alison Luff in Thoroughly Modern Millie When he took the stage before Thursday night's presentation of Thoroughly Modern Millie, the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's producing artistic director - and Millie director - Craig A. Miller mentioned that audiences might notice a couple of changes at the 'Boat this year.

03 Jun 2008

Generation Gaps: "john & jen," at the Green Room

By Mike Schulz

Sarah Ulloa and Ryan Westwood in john and jenI hadn't heard of the two-person musical john & jen until it popped up on St. Ambrose University's schedule of studio-theatre productions for the 2006-7 season, as a project for director Scott Peake and music director Tyson Danner. I'm guessing a lot of you hadn't, either.

21 May 2008

Amass for the Dead: "Elegies: A Song Cycle," at the Village Theatre through May 24

By Mike Schulz

the cast of Elegies: A Song Cycle From the opening minutes of Elegies: A Song Cycle, the debut presentation by the Riverbend Theatre Collective, it's clear that the production is going to be beautifully performed. An uninterrupted, 90-minute collection of reminiscences by composer William Finn, the revue finds Allison Collins-Elfline, Patrick Gimm, Jackie Madunic, Dana Joel Nicholson, and Bryan J. Tank offering musical tributes to people (and pets) that Finn loved and lost, and they form an intimidatingly strong vocal ensemble, excellent in their solos and even finer in harmony.

14 May 2008

Animal Magnetism: "Life's a Dream," at the Rock Island Masonic Temple through May 18

By Mike Schulz

Eddie Staver III in Life's a Dream Say what you will about the Prenzie Players' latest presentation, but you can't say that the classical-theatre troupe, with its production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's Life's a Dream, is merely resting on its laurels.

14 May 2008

Unreasonable Doubts: "12 Angry Men," at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre through May 18

By Mike Schulz

12 Angry Men ensemble members Near as I can tell, there are two types of people: those who like Reginald Rose's jury-room drama 12 Angry Men, and those who haven't seen it yet. So speedy and smart, so filled with personality and (mostly) unforced emotion, the work seems practically indestructible, and I actually fall into a special subset of people: those who love 12 Angry Men with a passion bordering on mania. (Between Sidney Lumet's 1957 film version and the 1997 television remake, I've watched it - and this is a conservative estimate - more than three dozen times.) So it was with nearly delirious excitement, and just a touch of dread, that I attended the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's Saturday-night presentation of the show, the first stage production of Rose's piece that I'd seen.

07 May 2008

Breaking Hearts, Tickling Ribs: The Riverbend Theatre Collective Debuts with "Elegies: A Song Cycle"

By Mike Schulz

the Elegies ensemble Describing composer William Finn's Elegies: A Song Cycle, the first presentation by the Quad Cities' new theatrical company the Riverbend Theatre Collective, artistic director Allison Collins-Elfline says of the show, "It's quirky, it's fun, it's upbeat ... ."

Yet it's also a considerable risk for a fledgling theatrical organization's first outing, as the subject of the Tony-winning composer's quirky, fun, upbeat musical revue is, as its title suggests, death. "An elegy is a hymn of praise for someone who has passed on," states Collins-Elfline, "and Elegies is about all the people William Finn knew that he's lost."

07 May 2008

Writers' Block Party: "Romance Language," at Augustana College through May 11

By Mike Schulz

Brian Bengtson, Katie Wyant, and Kyle Roggenbuck in Romance Language If you majored in English, or are currently majoring in English, or simply wish that you'd majored in English, Peter Parnell's comic fantasia Romance Language might sound like an almost obscene amount of fun. Or perhaps merely obscene, as Augustana College's latest presentation finds Walt Whitman traveling cross-country with Huck Finn, Ralph Waldo Emerson pining over the deceased Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson abandoning her lesbian lover for a Native American warrior, Louisa May Alcott embracing her wild side as an uninhibited dance-hall girl ... . The experience of Romance Language is like tumbling down Lewis Carroll's rabbit hole and landing smack in the middle of a 19th Century American Literature course.

As an English major myself, I say: Awesome.

30 Apr 2008

Running, Running, Running: The Prenzie Players Venture Beyond Shakespeare with "Life's a Dream"

By Mike Schulz

Reader issue #682 The latest undertaking by the Quad Cities' classical-drama troupe the Prenzie Players is an adaptation of Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca's Life's a Dream, and at one point during a recent interview, group co-founder and Dream director J.C. Luxton tells me, "This show is just running, running, running. There aren't a lot of breaks for anybody."

Including, as it turns out, the audience.

23 Apr 2008

A Good Second Wind: Domingo Rubio in Ballet Quad Cities' "Coppélia," April 26 and 27

By Ballet QC

Domingo Rubio in Ballet Quad Cities' DraculaDomingo Rubio, the Mexico City-based dancer currently performing with Ballet Quad Cities, is discussing his American breakthrough in 1999.

"I was with a Mexican company dancing in Los Angeles," he says, "and Gerald Arpino [artistic director of Chicago's Joffrey Ballet], he saw me dancing at my fullest. You know, I was doing big, big roles ... everything that you could do without fainting. And stuff choreographed by me - things that would suit myself. He saw those performances and wanted me for his company.

"So even though I was 33," he continues, "which is, you know, an age that you could quit, I started with Joffrey."

Thirty-three?

"It was like a good second wind," says Rubio. "I started late, and I've been catching up."

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