I fell hard in love with playwright Qui Nguyen's She Kills Monsters the first time I saw it at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre in the summer of 2019. We trysted again that fall at Augustana College. I was consequently happy, on Saturday, to enjoy a new rendezvous at St. Ambrose University. Director Daniel Rairdin-Hale and the show's staff, crew, and cast have assembled a singularly beautiful, big-scale-impressive production of Nguyen's play.

Make no mistake: Augustana College’s Macbeth doesn’t even try to skirt around the fact that it’s a tragedy. In fact, director Jennifer Popple’s production begins with a funeral. It’s an artistic funeral, certainly, in that it’s set to modern-dance movements (care of movement director Shelley Cooper), but this Scottish play is well prepared to heighten reality while remaining heartfelt in the midst of tragedy.

A Tony Award-nominated playwright described by the New York Times as “a maestro of the short form,” author David Ives and his unique stage gifts will be celebrated in Scott Community College's Student Life Center from November 18 through 21, with the college's theatrical talents uniting to treat audiences to three beguiling works in An Evening of Shorts by David Ives.

Had the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's holiday production Winter Wonderland been staged last year as originally intended, it would have marked a significant anniversary, given that it would have been 20 years since the previous version of this Christmas-themed musical revue debuted on the Rock Island stage. But with the dinner theatre closed for the holidays in 2020, Winter Wonderland, running November 10 through December 29, is now returning to Circa '21 – in altered form – for this year's yuletide season instead. And although a 21st-anniversary presentation may not have the marketing value of a 20th-, staging the revue in 2021 does provide a different number to celebrate.