As I parked in the Playcrafters Barn Theatre lot, I noticed a deer lingering in the tree line. The sight made me chuckle, as Bambi apparently missed the memo that the show currently playing is The Wolves. Or maybe it knew the title refers to a girl’s indoor-soccer team named after the big, bad woodland creature.

Described by The Village Voice as “a delightful meditation on society, sex, and soccer” and by The Hollywood Reporter as “a dizzying whirl of attitude, anxiety, and adolescent hormonal volatility,” The Wolves makes its area debut at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre September 13 through 22, this funny and moving 2016 work inspiring the New York Times to rave “The scary, exhilarating brightness of raw adolescence emanates from every scene of this uncannily assured first play by Sarah DeLappe.”

Lauded by Broadway World as “a fantastic production sure to satisfy old fans and charm new ones,” the theatrical adaptation of one of Hollywood's most revered movie musicals – the timeless Singin' in the Rain – makes its long-awaited return to Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse September 11 through November 2, a Tony Award-nominated stage version that Chicago Theatre Review called “a glitzy, glamorous homage” that “offers up a flood of entertainment.”

The roots of the play The 39 Steps were in a 1915 magazine serial by Scottish novelist John Buchan, which became a popular novel, which spawned four more books about its protagonist. It was adapted for film three times, notably (and to great acclaim) by Alfred Hitchcock, and once for television. The first version of the play, written by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon and billed as a "parody," toured in 1995. Patrick Barlow consequently rewrote their script, premiering his adaptation in London in 2005. His version hopped the pond to become a long-running Broadway smash, nominated for six Tonys in 2008 (including Best Play) and winning two. This month, more than 100 years later, a form of Buchan's story is playing live at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre. And I highly recommend you see this ingeniously staged, well-performed lark of a show.