Picks o' Six 2023: Highlights from the Year in Area Theatre

The Golden Globes are on January 7, the Emmys on January 15, Oscar nominations will be announced January 23 … . But no need to be patient, awards obsessives – my fellow theatre lovers and I are gonna get the season started early by welcoming you to the unveiling of the Eighth-Annual Reader Tony Awards!*

[* Awards merely figurative. Have you seen the cost of engraving these days?!]

Ever since December of 2016, the Reader's dedicated reviewing team and yours truly have (virtually) assembled from (not that) far away to deliver collective highlights from the area-theatre year – examples of the onslaught of rich stage work that Quad Cities audiences have been enjoying for decades. Reader writers Pamela Briggs, Madeline Dudziak, Roger Pavey Jr., Alex Richardson, and I are delighted to be continuing this tradition for 2023, and equally glad that we get to return to our “Picks o' Six” format after last year's slightly truncated-by-necessity “Faves in Fives.”

While Quad City Music Guild again requested that we not review their shows and we obliged, the Reader team was once again able to cover nearly everything presented at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre and Timber Lake Playhouse. Plus, the Prenzie Players returned, if for only one show – stay tuned in '24! – and Mischa Hooker's New Athens Players debuted. (It should be acknowledged that both of those groups' shows were staged in the Village of East Davenport's Village Theatre ... so thank you, Matt Moody!) Without question, our community suffered an incalculable loss with this past May's collapse of the Davenport Hotel, and beyond the tragic loss of life, its business casualties included the space formerly housing the Mockingbird on Main. But through the welcome, unsurprising graciousness of other area venues, the Mockingbird went on to stage several works at the Black Box Theatre and Black Hawk Community College – everyone apparently, thrillingly, adhering to the adage “The Show(s) Must Go On.”

All told, that means the Reader cabal was able to cite more than 40 productions presented by a record-high 16 venues/companies/colleges/universities worth celebrating. All five of us contributed one mention each in the 10 categories, and then everyone was asked to pick two more categories to expound upon, resulting in a nice, even six choices per. I love easy math.

Meanwhile, here's your chance for a restroom break before we get rolling: the obligatory reading of the rules!

No one could personally cite a show more than three times, and every chosen title had to be produced in the area, so no tour stops allowed. No one could select a spouse, family member, editor, or fellow Reader reviewer for citation, though productions that any of these people were involved with were completely viable options. Ties could happen, but only when two or more performers from the same show had roughly equivalent stage time ... and as demonstrated by my personal Memorable Moment, a tie was also permitted between two productions from different venues that inspired the same awesome memory. (If you have an issue with this, hey – I don't make the rules! Oh wait ... .) Also, as has been the case since 2016, nobody's individual write-up could exceed 50 words as counted by my PC's spellchecker. We don't want anyone forced to take a restroom break during the presentation.

As always, we'd like to remind you that these choices aren't meant to be any kind of final word on the subject – they're meant to represent favorites, not the favorites. Like all art forms, theatre is beautifully subjective (and we do occasionally miss some stuff), and so we hope our eighth-annual wrap-up leads to agreement, disagreement, consideration, argument, ennui … . Everything theatre itself can inspire. Though hopefully not ennui.

With that, I think it's time to dive into the deep end of the talent pool! Happy Holidays and New Year, everyone, and on behalf of Pamela, Madeline, Roger, and Alex, we extend a hearty thank-you to the theatre community for another incredible year of area stage entertainment!

- Mike Schulz

Production

Anywhere but Here, Mockingbird on Main (Madeline Dudziak). Once in a blue moon, a production comes along that both challenges and comforts audiences. This one takes the cake for 2023. The script was smart and funny, the talent superb, and it was flat-out enjoyable. Director/playwright Bradley Robert Jensen ought to have taken a bow all by himself.

Funkyology (unplugged), Haus of Ruckus (Alex Richardson). The Davenport Hotel collapse was a tragedy that's still impacting our community. But out of unimaginable darkness came overwhelming joy: The Haus's one-night production was T Green's and Calvin Vo's best work to date. Creative, funny, profits going to a good cause … . What more could you ask for?

Jersey Boys, Timber Lake Playhouse (Pamela Briggs). The story of mid-century pop hit-makers the Four Seasons is engrossing; their tunes ultra-appealing. This production, meanwhile, was gratifyingly sublime. Director/choreographer John Michael Coppola, music director Oliver Townsend, and their gang wove a flashy, tuneful, hyper-kinetically engaging fun-fest. Michael Fasano as Frankie Valli rocked me. And the enthralling harmonies? Fuggedaboudit!

The Mystery of Irma Vep, Black Box Theatre (Pamela). Virtuosi T Green and Max Robnett adeptly juggled multiple characters, voices, and emotions, slipping into and out of elaborate, effective costumes and wigs with equal ease. Director Max Moline and his co-conspirators accentuated the enjoyment in an absurd script, making even the talky bits hilarious – on a lovely set.

Sense & Sensibility, Playcrafters Barn Theatre (Mike Schulz). Boasting an adventurous, playful ensemble, director Jennifer Kingry's audaciously imaginative, thrillingly well-staged Austen adaptation was unmitigated delight that climaxed with the anachronistic joy of Walk the Moon's “Shut Up and Dance.” My spirit was certainly dancing – though between my laughter, sniffles, and mad applause, I was hardly shutting up.

Young Frankenstein, Clinton Area Showboat Theatre (Roger Pavey Jr.). Director Matthew Teague Miller's production was my first introduction to the show and CAST venue – and wow, was it fun! Ridiculously star-studded, visually stunning, and boasting clean staging and an incredible tap number, this gem was a shining example of near-perfectly performed and produced comedy. Bravo/brava, monsters and Transylvanians!

Director

Jarrod DeRooi, Much Ado About Nothing, Prenzie Players (Madeline). DeRooi’s direction of the Prenzie Players’ triumphant return found its full-company scenes as sharp as the soliloquies. This Shakespeare rom-com boasted heaps of talent and a great use of space. I laughed, I gasped, I was impressed … and I'm so sorry if you missed seeing DeRooi’s company at work.

Ben Gougeon, Small Mouth Sounds, Augustana College (Mike). For 90 percent of this arresting 90-minute drama, no one spoke. Yet Gougeon made the silent-retreat goings-on uniformly riveting, subtly guiding focus while inviting us to look anywhere we wanted – and there was always something worth looking at. Even characters' bare feet were expressive. Tarantino would've lost his mind.

Jennifer Kingry, Sense & Sensibility, Playcrafters Barn Theatre (Alex). For my money, Kingry is one of the best directors (if not the best) working in the Quad Cities. Her productions are always fresh and daring, and Sense & Sensibility kept that trend going. Months later, I'm still gobsmacked that she found a way to make scene changes fun!

Amy McCleary, Escape to Margaritaville, Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse (Mike). It takes supreme skill to make Circa '21's spaciousness feel intimate, and without skimping on show-biz splendor, McCleary turned this Jimmy Buffett tribute into a warm, cozy beachfront hang attended only by the topnotch cast, you, and the social lubricants of your choice. Wastin' away has rarely felt so invigorating.

Justin Raver, The Seafarer, Richmond Hill Barn Theatre (Pamela). Raver concocted a dramatic, funny, horrifying, and all-around riveting experience – exposing a nasty vein of mold in a seemingly ordinary slice of working-class Irish life with the superb actors' skills and chemistry, impeccable pacing, and lighting and sound shifts that amplified an infernal threat. Bloody hell, it was grand!

Adam Sanders, A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Spotlight Theatre (Roger). Sanders’ staging and design vision for this Dickens classic were simple and minimal, but made a maximal impact for the production and the Spotlight venue. In addition, he led a production team that brought sleek design, and directed performers that were so full of life. Yes, even the ghosts.

Lead Actress

Patti Flaherty and Noel Jean Huntley, Suddenly Last Summer, Black Box Theatre (Mike). Flaherty oozed mint-julep-laced imperiousness and condescension; Huntley bled unapologetic defiance and incredulous horror. Their inspired doubles' act in this gleefully nasty Tennessee Williams, meanwhile, made you wish they'd time-travel back to 1958, so the film version's Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor could take notes before Joseph L. Mankiewicz yelled “Action!”

Kathryn Graham, Apples in Winter, One-Off Theatrical Productions (Madeline). Under Eric Teeter’s direction, Graham revealed a lot about a mother’s love through the ability to bake under extreme duress and expound on apple pie as a metaphor for an entire show. So skillful was her portrayal that one almost felt bad for intruding on such a personal moment.

T Green, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Black Box Theatre (Alex). This production was the equivalent of a theatrical triathlon: different voices, multiple characters, two acts, and only two actors. The fact that Green and her co-star Max Robnett were able to even get through the show was a major accomplishment, but what's amazing is that they made it look easy.

Jackie Skiles, Misery, Richmond Hill Barn Theatre (Roger). Richmond Hill’s two-hander was creepy. And what made it even creepier was the subdued and emotionally-skewed way in which Skiles played Stephen King's infamous caretaker Annie Wilkes. Skiles had specific control over scene dynamics, and her subtle and intentional performance choices made the atmospheric energy all the more suspenseful.

Sarah Walton, Barefoot in the Park, Playcrafters Barn Theatre (Roger). Walton brought infectious charm, wit, and a great range of energy to her character, all while remaining grounded and honest. With her improv experience and natural instincts, she played off fellow cast members – chiefly Will Crouch – wonderfully, and the co-stars' performances started Playcrafters' season on a sensational note.

Emma Watts, Dracula, a feminist revenge tragedy, Augustana College (Pamela). Watts' Dr. Van Helsing, here a righteous Wild-West vigilante, was powerful and authoritative, and tempered her forthright wisdom with humor. She brooked no bullshit, including the continual reduction of every woman to ornament, irrelevancy, or snack. Watts' compelling character, surrounded by both supernatural and societal absurdities, was absolutely, ingeniously real.

Lead Actor

Jack Bevans, Footloose, Countryside Community Theatre (Madeline). Bevans completely succeeded at giving people what they wanted from Footloose's beloved Ren while still making the role completely his own. This guy can sing and he can dance, even when not allowed, and was absolutely endearing. There’s no need to hold out for a hero with Bevans around.

Will Crouch, Barefoot in the Park, Playcrafters Barn Theatre (Roger). Crouch’s always-lively range of emotion and levels of comic wit made him enjoyable every second he was onstage. His comedic control and ability to feed off, and give to, fellow actors and audience members alike – plus his work with co-star Sarah Walton – made this performance one to remember.

Jonathan Grafft, Misery, Richmond Hill Barn Theatre (Pamela). Grafft embodied gravely injured writer Paul Sheldon, prisoner of his treacherous, terrifying "number-one fan." Vulnerable and captive in sickbed or chair, he exhibited gratitude, suspicion, fear, deviousness, despair, triumph, humor, and pain of all types during the nurture/torture. Among Grafft's many fine portrayals, this one was a singular joy.

Matthew McConville, The Seafarer, Richmond Hill Barn Theatre (Mike). A continually reliable stage presence, McConville, while boasting a terrific Irish brogue, broke my heart as the only person sane/sober enough to contend with two unruly drunks, a nerdy hanger-on, and Satan. He was funny, wonderfully affecting, and a standalone argument for Richmond Hill producing more scripts of this caliber.

Max Robnett, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Black Box Theatre (Alex). Robnett's pairing with T Green was magnetic and magnificent. Both are seasoned performers, and it was a treat watching them intuitively support one another. My only Irma Vep gripe is that it wasn't longer … though for the actors' sakes, I'm glad it wasn't. I've never seen two sweatier people.

Mark Schenfisch and John Wascavage, Murder for Two, Clinton Area Showboat Theatre (Alex). I said it before in my review and I'll say it again here: Schenfisch and Wascavage were better in their roles as a detective and many, many suspects than the original cast members. I couldn't possibly cite one without the other, as they were a perfect team.

Featured Actress

Lora Adams, Patricia Foster, Noel Jean Huntley, and Kira Rangel, Natural Shocks, Black Box Theatre (Mike). You'd be hard-pressed to find actors more physically disparate than Adams. Foster, Huntley, and Rangel. In this ingenious re-invention of a one-act-monologue, though, they temperamentally captured the same tortured, bunker-ed soul – leaving me antsy for 23 additional stagings with these wondrous talents performing the same material in different iterations.

Storm Marie Baca, Witness for the Prosecution, Playcrafters Barn Theatre (Pamela). Baca established the setting as barrister typist Greta, packing acres of character into serving tea and bickering with a clerk in an exemplary English accent. Though written as a derisive birdbrain, Baca's Greta was wholly fascinating. I was hoping she was the killer so I'd see more of her.

Khalia Denise, Skeleton Crew, Playcrafters Barn Theatre (Alex). Out of all my picks for performers, Denise's performance as the pregnant plant worker Shanita, months later, still stands clear in my mind as the front-runner. She inhabited her character in a way that was so authentic, it didn't ever seem like she was acting. She was simply someone else.

Emmalee Hillburn, Anywhere but Here, Mockingbird on Main (Madeline). Hilburn’s exceedingly politically incorrect war-woop entrance to this production's on-stage Thanksgiving dinner was hands-down the most horrifyingly hysterical thing I saw in 2023. To her credit, only Hilburn could pull it off as well as she did, bringing her enjoyable caricature of a character to life with seeming ease.

Jackie Patterson, Over the River & Through the Woods, Richmond Hill Barn Theatre (Roger). Patterson’s gentle, honest mannerisms and always-in-it performance brought the audience into her Italian family’s world. Her Aida sweetly shared her love through food and company, and she and Tyler Henning's Nick provided some absolutely touching, climactic scene work in which Patterson's widowed character exuded layers of love and honesty.

Kirsten Sindelar, Oliver!, Spotlight Theatre (Madeline). Sindelar deserves all the accolades I can throw at her for the performer's brilliant vocals that brought down the house. Beyond that, her motherly care for Fagin’s gang was touching and her death was depressing as hell. So Sindelar was pretty much everything that Dickens' and Oliver!'s Nancy should be.

Featured Actor

Cory Boughton, The Outsider, Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse (Mike). More than heroes who wind up villainous, I'm tickled by villains who wind up heroic. Boughton entered this politi-comedy like a clichéd sitcom nemesis – Slicked-back hair! Pin-striped suit! TV cred! – yet crafted a confident, empathetic, unexpectedly well-meaning pro without losing an iota of reptilian charisma. Now that's ticklish.

Mike Kelly, Unnecessary Farce, Richmond Hill Barn Theatre (Madeline). Kelly showed unwavering commitment to his role as the mayor’s security guard – knee scooter and all. Whether the actor was stripping down, wheeling around, or just looking generally confused by another character's Scottish accent, Kelly boasted the funniest facial expressions and physicalities I believe I saw all year.

Jake Ladd, Barefoot in the Park, Playcrafters Barn Theatre (Pamela). In a comedy lineup bursting with star players, Ladd knocked it out of the Park as neighbor/charmer/creeper Victor Velasco. Rapidly insinuating his quirky Old-World personage into strangers' lives, Velasco was both fascinating and distressing, and Ladd kept it real by not stealing every scene. As he easily could have.

Thayne Lamb, Little Women, Playcrafters Barn Theatre (Madeline). It’s always a joy to see Lamb on stage: he’s just so incredibly likable. Bringing a classic character such as Laurie to life could be a challenge, but in Madelyn Dorta’s production, Lamb was a shining star and the perfect counterbalance in a production so full of little women.

Galloway Stevens, 9 to 5: The Musical, Timber Lake Playhouse (Alex). Stevens' take on the sleazy-misogynist boss was about as fun as it comes. It almost feels wrong to give the nod to the dude from a female-empowerment musical, but I just can't help myself. Stevens played its foil so well that I was cheering when he finally got his comeuppance.

Brent Tubbs, Puffs, Spotlight Theatre (Roger). Even while pulling off the design elements of nearly every aspect of this production, Tubbs still managed to pull off a memorable performance. His five-minutes-plus speech as an energetic coach was all too funny, but this is the most impressive part: It was entirely improvised, and different every night.

Costuming

Becki Arnold, Nine, Augustana College (Mike). The older I get, the grosser it feels acknowledging collegiate shows for being, y'know, hot. So thanks, Ms. Arnold, for making me a Person of Interest in stating that Augie's actor/singer/dancers looked incredible in black-and-white garb that mirrored our protagonist's black-and-white film leanings. My prosecuting attorney will be in touch.

Bob Hanske, Jacob Lund, Shannon Ryan, and Ann Whitaker Reid, Iphigenia in Aulis, Genesius Guild (Pamela). Ryan dressed royalty strikingly in lush fabrics, with simpler garments for humbler folk (including a sandal-less servant – a nice detail). Reid assembled harmonious green Chorus togas. Hanske's and Lund's elegant, stylized masks bore vivid, deeply saturated hues, with gold accents for the sovereigns. Filicide was never so gorgeous.

Bradley Robert Jensen, Mamma Mia!, Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse (Madeline). Jensen has a brilliant eye for costuming: He seems to take into account color, design, and what will help each actor feel their personal best in character. Mamma Mia! featured boatloads of incredibly lovely pieces, most of them completely unexpected, yet they worked beautifully for Circa '21's production.

Bradley Robert Jensen, We Will Rock You, Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse (Roger). The variance in texture, bright colors, and reflective materials beautifully rocked out with the lights and visual environment; Jensen's costumes gave new meaning to “Boho-chic.” Some of my favorites included the “Radio GaGa” outfits and the Bohemians’ thrifty music-icon recreations as Jensen crafted piece after piece of runway-worthy post-apocalyptic couture.

Shannon Ryan, Othello, Genesius Guild (Mike). This brisk, surprising, not-detrimentally funny take on Shakespeare's classic tragedy was great fun to watch, in part because Ryan's bold color schemes made it so watchable. You could've not understood a word of Elizabethan English while fully gleaning character motivation from her rich onslaught of greens, blacks, reds, and purples.

Sally Tabak, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, Clinton Area Showboat Theatre (Alex). Beyond boasting some of the slickest quick-changes I've ever seen (see my Memorable Moment below), Cinderella's costume design was inspired. With the title character in overalls while Prince Charming wore a suit with frills, Tabak created a modern-day fairytale that felt like a fantastical version of our own world.

Scenic/Lighting Design

Lora Adams, Natural Shocks, Black Box Theatre (Pamela). Set-design ace Adams improbably made magic with her perfectly ordinary basement strewn with old furniture, tools, and miscellanea, plus a real water heater – even broom tracks on the floor. It established character before the actors appeared; then, its prosaic solidity made the unearthly last scene strikingly effective, too.

Lora Adams and Michael Kopriva, Suddenly Last Summer, Black Box Theatre (Madeline). I'm always impressed by how the intimate Black Box space can be transformed, but nothing there proved finer this year than the Suddenly Last Summer garden. Dreamt up by Adams and built by Kopriva, the lush greenery, working fountain, and lovely trellis instantly transported audiences to the Tennessee Williams south.

Haley Brown and Shannon Suit-Moore, We Will Rock You, Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse (Roger). The miles of LED tape, hundreds of cool lighting cues, and impressively hyper-futuristic scenic design made the production quality soar, and this visually stunning Queen musical's tech matched director Amy McCleary’s dynamic staging, with the creative team's work completely evident. Special shout-outs to the extension cords and power supply.

Craig Cohoon, Skeleton Crew, Playcrafters Barn Theatre (Mike). The factory workers here never want to leave the break room. I totally related. Cohoon created a safe, inviting space where secrets could be shared, yet one becoming ever-less-inviting with meaningless memoranda constantly added to the bulletin board, resulting in a glorious case of scenic design acting as plot progression.

Aaron Hook, Are We There Yeti?, Haus of Ruckus (Roger). This show's well-executed, whimsical scenic/lighting design featured an array of cool cutouts on a track system, a log cabin, a blizzard, and an In-N-Out. In St. Ambrose University's intimate black-box space, Hook’s wonderful trees-upon-trees, accented by a colorful palette, synchronized perfectly with the Ruckus style; clever, clean, ridiculous, and fun.

Brent Tubbs, The SpongeBob Musical, Spotlight Theatre (Alex). Tubbs went for broke in emulating the look and feel of a kids' cartoon, with results that paid dividends: I can't recall the last time I saw so much color on a Quad Cities stage. Everything positively popped with this visual feast that might have as easily been animated.

Music/Sound

All Shook Up, Spotlight Theatre (Pamela). Silly, farcical, and fun, this Elvis-inspired production's pinnacle was the universally smitten characters' utterly earnest Act I closer. Though they may have been misguided or deceived, their heartfelt, helpless loves were real nonetheless, and 20 magnificent, distinctive voices blended beautifully in the unexpectedly moving “Can't Help Falling in Love.”

Bright Star, Timber Lake Playhouse (Pamela). Her fiancé disappeared; the couple's fathers seized her newborn and threw him into the river – 16-year-old Alice endured heartbreaking trauma, then became a successful, sardonic businesswoman. When Alice's love and their son returned, Isabella Andrews' passionate, triumphant, jubilant “At Long Last” was an extraordinary tour de force. I wept.

Much Ado About Nothing, Prenzie Players (Madeline). With Jenny Lynn Stacy as a real-live troubadour of a Balthasar, the music in this Prenzie production was the biggest and best surprise of the night. I promise: I’m making much ado about something incredibly worthy. I’m still waiting for the YouTube video of the party/curtain-call song. Please?!

Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, Clinton Area Showboat Theatre (Alex). Under the stellar musical direction of Sabin Fisher, Cinderella's cast sounded better than Disney's. The sound felt so resonant that the production took me back to the feeling of watching the animated classic as a kid. It didn't quite make me a Rogers & Hammerstein convert, but it came close.

School of Rock: The Musical, Spotlight Theatre (Mike). Do you remember that phenomenal School of Rock film scene in which Jack Black's young charges demonstrated their musical gifts one soloist at a time, resulting in a deliriously grin-inducing group effort? It was even more exciting live. Adam Sanders' Dewey went understandably nuts. The packed Spotlight crowd went nuttier.

Young Frankenstein, Clinton Area Showboat Theatre (Roger). This production's sound and music team put forward the cleanest and best-sounding production I saw (or heard, rather) in the area this year. The immaculate sound balance and tight vocals and instrumentals further amplified the ridiculously enjoyable lyrics and tap-dancing rhythms that Mel Brooks' stage musical offered.

Memorable Moment

The Aspiration, A Christmas Story: The Musical, Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse (Pamela). Bobby Becher plays The Old Man, Ralphie's quintessentially irascible father, to crabby perfection – until he reveals why he enters those brainiac contests: He dreams of veneration as "The Genius on Cleveland Street." His delightful transmogrification into a sensational tapping/crooning wise man posited that every Joe Blow yearns for greatness.

The Fan Base, Million Dollar Quartet Christmas, Timber Lake Playhouse (Alex). Theatre audiences, as you likely know, generally skew older. As a result, those audiences can be a little more reserved than the fans you'd find at, say, a K-Pop concert. But when Alessandro Gian Viviano's Elvis started thrusting and gyrating here? You wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.

The Progeny, Puffs, Spotlight Theatre, and [title of show], St. Ambrose University (Mike). No (off)stage happenings made me happier than watching my favorite nine-year-old (1) bounce with excitement while her mom killed it among Puffs' “not”-Hogwarts students, and then, months later, (2) pay focused attention to her director dad's exuberant musical charges during [title of show]. This, folks, is why you have kids.

The Pyrotechnics, Misery, Richmond Hill Barn Theatre (Roger). The special/practical effects Misery brought to an intimate (wooden) barn-theatre setting were cool to witness close-up. But one effect triumphed over the others: a huge burst of flames that seemed to almost touch the (wooden) barn’s roof, illuminating the playing space while, in line with the material, being appropriately scary.

The Salute, Spotlight on Susan Glaspell, New Athens Players (Madeline). Director/producer Mischa Hooker clearly knew there was good reason to shine a spotlight on Davenport native Glaspell. Through three short one-acts, this New Athens Players debut wove an evening-long tapestry that was beautiful in its simplicity, and I'm left just twiddling my thumbs waiting for the Players' next production.

The Transformation, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, Clinton Area Showboat Theatre (Alex). There are undoubtedly many ways to stage Cinderella's transformation from pauper to princess. Rather than opt for an off-stage quick-change, however, director Lara Tanckhoff created wizardry in front of our eyes, with our heroine spinning three times and her overalls folding over themselves into a gorgeous golden ball gown. Magical.