Described by the Windy City Times as “an archly manipulative psycho-thriller” that “holds your attention like a leash,” author Douglas Post's fiendishly witty thriller Murder in Green Meadows enjoys an August 19 through 28 run at Moline's Black Box Theatre, the show a recipient of six Emmy nominations when performed on television by Chicago's legendary Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

I attended Quad City Music Guild's Thursday preview of Matilda: The Musical, and as I'd never before seen the 2010 show, hadn't seen the 1996 movie, and hadn't read the 1988 Roald Dahl book it's based on, I obviously came very late to this party – and it's a huge party.

It was a lovely summer evening at the Timber Lake Playhouse on Friday night, with glowing stringed lights hanging throughout the campground that added a tranquil feeling outside. Inside the theatre, it was equally pleasant, with the welcoming, rustic set design by Sherri Howells providing a fabulous, bluegrass-and-country playing area for the venue's latest musical presentation The Robber Bridegroom.

With the second of its two summertime Shakespeare productions held in Iowa City's Lower City Park, Riverside Theatre delivers one of the Bard's freshest and funniest titles in its August 13 through 22 staging of The Comedy of Errors – a work that esteemed literary critic Harold Bloom said “reveals Shakespeare's magnificence at the art of comedy” and demonstrated “mastery in action, incipient character, and stagecraft.”