Theatre Cedar Rapids presents the musical “Billy Elliot,” June 30 through July 22. Set against the backdrop of British political turmoil in the 1980s, it’s the story of a miner’s son who dreams of being a dancer. Tad Paulson plays Jackie, the blue collar dad who learns to adjust to and support the unique dreams …
Category: Culture Crawl
Culture Crawl 267 “The Case of the Disappearing Director”
Get a good look at CR Municipal Band director Steve Shanley, as this will be your only chance this week. Kennedy High School’s Jared Wacker is guest director for the concerts on June 21 and 24. This week, the public is invited to bring an instrument and join the band! The Wednesday concert is at …
Culture Crawl 266 “Beating The Heat”
Sean Ulmer, executive director of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, and board member for the Iowa Cultural Corridor Alliance (ICCA), has some suggestions for fun activities for all ages. Most take place in the cool comfort of air conditioning. He also reminds us that his organization, the Museum of Art has free admission all …
Culture Crawl 265 “The Last Festival”
2017 will be the final year for the Irish District Music and Arts Festival in Northeast Cedar Rapids, but that doesn’t mean the festival is ending. Next year, it will be renamed in honor of the new College District neighborhood that now encompasses the area. Perry and the Pumpers and New Orleans’ Honey Swamp Band …
Culture Crawl 264 “She Writes How Many Books a Year?”
The public libraries in Cedar Rapids, Marion, and Hiawatha present bestselling authors in a free reading and signing event each year in the “Out Loud” author series. June 16, it’s poet and Newbury Award-winner Kwame Alexander. June 23, Debbie Macomber, whose books have spent 990 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists. Admission is …
Culture Crawl 261 “Puffy Sleeves Bigger Than Human Heads”
The University of Iowa Theatre program presents Oscar Wilde’s classic farce, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” June 15-25. A comedy set against the backdrop of the rigid social structures of Nineteenth Century Britain, the play is both social commentary but also set up many of the comedic rules and structures that we see in plays, …
Culture Crawl 263 “Say His Name!”
Riverside Theatre Summer in Lower City Park opens June 9, with two plays. “Macbeth,” the well-known Shakespearean tragedy (which theatre folk do not refer to by title, because it’s supposed to be bad luck), is the first of two plays being staged. The setting and costumes for the show are inspired by World War I, …
Culture Crawl 262 “We Can Ask The Composer, Because He’s Alive!”
Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre performs “Speed Dating Tonight!” a new comic opera. Composed by Michael Ching, who coincidentally recently moved to Ames, Iowa, it’s a series of vignettes set against the backdrop of… you guessed it, speed dating. Stage director Marina Bergenstock says Ching also worked with the production on some changes that make this …