By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia Iowa Renaissance Festival May 26 to 28, 2012 Knights in shining armor and damsels in the dress, jousting and juggling, magic and music will transport visitors back to the Middle Ages in Middle Amana over the holiday weekend. For three action-packed days, you can party in 16th century style in a 19th century [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS  — Maestro Timothy Hankewich is ready to trade his bow tie for a ball cap and let the symphonic pop fly Saturday at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids. Orchestra Iowa is teaming up with Jeans ’n’ Classics and the Kernels to present a triple header of “Good Vibrations: Music of the Beach Boys” at [...]

By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia When psychologist Nancy Margulies stepped into her deaf clients’ world in the ’70s and ’80s, their stories shattered the silence. Margulies, now 64, was fresh out of college. Her clients were born into poverty and abandoned to a mental hospital in St. Louis. Together, they embarked on an educational journey that [...]

By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia CEDAR RAPIDS (Iowa) — Maestro Timothy Hankewich is ready to trade his bow tie for a ball cap and let the symphonic pop fly Saturday (5/26/12) at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids. Orchestra Iowa is teaming up with Jeans ’n’ Classics and the Kernels to present a triple header of [...]

By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia AMANA — “Mrs. Mannerly” is a laugh riot that will knock your socks off. Ahem, excuse me. I mean, a thoroughly titillating amusement that will make you forget which fork is for salad and which is for oysters. It’s all manner of fun, thanks to a sharp, witty script handled with skill, [...]

UPDATED 5 p.m. 5/17 to correct “An Evening with Friends” By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia Concerts and festivals and fairs, oh my! From country and classical to rock and retro, music will be breezing through Eastern Iowa all summer long. Some concerts are indoors, but lots are outdoors, including three huge events coming to a new setup around [...]

20th Annual Marion Arts Festival May 19, 2012 Experience collaborative, creative merrymaking, the Marion Arts Festival has been named among the top 20 such fine arts events in the nation. Booths showcasing 50 juried artists lure shoppers and browsers, along with a half-marathon and 5K run and walk, the Empty Bowls student ceramics sale, food, demonstrations [...]

From a media release CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The internationally acclaimed Sandglass Puppet Theater will hold a weeklong residency at CSPS Hall from May 21 to 25, 2012, with workshops, a panel discussion and two performances of the musical love story “All Weather Ballads.” Sandglass Theater has pushed the boundaries of puppet theater for 30 years. Founded [...]

  By Diana Nollen/ Source Media Broadway went dark in Cedar Rapids when the raging river surged through the Paramount Theatre in June 2008. Beginning Dec. 4, 2012, Broadway’s enduring touring power will surge through the renovated Paramount in a six-month series of seven hit shows. Cirque Dreams Holidaze, The Midtown Men, “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” “Disney’s Beauty [...]

By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia CEDAR RAPIDS — The city’s past will be present for the future when the first installment is unveiled May 19 for the new public art project, Murals & More: The Cedar Rapids Mural Trail. Until then, the mural is under wraps along Third Street SE, between Second and Third avenues downtown. It’s mounted above [...]

By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia CEDAR RAPIDS — Any one of last night’s contenders would have done Eastern Iowa proud opening for Alan Jackson and the KHAK 50th Birthday Bash on June 9. But someone’s gotta win. Lonesome Road’s kicking quartet tallied the most points between four judges in the final round of a three-week competition [...]

By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia Michelle Shocked promises — and warns — that Monday’s CSPS concert (5/14/12) will be as eclectic as her music and her life. Raised on bluegrass and rooted in folk and gospel, she defies traditional descriptions. “I am like a one-woman iPod shuffle. My style is all over the map,” the singer/songwriter says [...]

By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia Go with the flow May 11 and 12, 2012 Whether you fancy vodka or beer, both will be on tap this weekend in downtown Cedar Rapids. Friday night’s Clearheart Vodka Crawl will take you from Wrigleyville to Bricks, La Cantina, the Fieldhouse, Dublin City Pub and Reds, with a different vodka cocktail in [...]

By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia MARION — The Linn-Mar High School Auditorium wasn’t even half full Thursday morning (5/3/12) and the din already was deafening. The sound grew to a small roar as several hundred metro area second-graders wiggled in their seats, waiting for author Marc Brown to take them on a magical ride through Arthur’s world. [...]

The show, which opened May 3 on the professional troupe’s main stage in Amana, is a perfectly paced blend of laughter and tears.  Since no family is perfect, I’m [...]

By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia AMANA — The Old Creamery Theatre is opening its 41st season with a completely satisfying theatrical experience. “On Golden Pond” is the reason the term “dramedy” was born. The show, which opened Thursday (5/3/12) on the professional troupe’s main stage in Amana, is a perfectly paced blend of laughter and tears.  Since [...]

Chalk the Walk May 5 and 6, 2012 Mount Vernon’s main street will become a canvas for more than a half-ton of chalk in the hands of 200-plus artists this weekend. First Street, lined with restaurants and shops, will be filled with 7,000 artists and spectators for Chalk the Walk, a mix of food, music, individual [...]

By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia Marc Brown had to learn a life lesson before the “Arthur” author could begin teaching life lessons 35 years ago. “One night after I had lost my teaching job and I thought it was the end of the world, my son asked for (a bedtime) story. I said ‘I’m so depressed I can’t think [...]

By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia IOWA CITY — Opie and Otis don’t live in Working Group Theatre’s “Mayberry,” but plenty of Eastern Iowans do. This brilliant Hancher-commissioned play gives voice to the culture clash in Iowa City and neighboring communities undergoing ethnic transformations. The main focus is on the urban migration from Chicago to Iowa City, but [...]

By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia CEDAR RAPIDS — Eastern Iowa country acts started chasing a neon rainbow Thursday night (4/26/12), in hopes of opening for Alan Jackson on June 9 in downtown Cedar Rapids. Nearly Elvis, Lonesome Road and Loaded kicked off Round 1 of KHAK’s Battle of the Bands at Hazzard County Saloon. Each act played a 15-minute, [...]