'Mame' ready to play at Peoria Players

Liz Landes Reed has been involved with community theatre long enough to know how important it is to do shows that will generate large audiences. That's why those theatres make sure their seasons include such old and popular musicals as "Mame."

But for Reed, her desire to direct the show that showcases a bigger-than-life leading character and her bigger-than-life friends had little to do with putting butts in the seats at Peoria Players...

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Movie review: "Les Miserables" is hit-and-miss

(158 minutes; rated PG-13 for violence, adult situations).

(6 out of 10 stars)

"All this over a loaf of bread."

There's much ado about a 1,500 page, 19th century French novel that spawned the most award-winning show in musical theater history. Now, some 27 years later, it has finally been turned into a major motion picture.

There is good reason for all this excitement. "Les Miserables" (the musical)...

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Movie review: "The Impossible" a better rental

(114 minutes. Rated PG-13 for intense disaster scenes, graphic visuals, brief nudity.)

(Six stars)

Making a disaster movie that is not really a disaster movie takes some doing, but director Juan Antonio Bayona has done a marginally satisfying job with "The Impossible."

Wrapped around the horrific tsunami that struck most of southern Asia and eastern Africa on Boxer Day, 2004 that cost over 250,000 their...

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The Grand National, Top Ranked, All-American 2012 Book Review: Electric Boogaloo

As a hardcore lit-nerd, part of the appeal to churning through an ungodly number of books every year is keeping track of said books. It's also an annual reminder that I need to get out more. Seriously, I'm pale as a ghost.

So here is the list of books I read in 2012 along with a one-sentence review/recommendation of each. In many cases, I've talked or written reviews about many of these books in the Literarea section of The Peorian website....

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'Red' brings performing and visual arts together at CST

It is perhaps fitting that the actors asked to portray painters on stage are themselves painters, for they could better understand what such artists go through in their lives.

Well, that sounds good at least.

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Rain

I remember you when it rains

Sitting on your porch we talked for hours

And when it rained you smiled

We grew quiet letting our senses take over

Breathing deeply you said, “I love the rain”

And all the world grew right, if only for the moment

Knowing time was short you still didn’t rush

Nor did you panic or fret, not that I saw

You lived each day as it came

Embracing...

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Barn II set to open 2013 season

Dinner theater season will include a premier followed by a couple classics and musicals 

Conklin's Barn II Dinner Theatre is hauling out a couple classic comedies during the 2013 season, including "Harvey" and "The Odd Couple, Female Version.

The season will also...

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What I Would Tell Our Founding Fathers

Candle light, horse drawn carriages and no telephone, how could you have foreseen to make rules that could create laws for cars, planes and electronics? For this you have my unending gratitude.

With a quill and an inkwell you created a document that formed the greatest nation on earth. You set up guidelines that shaped the way America is today. With them, we have grown into a strong nation of doers and achievers who are forging a path...

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