Clerical Error Productions’ “Call Me Kate: Katharine Hepburn Tells It Like it Is”

reviewed by Daniel Shock

I parked my car and made my way down the sidewalk, then turned north up an alley. There, I found a well-lit door on the side of a building that led me into a small theatre known as ‘The Brick Room’. Alone for this show, I couldn’t convince my 13-year-old son to join me to see a recreation of a 1970’s era talk show exploring the life and career of a golden age movie star. I understand. When I said the name ‘Katharine Hepburn’ to him…he had no idea who that was. I didn’t even bother to say the name ‘Dick Cavett’. As I found my seat at the back of the theatre, it occurs to me that in the fractured landscape of twenty-first century entertainment where movies are losing their place at the top of the popularity mountain to youtube, tiktok instagram and others – there may never again be a movie star like Katharine Hepburn.

Call Me Kate: Katharine Hepburn Tells It Like It Is is a theatrical homage to the iconic actress Katharine Hepburn, inspired by her 1973 interview with Dick Cavett. The play, penned and performed by Kate Duffy as Hepburn, captures the legend’s wit and wisdom during a recreated live TV broadcast. It includes a second act with a Q&A session, inviting audience interaction. Directed by Jon Lindley, the cast features Blake Mellencamp as Dick Cavendish and several others in supporting roles.

Kate Duffy as Katharine Hepburn and Blake Mellencamp as Dick Cavendish

From the minute you step through that alley door, the show begins. You are greeted as an arriving audience member to see a broadcast of ‘The Dick Cavendish Show’. Manny Casillas as Manny, the studio page, hands out pencils and paper for you to write down any questions you may have for Ms. Hepburn. After you take your seat, the TV studio personel start to filter in, the host, here named ‘Dick Cavendish’ and played with charm by Blake Mellencamp greets the audience and welcomes you to New York City. The TV director (David Molloy) and camera operator (Dennis Forkel) confer on technical setups. When Ms. Hepburn arrives with her good friend Phyllis (Wendy Brown) there is a flurry of activity as everyone gets ready for the show.

Kate Duffy as Katharine Hepburn

When the broadcast starts, we are treated to an evening with Katharine Hepburn. Kate Duffy pulls off quite a feat as she settles into the chair and responds to the scripted questions as the aging but still vital film star. It didn’t take long for me to forget that I was watching a performance and imagine that I was really watching Ms Hepburn. She gets the voice, the attitude and the humor just right. When the second act comes and she is given the audience questions (even one from me about the African Queen – my favorite Hepburn movie) she ad libs the responses in character without missing a beat.

The technical aspects of the show were all well done, the set looked like a good approximation of a 70’s era talk show. Kate Duffy’s costume looked just like what the real Hepburn wore on the Dick Cavett show (I checked YouTube). There were commercial breaks, which you got to see on a vintage TV in black and white on the side of the set.

If I have one complaint it’s that the seating in the venue is all on one level making it difficult when you’re sitting in the back to see the faces of actors over the heads of your fellow audience members. I chose to sit in the back because I’m tall, and I still had to spend a bit of the show leaning over to see around others. A tiered seating arrangement or a slightly elevated stage could alleviate visibility issues, ensuring an immersive experience for all attendees.

The best compliment that I can pay to Clerical Error Productions first play of 2024, Call Me Kate: Katharine Hepburn Tells It Like It Is, is that it filled me with the urge to seek out the rest of Ms. Hepburn’s catalog of films. Maybe I’ll show my son ‘The African Queen’ tonight.

The show is produced by Clerical Error Productions and performed at ‘The Brick Room’ at 942 Maple Ave, Noblesville, Indiana.

Remaining Performances are Saturday, February 24 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, February 25 at 2:20 pm. Tickets can be purchased online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/call-me-kate-katharine-hepburn-tells-it-like-it-is-tickets-808253266277.

• – photos by Rob Slaven – Ghost Light Photography

Clerical Error Production’s “Happy Days”

reviewed by Carrie Neal

Although he’d been a novelist for years, Samuel Beckett became famous overnight upon the publication of his play Waiting for Godot. That this happened when he was in his late forties gave renewed hope to late bloomers everywhere. The bare stage holding only a gnarled tree is iconic for so many of us in the theater community, with its paean to hopefulness in the face of futility. Although it has similar themes, his later work Happy Days may not be as familiar to some.

In brief, our protagonist is Winnie, a woman mysteriously buried in earth/soil/sand. As the play progresses, the soil creeps ever higher, but Winnie’s optimistic outlook holds strong. The play has only two characters: the aforementioned Winnie, who seems blithely unaware of the seriousness of her predicament, and her husband Willie, who is not trapped but stays faithfully by her side. One of the many mysteries within the play is why, as far as we can see, he makes no attempts to free her.

Kate Duffy as Winnie

As Winnie, Kate Duffy faces a great challenge. She is resigned and even cheerfully accepting of her fate, but she’s carrying the entire show and must give a compelling performance despite the fact that her character feels no urgency. For the most part, she walks this tightrope successfully. There was no doubt that she was invested in every moment, but the audience didn’t always seem invested along with her. As the supporting character of Willie, David Mosedale also faces an interesting task. For all of act one, we see only the back of his head, and when we finally see his face in act two, he’s mostly crawling around on the floor and grunting. He jumps these hurdles with aplomb, and one of the most humorous moments in the play comes when he goes into paroxysms of laughter behind the dirt pile. We don’t really know why he’s laughing, but his chuckles are so infectious that the audience can’t help but be drawn in. 

from left: David Mosedale as Willie and Kate Duffy as Winnie

The set is simple but arresting. Silky brown fabric adorned with bare branches and rocks creates a believable dirt pile, though I must confess that I was (somewhat unrealistically, no doubt) hoping for real dirt. However, the set would have been more effective if it had somehow encompassed Winnie more firmly. She’s simply standing behind the sandpile, which meant that we could see her torso moving at times, slightly breaking the illusion that she was mired in the earth. 

Deserving of special mention are the eye-catching programs. In this day and age of scanning barcodes to get director’s notes and actor bios, this thoughtful design is a real treat. According to the director the design was a group effort, but the final credit belongs to assistant director and stage manager Stacy Long. 

Director Jon Lindley has created a lovely homage to Samuel Beckett that, while perplexing to the audience at times, is ultimately very moving. I found myself wanting to cry every time Winnie continued to say “this will have been another happy day,” despite her dire circumstances. This is a rare opportunity to see a work that is almost never produced, and there are only three more days to take advantage of that.

Happy Days by Samuel Beckett, presented by Clerical Error Productions, can be seen at the District Theater on 2/24 (7:30 pm), 2/25 (7:30 pm), and 2/26 (2:30 pm). Find ticket info by going to https://clericalerrorproductions.com/ .

• – photos provided by Clerical Error Productions

Clerical Error Productions’ “Holiday Vaudeville Revue”

reviewed by Daniel Shock

Ah, the Holidays.  There are so many choices for theatre goers in the Central Indiana Area eager for a Holiday show. The choices generally are Ballet, Christmas Carol variations, Comedies with a heart,  and magical fantasies brought to life.  Well, what if you are an exhausted adult who just wants to have a laugh?   Last night, for the second time this year, I made my way to the District Theatre on Mass. Ave. for a Clerical Error Productions Vaudeville show.  This Holiday Vaudeville Revue consisted of 16 different acts featuring 12 performers bringing their unique talents out for a fun evening of skits, circus skills, naughty jokes and music. 

The show opens with the ensemble dressed as caroler’s assembling for rehearsal.  They are led by Mother Benn, played by Co-Director and Co-Writer, James Benn in drag.  The song is done with some goofy flourish that I loved.  Especially Mother Benn as she punctuated the song with her wide eyes and jazz hands.  

Next was one of my favorites from the previous show, The Magic Comic Jamahl Keyes.  Keyes has wonderfully developed sense of style.  He engages the audience, dances and makes us laugh as he works his magic and flashes a 1000 watt smile.  He returned in the second act of the show with a funny bit in which he teaches the audience some of the tricks of the trade.

Minnie Ryder was next with a penguin tap dance to the tune ‘Happy Feet’ that charmed and delighted the audience.   She was wildly funny in her act 2 performance as a murderous ‘Elf on the Shelf’.  One could almost imagine a whole show built around the antics of this creepy little helper from the north pole.

After Minnie came the mime.  Yes, the mime.  That much maligned silent clown that seeks to delight and entertain us with silent comic action.  Henri the Mime as performed by Henry Burke in a Gingerbread man Christmas Sweater that says ‘Bite Me’, earned riotous laughter from the audience.

The Holiday Vaudevillians

Following Henri, Taylor Moss performed her ‘Hoops Extravaganza’.  She showed great skill with Hula Hooping and various tricks using hoops.  It was a fun act of physical skill and physical comedy.  Taylor is a co-founder of the Black Box Bozo’s in Lebanon, IN.  In the second act, fellow Black Box Bozo Corbin DeVol entertained us with his juggling skills.

Monica Cantrell and Joesph Filipow then performed ‘Santa Baby’ in the first act and then ‘Mary did you Know’ in the second.  Ms. Cantrell, channelling Diahann Carroll and Lena Horne,  has a lovely soprano voice.  Mr. Filipow, looking cooler than anyone else in the room dressed in all black, accompanied on guitar.

Mary Anne Mathews and Josiah Ray McCruiston took the stage next as Mr. and Mrs Clause.  This funny skit showed us that Santa doesn’t just deliver toys on Christmas Eve and Mrs. Clause is having none of it.  Both performers were fun in this skit.  If I have a criticism of the skit it’s that it doesn’t go far enough in it’s naughtiness.  One could imagine Santa’s bag full of…props.  Mr. McCruiston then closed out the act with a heartfelt rendition of ‘I’ll be home for Christmas’.

Holding the show together was once again Indianapolis favorite, Matt Anderson as the MC.  He kept the show moving with funny interstitial bits and introduced acts before they came out.  Kate Duffy in drag as the old, lazy, Irish stagehand was also a hoot as she weaved in and out of the performances.

This was a one night only event, so I can’t urge you to “get your tickets now!”.  But, I can tell you that if you are looking for something more adult and fun in your entertainment next year,  you should keep the folks at Critical Error Productions in mind.    You can learn more about the upcoming shows and the performers on the website be clicking HERE.

Clerical Error Productions’ “New Vaudeville Review of 2022”

reviewed by Daniel Shock

Clerical Error Productions New Vaudeville Review of 2022 at the District theater on Mass. Ave in downtown Indianapolis was a fun night of old fashioned adult talent show material.  Imagine the first few episodes of any given season of America’s Got Talent with an early 20^th century flavor and you will just about have it.  The audience was treated to a nice variety of comedy, magic, dance and music by a variety of local talent.  

The show began with a polished blue-haired emcee, Kate Duffy.  Throughout the show, she introduced the acts and gave a brief vaudeville/burlesque history lesson.  Joining her in her interstitial bits of comedy was an Irish priest, with no “sense of humor”, played by Jon Lindley. He served as the audience surrogate throughout the show as she introduced acts and explained their place in pantheon of vaudeville. At times, the pace between acts could have picked up and technical snafus could have been covered by some witty repartee but this did not diminish the overall charm of the evening. 

Jon Lindley and Kate Duffy in “New Vaudeville Review of 2022”

The first act started with a talented comic magician, Jamahl Keyes.  His stage presence, use of music, and comic timing was wonderful.  In the second act, Jamahl performed the classic magic routine “The Miser’s Dream” with clever timing and audience interaction. 

Lola LaVacious sang ‘Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most’ and Minnie Ryder entertained as a tap-dancing penguin with the heart of a showgirl. While both acts were maybe more burlesque than vaudeville in spirit, they had the audience in the palm of their hands and flippers and later in act two, their umbrellas. 

The cast of “New Vaudeville Review of 2022”

Jason Adams, with his suitcase puppets, ended up being my favorite act of the night.  The word “Puppet” does not quite describe the bit.  It was a story, told in verse, accompanied by Jason pulling a pop-up book, a toy sailing ship, and stuffed animals from his suitcase.  It was quite funny and gave the essence of variety. In act two, Jason masterfully handled an engaging audience member during a mind reader bit. 

The first half of the show was closed out by singer James Benn doing a historically accurate recreation of Bert Williams that showed the challenges and beauty of minority performers during vaudeville times. To the joy of the audience, James returned with a clever song to end the show. 

Matt Anderson delights the audience at “New Vaudeville Review of 2022”

The second half of the show started with a bit called “Matt Anderson’s Disaster”.  Beloved local actor, Matt Anderson, performed a riotous, if brief, juggling act.  I should also mention that in addition to the emcee and the priest, Matt often punctuated each act by riding through the stage on a unicycle with some wonderful comic bits. Honestly, I would have liked more Matt and some chants from members of the audience showed their agreement. 

Sadly, this show was a one night affair. My friend Ryan, who loves Vaudeville and variety, mentioned he hoped this was a start of a new tradition in the Indy area.  Please check out Clerical Error Productions’ website HERE for information on upcoming shows.

• – photos by Indy Ghost Light Photography