Minnie the Moocher production starts in Cle
Euclid Avenue may not be in danger of being confused with Sunset Boulevard; however, you wouldn’t know that considering all of the feature film productions currently shooting in Cleveland.
While Hollywood may have only recently discovered the Rock Hall City, Northeast Ohio native Arline Gant, Dakota P. Productions director/producer/co-owner, has had her eye on her hometown for a while. Now that vision is starting to come to fruition with the red carpet event of the Footprints Series Introducing Sepia Girl, which is a stage production based on Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher,” AKA Jeni LeGon. In 1935 LeGon was the first female African American dancer and actress to receive a film contract by a major motion picture studio. The show takes place Sat 9/10 at Playhouse Square’s 14th Street Theatre. After its Northeast Ohio world premiere, Introducing Sepia Girl is scheduled to take the stage at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles this November. CoolCleveland talked to Oakwood Village native and Bedford High School graduate Gant about her Cleveland-based dreams.
CoolCleveland: What exactly is the Footprints Series?
Arline Gant: What we’ve done is we’ve decided to make Cleveland a base of sorts. The Footprint Series goes in three phases. First we do a documentary, and then we do a stage production and then it goes to a film. Each move we make it initiates itself in Cleveland. For the next three years we’ll open up a play in Cleveland, preview it here and move it out using Cleveland-based actors.
So the documentary for Introducing Sepia Girl is already completed?
Yes, it’s called Introducing Jeni LeGon. It was finished last summer, and at that point we moved back to Cleveland and started working on Introducing Sepia Girl. The upcoming Introducing Sepia Girl in Cleveland is just a preview. They’re doing vignettes, keeping it down to 45 minutes. Next they’ll be opening it in Los Angeles and eventually it’ll come back to Cleveland as the full production. Also, the movie begins production in December.
What other shows do you have in the pipeline?
We actually shot two documentaries already, which will go into play production. One is 89th St. Corridor, which is about politics in Cleveland. The second one is Music of the ’60s, which opens in the Hanna in 2012.
Finally, what is it about Cleveland that has your attention?
I see the growth of a city again. I also see a lot of things happening here that make producing films and stage not only profitable but successful, because you do have the people that can handle that type of weight. That’s why you’re getting all of these films coming in because the city can take that, it can handle it and they make it work for you. You have places like film commissions and PlayhouseSquare that bend over backwards working with you. And you have talent sitting here and good schools. And really a large number of top quality community theaters to pull your talent from.
Introducing Sepia Girl takes place at 8PM on Sat 9/10 @ PlayhouseSquare’s 14th Street Theatre, located at 2037 E. 14th St. in Cleveland. Tickets are $25, and are now available at 216-241-6000 and http://PlayhouseSquare.org.
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio.
When he’s not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria. John also occasionally writes for CoolCleveland.com.