Solo Sunday Presents "HERstory: Trailblazing Female Firsts" by Anita Kallen and Catherine Thomson

Anita Kallen and Catherine Thomson met in the summer of 2010, when they were among 38 students from around the world selected to attend the International Cabaret Conference at Yale University.  They worked with Broadway veterans such as Faith Prince and Tovah Feldshuh, as well as cabaret legend Julie Wilson. In 2011, they debuted a successful two-woman show at Davenport’s Cabaret in Chicago called Dangerous Women, a comic exploration of the many ways in which women can be dangerous.  The show was reprised at Davenport’s in 2012.

Anita and Catherine spent 2017 and 2018 as part of a quartet celebrating Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday. Bernstein at 100 was performed several times in the Chicago area, with Cabaret Scenes magazine describing it as, “a loving salute to Maestro Bernstein.” In 2019, they premiered a sold-out debut of HERstory: The 19th Amendment Turns 100!, a celebration of the law that affirmed women’s right to vote.  When the pandemic caused the cancellation of live performance, they promoted a digital version of the show, which played around the country from 2019 to 2021. In 2022, they launched a second highly acclaimed show in the HERstory series, Trailblazing Female Firsts. They continue to perform both shows widely around Chicagoland, while working on a third in the series, A Century of Songwriting Sisters, which will open in March of 2024. HERstory Musical Shows

In addition to their work as a duo, Anita and Catherine have also logged considerable success as solo performers and in the theater. Anita’s leading roles have included Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Fiona in Brigadoon, Marian Paroo in The Music Man, Laurey Williams in Oklahoma, Irene Molloy in Hello Dolly, Joanne in Godspell, Mrs. George Bernard Shaw in the 2014 Midwest Premiere of Mark Saltzman’s comedy, “Mr. Shaw Goes to Hollywood” at Chicago’s Greenhouse Theater and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire in the western suburbs. Catherine’s theatre credits include Dr. Eve in Sordid Lives, Odette in Southern Baptist Sissies, The Mistress in All Over, Velma in Hairspray, and Penny in Urinetown.  Her passion for the arts extends beyond the stage, and she has spent many years as an arts educator, most notably as a docent at the Art Institute of Chicago (until the program was disbanded in 2021), and, more recently, joyfully leading tours as a docent with the Chicago Architecture Center.

Music Director, Beckie Menzie, an award-winning concert artist, has appeared at some of the nation’s top nightclubs and concert venues including the legendary Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Birdland in New York, Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre and Park West, as well as at concert halls and art series across the country. Hailed by Chicago’s WGN Radio as “one of the city’s finest cabaret performers,” Beckie is a three-time winner of Chicago’s After Dark Award for Outstanding Cabaret Artist.