Towards the end of October Teatro ZinZanni hosted concierge and other hospitality industry professionals for the Where Magazine Masquerade Party! Masked guests enjoyed cocktails, browsed the Teatro ZinZanni boutique and mixed and mingled with the stars of Beaumount & Caswell, Christine Deaver and Kevin Kent! Check out these fun pictures from the event!
Better Late Than Never: Pictures from Teatro ZinZombie
A few weeks ago, Teatro ZinZanni was overrun with ghouls and goblins of all shapes and sizes. Here is a selection of photos from our spooky evening at Teatro ZinZombie!
Always Look Above the Marigolds and other useful advice from Beaumount & Caswell
Imagine our surprise when the famous show business couple Vivian Beaumount and Clifton Caswell dropped by the KTZZ studio last week for a spot of coffee and conversation! While they are not currently married, they are excellent friends, bosom buddies, really, and performing together in Beaumount & Caswell at Teatro ZinZanni now through January 17, 2010.
In this 20 minute podcast we learn how this glamorous couple first met, where they were first married, (and where they were married for the fourth time, giving Liz and Dick a real run for their money), and how coffee and kisses are the best way to start each day.
We also learn that Vivian is missing her middle name!
Cliff and Vivie invite you to submit your best (publishable) suggestions for Vivian (fill in the blank) Beaumount – please enter your suggestion here by December 31st and we’ll award the winner with a pair of tickets to the closing night, Sunday, January 17th performance of Beaumount & Caswell, Together Forever… Again! Who knows, Viv and Cliff may even sit down at your table!
ZinZanniversary!
As the twilight gathered on Sunday evening, November 1, the exterior of Teatro ZinZanni was aglow in the spangled, twinkling glitter ball light while the sounds of the Hans Teuber combo filled the air. Patrons stepped off the red carpet and inside to our lavishly appointed lobby/boutique to be greeted with warmth, music and laughter and a glass of wine care of our generous wine sponsor, Vinum Wine Importing and Distributing.
Our first ever ZinZanniversary benefit gala celebration was well underway. Over 250 of our closest friends, board members, staffers and performers were on hand to help us raise money for the ZinZanni Institute for Circus Arts. Throughout the night different opportunities were presented as ways to support our education program. We held a silent auction in the lobby and during the entree our emcee extraordinaire, El Vez conducted a raise-the-paddle moment – but not before he did a little fun-raising of his own (those of you who were there know exactly what we mean by that!).
Original cast members Ann Wilson and Dolorèze Léonard joined the cast of Beaumount & Caswell (co-starring original cast member Kevin Kent and comedienne Christine Deaver as well as the awesome Francine Reed) to give the evening an extra special sizzle. Watching Ann Wilson sing in the tent was simply amazing – the girl has some pipes!
All told we raised $75,000 – not bad for our first ever fund raiser event. Heartfelt thanks to everyone who joined us that evening. Thanks too to photographers Michael Doucett, Jonathan Manning and Abara Ijiomafor the lovely photographs.
Holiday Shopping Advice from the Good Dr. Vivian Beaumount
Listen to the ZinZanni “gifted” radio spot:
We really had a blast making this radio commercial for Teatro ZinZanni Gift Cards. The spot airs throughout November on Star 101.5, KING FM and KVI AM. As we move into the Holiday season soon, we wanted to make sure people remember what a great experience the gift of Teatro ZinZanni can be. So we thought radio would give us a little extra visibility boost – well, in this case, an audio boost.
At our brainstorming session, our good friend writer Palmer Pettersen wondered out loud if we could recreate the whole show in 60 seconds. That lead to digging out some music that Maestro Norman Durkee wrote when we first created Teatro ZinZanni in 1998. The music we selected is a piece entitled “Clown Inspection.” The character of Dr. Vivian Beaumount is inspired by a comedy sketch by Christine Deaver called “Voluptuous Panic,” where Christine plays a German spy – in this case she’s sort of an Austrian female Freudian analyst clown announcer type. Durkee’s music was already liberally punctuated with penny whistles and whoopee cushion sounds, but that didn’t stop Palmer and sound designer/audio engineer Paul Goldberg from going to town with the sound effects.
As the good doctor says, Teatro ZinZanni’s gifted gift cards are verrry available. Good anytime of year for tickets, beverages and/or shopping in our fabulous boutique, Gift Cards are available in any amount.
Special thanks to the fabulous Christine Deaver, Palmer Petersen, Maestro Norman Durkee, Paul Goldberg of Pure Audio, Jason Jones at Fisher Radio, and to the littlest diva, Rachel DeShon for suggesting the idea in the first place!
It’s a Mud, Mud World!
Teatro ZinZanni’s Technical Director Ian Jamison may be one of the oldest Teatro ZinZanni employees – well, not in age and certainly not in spirit, but in actual length of time working on this project. As Technical Director, Ian’s job is to solve problems for artists and to assure their safety all the while racing the clock towards curtain. Here, Ian shares some of his first memories of early mud to magic:
“My first TZ memories are of surveying this very site in the early Fall of 1998 when it was geese migration time. The geese were still hanging out in the “pond” which covered most of this block though …we had to scare them off so not to be attacked! Steve Quinn (Site Construction Manager) and I were measuring the depth of the pond with a stick, laughing pretty hard about starting our new jobs wading in a goose pond.
“I have many fond but muddy memories of loading in the site, getting tractors stuck …repeatedly! Dolo (Doloreze Leonard) was the first performer I met and she was not too pleased to walk in just after the diesel heater failed and had smoked out the entire tent. The place was cold and stunk of diesel smoke. It’s funny now, but in the moment… well, we actually we thought it was pretty hilarious then as well!
“There was a very good atmosphere in the creation of a new project, learning about the performers, the crew, the neighborhood, the site, the equipment and the mud! I was new to the Circus world and it was real challenge to understand Voronin’s lighting needs, all the performers’ rigging needs, and the timing with the kitchen service. I remember walking into the site one day after the painters had done the interior painting – they had painted everything as it lay in its place including ladders, building materials, tools, doors, the floor … paint was everywhere and we were all tracking it everywhere… at total nightmare for Steve Quinn….and again at 7:00 a.m. it was all pretty hilarious. And we laughed about that one for months!”
The reviews are coming in!
Reviews of Teatro ZinZanni’s current show, Beaumount & Caswell, are starting to roll in. Here’s a rave review by food critic Jacqueline Pruner who blogs for Heed the Hedonist.com. While we’re not known as a destination restaurant ( first and foremost people associate Teatro ZinZanni with the show), it’s great to have such high marks on our cuisine. Our menu is designed by celebrated Northwest chef Tom Douglas and is delivered nightly by Chef David VanGelder. Over time we’ve developed a great wine list, with wine flights curated by Christene Larsen.
Lyle Loves Francine!
Sources (Group Sales Goddess Kat Uzzelle’s mom who was at the concert) tell us that at Lyle Lovett’s concert last night at the Saenger Theatre in Mobile, Alabama, Lyle took a break between numbers to chat with the audience and said that several people have asked him where is Francine? Teatro ZinZanni’s current chanteuse Francine Reed is a regular back-up singer with Lyle’s Large Band.
Well, he said, she is in Seattle in Teatro ZinZanni until the end of January and I’m sure she’ll be back with us. And if you think her costumes for our show are great, you should see what she’s wearing in Teatro ZinZanni.















































