ZinZanni Presents IN TENTS with RECESS MONKEY Today, May 5

The ZinZanni Institute for Circus Arts presents 'In Tents' with Recess Monkey, a kid-oriented circus spectacular of high flying thrills and spills, hijinks and hilarity, to be performed at 11:00 a.m. on six weekends, from today, May 5 through Sunday, July 15, in Teatro Zinzanni's historic spiegeltent at 222 Mercer Street, Seattle, WA. (See detailed performance schedule below.)

'In Tents' with Recess Monkey combines the artistic talents of performers from Teatro Zinanni's renowned dinner shows (and several circus stars of tomorrow) with Recess Monkey, to present a three-ring adventure of jugglers, ballerinas, acrobats, contortionists, dancing bears, and music.  In a musical "sneak preview", 'In Tents' with Recess Monkey also heralds the upcoming release of Recess Monkey's circus-inspired CD, In Tents.

Audiences will be able to sample live performances of gems from the new album, with Recess Monkey's high-energy songs serving as soundtrack to the show's daring feats of balance,
strength, acrobatics, and zany antics. Kids will be encouraged to get in on the action by dancing, singing, and interacting with the circus artists. The wacky script features a trained bear who wants to forsake his ursine role and follow his bliss (playing the drums), a beautiful wizard, an irrepressible circus strong man, and a pixie sprite who is loaded into a cannon and miraculously shot into the air.

Notes Recess Monkey's Jack Forman, "The circus is such a perfect blend of comedy and drama, careful pre-planning and extemporaneous fun, high and low energy, all of which are elements
that we work into our songs and shows. How have we not already done a circus album? We've talked about this project for years but finally found that we had assembled enough offbeat
ideas, catchy melodies and a narrative to bring it to fruition. In fact, we actually conceived the album as the soundtrack to a story that we wrote, inspired by Teatro ZinZanni! In Tents has
emerged both as a circus story-inspired album and as an exciting series of magical performances in which kids will feel like part of the show. Pretty amazing!"

Recess Monkey weaves puns, jokes, stories, and shenanigans into its songs. 

In addition to Recess Monkey, 'In Tents' with Recess Monkey at Teatro ZinZanni will also feature an international cast of circus performers, including:

*Pacific Northwest Ballet's former principal ballerina and Teatro ZinZanni alumni Ariana Lallone
*Peter Pitofsky, known from years of TV appearances, tours with Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, and multiple Teatro ZinZanni productions,
*Siberian gentleman juggler and original Teatro ZinZanni cast member, Sergey Krutikov
*Seattle's 10-year-old contortion and aerial phenom Saffi Watson
*And the return of Teatro ZinZanni's mischievous Bear, played by Korum Bischoff.

The Teatro ZinZanni lobby will open at 10:00 a.m. on performance days for a pre-show carnival of kid-friendly games. Refreshments will be available for purchase.
The duration of each performance will be approximately 75 minutes.

IN TENTS with RECESS MONKEY!

WHERE: Teatro ZinZanni, 222 Mercer St., Seattle, WA 98109

WHEN: 11:00 a.m. Pre-show, kid-friendly carnival games in the lobby at 10:00 a.m.

Saturday May 5 & Sunday, May 6;

Saturday, May 12; Saturday, May 19; Saturday, June 2;

Saturday, June 23 & Sunday, June 24;

Saturday, July 14 & Sunday, July 15

TICKETS: Booth seating $19. Chair seating $22. Food will be available, but is not included in the ticket price.

INFO: 206-802-0015. http://dreams.zinzanni.org/intents.htm

Photo Credit:  Kevin Fry

More Articles by This Author...