Justin Vivan Bond to Kick Off Teatro ZinZanni's 'Joe's Pub Seattle' Series

New York City's best cabaret venue has found a home in Seattle. In an all-new producing partnership, Teatro ZinZanni and Joe's Pub at The Public, one of New York City's most celebrated institutions for emerging and accomplished performance artists, present a brand new late night series, "Joe's Pub Seattle."

Showcasing the talent seen at Joe's Pub in New York City under the illustrious Teatro ZinZanni tent, "Joe's Pub Seattle" will feature monthly late night performances from critically acclaimed artists Justin VivIan Bond, Lady Rizo, and Molly Pope. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased online at ZinZanni.com/Seattle.

Named for Public Theater founder Joe Papp, Joe's Pub at The Public opened in 1998 and plays a vital role in The Public's mission of supporting young artists while providing established artists with an intimate space and superior acoustics to perform and develop new work. Joe's Pub showcases talent from all over the world with a fair number of those artists also gracing the stage at Teatro ZinZanni including Joey Arias, Lady Rizo, and Puddles the Clown. "Our mission at Teatro ZinZanni is to present the world's best circus, comedy, and cabaret performers in a live intimate setting - we have a commitment to quality, diversity, and artistic freedoms that is parallel to that which Joe's Pub has offered its city and its artists for years," Teatro ZinZanni Casting Manager and Special Events Producer, Tim Gonzalez-Wiler comments.

"Joe's Pub has nurtured hundreds of incredible artists who consistently push at the boundaries of live performance and are reinvigorating and redefining cabaret," Shanta Thake, director of Joe's Pub comments. "Both Seattle's expansive cultural palette and the inventive minds at Teatro Zinzanni are completely aligned with our vision of creating and showcasing innovative forms of performance. We are thrilled to kick off this partnership with three of our leading voices from New York City."

Launching the first iteration of this partnership in Seattle is Tony Award-nominated and multi-award-winning artist Justin VivIan Bond performing "Love is Crazy!," a celebration of obsession, sex, romance and all their queer and mysterious complications on October 15. A trans-genre artist living in New York City who has graced on and Off-Broadway stages and gained high praise as one half of the acclaimed duo Kiki and Herb, Mx Bond's "Love is Crazy!" showcases V's legendarily twisted wit through performance and song. On November 12, Northwest-grown performance artist and Grammy Award-winning diva Lady Rizo pays homage to the high priestess of soul, Nina Simone, after 5 years of presenting her annual sold out tribute to New York City audiences. Rounding out this inaugural series, Seattle audiences will be introduced to up and coming talent Molly Pope on December 17 in her part concert, part free-flow banter, part sing-a-long event, "An Audience with Molly Pope." Critically beloved for her powerhouse vocals and nonstop creative wit, Pope gleefully exploits her life experience while paying it wry tribute.

"At Teatro ZinZanni, we have long admired the work Joe's Pub has done on the east coast to introduce audiences to talent from around the world. We are a natural fit to expand that mission to the west coast," Gonzalez-Wiler adds. "I am so thrilled that we are bringing a slice of the New York City cabaret scene to Seattle."

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Justin VivIan Bond

Mx Justin VivIan Bond is a trans-genre artist living in New York City. As a performer both on and Off-Broadway, Mx Bond has received numerous accolades, winning an Obie (2001), a Bessie (2004), a Tony nomination (2007), the Ethyl EichelbergerAward (2007), The Peter Reed Foundation Grant, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant for Artists. V authored the Lambda Literary Award-winning memoir "TANGO: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels" (The Feminist Press, 2011). Films include John Cameron Mitchell's "Shortbus" (2006), "Sunset Stories" (2012), "Imaginary Heroes" (2004) and "Fanci's Persuasion" (1995). JVB's visual art has received solo exhibitions at Participant, Inc. (NYC, 2011), Art Market Provincetown (2014), and Vitrine (London, 2015). Albums include Kiki and Herb: Do You Hear What We Hear?, Kiki and Herb Will Die For You At Carnegie Hall, Dendrophileand Silver Wells. www.justinvivianbond.com

Lady Rizo

Lady Rizo, aka Amelia Zirin-Brown, is a NYC-based performance artist, comedienne, singer, composer, and actor. Received with critical raves three years in a row at the Assembly Festival in Edinburgh, she won the inaugural Time Out London and Soho Theatre Award, and the 2013 London Cabaret Award. She is also a Grammy Award winner for a 2010 collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma. A recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, her original pieces have shown at Joe's Pub at The Public, London's Leister Square Theatre, and the Sydney Festival (nominee for a 2013 Helpmann award). She has also recorded with Moby and Reggie Watts. Her debut album is entitled Violet. Her second album Indigo will come out spring 2017, LadyRizo.com.

Molly Pope

Molly Pope is a singer and actor whose shows have played Joe's Pub at The Public, Feinstein's at the Regency, Ars Nova, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Café Carlyle, Afterglow Festival, OBERON (A.R.T.), and the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in Australia. She is the recipient of both the 2016 Bistro Award for "Creative Cabaret Artistry" and the 2016 MAC Award for Musical Comedy Performer for her show "Molly Pope Likes Your Status." She has been named a Time Out New York "Top Ten Cabaret Act of 2008" and 2012 and a Village Voice Best of NYC 2011 for "Best Singer To Turn Life Into A Cabaret." Most recently she recorded her first album, "An Audience with Molly Pope," live at Joe's Pub. Pope has been called "one of downtown cabaret's most adventurous performers" by The New York Times and hailed as "tremendously entertaining" by The Wall Street Journal. Stage credits include FOUND (Atlantic Theater Co), Horseplay, or the Fickle Mistress (LaMama ETC/Theatre Askew), Dan Fishback's The Material World (Dixon Place). www.mollypope.com

Named for The Public Theater's visionary founder Joe Papp, Joe's Pub at The Public opened in 1998 and plays a vital role in The Public's mission of supporting young artists while providing established artists with an intimate space to perform and develop new work. Joe's Pub presents the best in live music and performance nightly, continuing its commitment to diversity, production values, superior acoustics community and artistic freedom. The venue also offers unique opportunities like New York Voices, an artist commissioning program that has fostered new work by Ethan Lipton, Toshi Reagon, Bridget Everett, Allen Toussaint, Justin VivIan Bond & Kenny Mellman and more. As part of The Public's programming downtown at its Astor Place home, Joe's Pub presents talent from all over the world, hosting approximately 800 shows and serving over 100,000 audience members annually.

Joe's Pub thrives within The Public Theater, which houses five theaters at its Astor Place home, in addition to Joe's and Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater. For more than 60 years, The Public, under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, has continued the work of Papp by acting as an advocate for the theater as an essential cultural force, leading the dialogue on some of the most important issues of our day. The Public's programming includes free Shakespeare in the Park, the bedrock of the Company's commitment to making theater accessible to all; Public Works, a national initiative that is designed to cultivate new models of engagement with artists, audiences and community; and Mobile Unit, which tours productions to underserved audiences. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 168 Obies, 53 Drama Desk Awards, 54 Lortel Awards, 32 OCC Awards, 13 NY Drama Critics Awards, and five Pulitzer Prizes, most recently for the musical Hamilton.

Teatro ZinZanni is an original show, which combines European cirque, cabaret, spectacle, and live music meanwhile serving up a multi-course feast. The show is presented in a gorgeous, climate-controlled, antique cabaret tent (known as a spiegeltent). Imported from Belgium, the spiegeltent is nicknamed the Moulin Rouge. Built in 1910, it boasts staiNed Glass, hand-carved wooden interior columns, polished crystal and mirrors. Guests are seated restaurant-style in this unique venue, and the action of the show takes place throughout the circular structure. The Moulin Rouge comfortably seats 285 guests. In addition to its year-round, world-class dinner shows, Teatro ZinZanni also produces original family-friendly experiences, summer camps, and special one-night-only events throughout the year.

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