about 1st zanni
1st Zanni is the umbrella under which American theatre-maker Tempest Wisdom writes, directs, performs, and facilitates.
With 13 years of experience in Chicago, Seattle, and now York, 1ZT draws on a variety of clowning practices to create energetic, engaging and interactive audience experiences.
Like its namesake, 1st Zanni creates theatre that is capricious, cheeky, and too clever for its own good.
What’s The Name Mean?
Zanni is the Italian root of the English word zany. Enough said!
But really, zanni are the servant characters in Commedia dell’Arte, the Italian masked comedy of the Renaissance. In a typical Commedia dell’Arte scenario, there are two zanni: the high-ranking, clever First Zanni and the low-ranking, foolish Second Zanni. By the end of the show, the Second Zanni manages to stumble ass-over-teakettle into accidental success, while the First Zanni gets tied up in his complicated schemes and hoisted by his own petard!
It’s a classic comedy setup that persists to this day, and for good reason! Probably the most famous First Zanni is Malvolio, the iconic steward from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. (As for the Second Zanni, you might know him better as Harlequin.)
And it’s not just classic theatre that uses these archetypes: think of Jeeves of “& Wooster” fame, Max Bialystock from “The Producers,” or The Brain from “Pinky & The Brain” — First Zanni are everywhere, making messes and scrambling to clean them up for our entertainment.
Brighella, the 1st Zanni, posing with another Commedia archetype: the cowardly braggadocio, il Capitano.
Aren’t they handsome?