Having been inspired by Teatro Zinzanni in Seattle where Sarah Mann grew up, her vision of opening a Circus Dinner Theatre percolated in her head for many years.  As a producer and performer in the LA nightlife industry, she finally put together her vision and created Madmann’s Playground to offer a series of Live Pop-Up Dinner Theatre experiences. 

Sarah writes, “prior to discovering the Women’s Business Center, I felt extremely lost and overwhelmed when it came to thinking about Madmann’s Playground as a business. The Women’s Business Center provided me with webinars and mentors to guide me through the process of launching the business, understanding the complexities of, and tackling all the smaller tasks that inevitably came up.” 

The complicated part for Sarah has been the restaurant component and allocating the funds to make it all possible. After navigating the challenges of finding a venue adequately suited for a pop-up of this size and understanding the complexities of working with a caterer and bar service, her focus then shifted towards funding. 

When Sarah made a counseling Loan appointment with me, I determined that her best route to securing funding would be through www.jfla.org which granted her a $ 36,000 Loan @ 0%, 36-month repayment term and No banking fees. That money was vital to move forward with pre-production for the Inaugural Dinner Theatre Presentation of “Van Helsing’s Dracula,”  

Sarah is optimistic that once the first proof-of-concept pop-up series takes place, the buzz and success of the first series will help her find investors who will want to contribute to the business and enable it to expand into a brick-and-mortar restaurant where shows will take place every week on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. 

Madmann’s Playground is available to cater, entertain at private events, direct, manage theatrical productions, perform, assist on television and film projects. 

With Sarah’s determination, vision and fighting spirit, I have no doubt she will realize her dream! 

For more information on her upcoming pop-up shows in October and November, check out www.madmannsplayground.com or email her at sarah@themadmann.com.  

Ric Sáenz 

Financial and General Business Manager                                                                      https://newwbc.setmore.com/ricsaenz  LA County Loan/Business Appointments