CU alumna goes from theater lines to grape vines

‘Fortune found me falling in love with a wine-maker, and now here I am crushing grapes, pairing wine and designing labels’

By Laura Kriho

As a student at the University of Colorado Boulder, Gigi Benson had dreams of becoming an actress on Broadway in New York City or on the silver screen in Hollywood.

Benson graduated from CU in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in a double-major of communications and theatre and dance and then a master’s degree in developmental theatre in 1979.



At the time, she never saw herself with her arms dyed purple, up to her elbows in wine grapes. She envisioned her future on the stage, in glamourous garments, hanging out with artists, writers and people who could "change the world."

It may seem odd that a college degree in theater led to career in wine-making. But that is the value of a liberal arts degrees – it will prepare you for a career in just about anything, she asserts.

“The best gift that a theater education can give you is the ability to be in a true ensemble,” Benson explains. “If you learn how to put the focus on the other person, you have the ability to move the people who are watching to have a stake in the outcome. There is no high like it in the world.”

Benson spent a lot her time at CU-Boulder working with the Colorado Caravan Touring Theatre, the first outreach project for academic credit in the theatre and dance department. The program brought the experience of live theater to thousands of people throughout Colorado, large and small, many of whom had never seen or read a play before.

Martin Cobin, professor of drama at CU, and Chuck Wilcox, an actor who still performs at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, started this program. These two teachers were very influential on her.

“Chuck and Martin were my mentors. They were just incredible people,” she says.

“We toured any town with a gas pump,” Benson recalls fondly. “We slept on the gym floor sometimes. We slept in people’s homes. We would do two to three shows a day and then six to 10 hours of workshops. Then we would go home expecting to go to sleep, but instead people wanted to talk to us about theater because they were so excited.”

I learned very quickly I'd rather be setting up who was at the table then serving them as a starving artist."“We would edit the Shakespeare down to about an hour,” Benson reveals. “The highest compliment I ever got was when the people would ask us what translation we used. They thought the whole thing had been changed so that people could understand it. Nothing had been changed; we just edited it. All the words were Shakespeare’s.”

After Gigi graduated from CU, she “rose quickly” through a series of professional jobs to support her theatrical aspiration. “The double major in communications and my Rocky Mountain manners opened doors in the corporate jungle,” she said. "I learned very quickly I'd rather be setting up who was at the table then serving them as a starving artist."

She found her theater training useful in a business environment. “In theater, you have to do everything, wear all the hats, understand the characters and their objects, and boy did that pay off in the corporate world. When I did all of those jobs, I never really knew what I was doing until I had to get it done.”

“Because of coming from theatre and the non-profit world, I could do a lot with a little. Corporations appreciated that,” she said. After "being discovered three times and still not famous," she moved to San Francisco where she "accidentally" became a marketing and business development directory, promoting high-tech and professional services industries.

But working outside the home as a mother took a heavy toll on her family, as well as an unexpected divorce after 25 years. She began consulting to provide more time for her sons and found refuge returning to the theater. “It was cheaper than therapy” she remarks, "and much more fun than speed-dating as a middle age divorcee."

It was at a theater in California that she met and fell in love with Montgomery Paulsen, the son of the late Pat Paulsen, a famous California vintner.



The Pat Paulsen Vineyard brand was well-known in California, but with Pat Paulsen’s death, the vineyards were sold, and the brand fell into disuse.

However, when the recession hit and jobs were scarce, Benson challenged Paulsen to “go for his dream and revive the his father’s winery and brand to continue the legacy.“

“Fortune found me falling in love with a wine-maker, and now here I am crushing grapes, pairing wine and designing labels,” she declared happily.

Benson now handles all the public relations, marketing and business development for Pat Paulsen Vineyard.

"Monty says winemaking is an art lying somewhere between farming and science, all I know is it’s more work than I ever imagined, with great rewards and interesting, open-hearted people in pursuit of their perfect wine. A lot like theatre folks."

In the past three years, they have launched more than 26 varietals, won more than30 awards and opened two tasting room venues in the Bay Area. Benson’s theater background and education continues to help her to this day.

“Whether it’s leading a networking workshop for lawyers, advocating for the arts and education or signing up wine club members,” Benson says she values the education she got at CU.

“Understanding how other people saw me, not how I wanted to be seen, was probably the most important thing I came out of college,” she concluded. “When you learn to listen, to trust your intuition, to harness your passion and intellect, there is nothing that can stop you.“

“And even if you lose everything, end up someplace you never knew existed, you're damn lucky to still have yourself and know who that is. That's unsinkable Molly Brown know-how you can bank on.”

Laura Kriho is web and publications coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences.

Feb. 27, 2015