Maybe There Will Be Cupcakes

Ginny Bartolone's Blog of Many Years

Tag: Theatre

  • A Freelance Writing Guide for the Coronavirus Shutdown

    Marketing writing is pretty ideal for the theatrical brain. Many agencies use personas or a target audience when they send you an assignment. It’s very similar to getting into the mind of a character if they were about to wander the internet to buy something.

  • If “Acting is Doing” Then What is Everything Else?

    My acting teacher in London was never a huge fan of me. Though I like to believe I’m a rather agreeable human, I consistently clash with a very specific personality. We’re like two liquids that simply cannot occupy the same space. In one of our first classes, she asked us in a raspy tone, “What…

  • Master of Two Worlds

    Muscle memory can sneak up on you. It’s been raining off and on all morning, so I headed out to my usual coffee shop with our big umbrella, tapping it on the ground as I walked. Halfway through my trip, I caught myself hitting the umbrella on the grass beside the sidewalk instead of the…

  • The Darker Side to My Arts Addiction

    I started acting in this ridiculous field when I was a kid. Next year is my 25th anniversary of jumping off into the deep end. My parents–both veterans of the theatre world in different respects–warned me from the get-go not to fall into some of the common traps of growing up in theatre. They’d seen…

  • The Troubled Relationship Between Time and Art

    Back in college, my friends and I invented a day of the week known as Twunesday.   Twunesday fell between Tuesday and Wednesday, and all events that didn’t fit within the constraints of our seven-day week were scheduled on this day.  When will I write that paper?  On Twunesday!  How about taking a nap?  Twunesday is an excellent…

  • Wisdom for this Year’s February Thaw

    When I walked into school this morning, a flying-v of geese headed north overhead, presumably returning early from the winter.  “February Thaw,” as one of my friends recently told me this strange stretch of weather is called, is confusing to me.  Everything since November has felt like a reason to worry, this unseasonably warm weather…

  • “You’re Not Good, You’re Not Bad, You’re Just Nice”

    Right after the election, a meme was making the rounds, predicting that Hillary would come out on stage before the inauguration to sing “Last Midnight,” from Into the Woods.  If you’re unfamiliar with the musical, this may have looked like a jab to Hillary’s character, since after all, the song is sung by the witch.  In the song, the witch…

  • Do Not Let Me Entertain You

    This is in response to today’s Daily Post, entitled “Invitation.” If you go to the theatre, turn on a movie, stand in front of a work of art, switch on the radio–do not let me entertain you.  If you do, you are being tricked, you are missing the point, you are closing off a part of…

  • The Actor in the Back of the Coffee Shop

    “It’s just different from what I’m used to,” says the fussy lady in the coffee shop across from me, as she slams down the delicately crafted Matcha latte in front on the barista.  “If you had sweetened it the first time, I would have liked it.”  She wavers between a demanding tea connoisseur and someone who has…

  • Oh good, I’m super great at the wrong thing

    Last night I had a dream about eating a sandwich with my grandma.  She passed away a little over two years ago, and had one of the best kitchens on earth for snacks and conversation.  In the dream, she made me a huge but simple ham and cheese sandwich on really nice bread that she…