Meet Vinny Cinque

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Vinny Cinque a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Vinny, you’ve got such an interesting story, but before we jump into that, let’s first talk about a topic near and dear to us – generosity. We think success, happiness and wellbeing depends on authentic generosity and empathy and so we’d love to hear about how you become such a generous person – where do you think your generosity comes from?

My generosity comes from having to play the role of caretaker from a very, very young age. Growing up with a handicapped mother with Traumatic Brain Injury, as I was learning to walk and talk, I was also learning to emotionally regulate my parent. To take care of her. To make sure everything was okay for her stability, both emotionally and physically. Caring for others is as ingrained in me as walking and talking. And it’s trickled into my artistic and professional life.

Theater to me is a community art, and you have to be looking out for the good of the whole, as much as you have to for yourself. It makes the work as a whole better, and makes you a better artist.

As a reiki practitioner, having a “container” for my healing has been instrumental for me. Sometimes as a caretaker, it can exhaust you to be “caring” for everyone constantly, and half the time you don’t realize how hyper-aware you are of everyone’s needs – so having a dedicated time and space to heal has helped me create boundaries for myself and has healed me in that way too.

And a lot of my “day jobs” usually revolve around assistant type work, or taking work on for someone that allows them to do their work more efficiently.

So, the generosity that I was inherently raised on still seeps into everything I do.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I call myself a theater professional, which to me, encompasses someone who’s dedicated to the theater. I’m primarily an actor, but I also direct, produce, and write. I’m an arts administrator, as well as a front of house employee. After having to literally put my life on hold to get my mom and grandma the proper long term care they needed, I had to quit the job I was working and found myself at this point where I had the opportunity to start fresh, for me. But instead of starting over, I decided to recommit and go deeper with my passion for the theater. Both my day jobs, and my creative pursuits revolve around the theater now, managing bar and concessions at Lincoln Center Theater and also working for the Dramatists Guild Foundation and their mission to support dramatists with free space and resources. I spent 8 years as leading player and resident director of Cynthia Von Buhler’s Speakeasy Dollhouse, a large scale and lavish immersive theater company – so I’m also always trying to figure out how to infuse fun, wonder, and spectacle into traditional theater. I’m also a certified reiki practitioner (which I very much do on the side as an offering), but find myself fascinated with the intersection of creativity, theater, and healing arts.

But on top of all these things, I’m an advocate for my mom who has traumatic brain injury and immobilizing arthritis, and though caring for her at her side, day in and day out, isn’t an option anymore, I manage her careplan as her advocate and do the leg work of figuring out how to rehabilitate her, a job our healthcare system should be doing, but is so utterly failing at.

Most recently, I’ve been working on an autobiographical solo show for the theater titled “Be My Baby”, a timely and surreal exploration of a son’s lifelong struggle to care for his mother with Traumatic Brain Injury, all while grappling with America’s broken and criminal healthcare system. The show unfolds as a journey of love and self-discovery, structured around a vivid dream where angelic dancers and drag queens guide Vincent and his mother through a night on the town that could lead them to the existential answers they so desperately seek.

My director Felicia Lobo (a dear friend and longtime collaborator who I met in acting school) and I just held our first invited reading of the piece after 2.5 years of development, and gained some incredible insight to help us map our way forward. (Felicia’s work is a force to be reckoned with, from her theater directing to her punk band QWAM – get to know her work!!)

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I’ll go in chronological order of how these things found me.

Spatial Awareness from “Viewpoints”: Having spatial awareness in the world feels like a superpower because seemingly, lots of people don’t have this. It is essential. Yes, I live in NYC where knowing where you are, where you’re going, who and what’s around, and what’s going to happen 5 steps ahead is essential. But it’s also awareness of others, other’s emotions, other’s energy. It is essential that we look up from and out of ourselves to the world outside, not to forget ourselves, but to better understand our place in it all. This trickles down to being aware that you’re standing directly in front of the subway steps and thinking “hmmm…maybe I should move over a half a foot so people can get through”, but it’s also “is my presence needed and adding to this situation or harming and detracting from it?”
I do of course attribute this awareness to how I grew up with my mother, but in a practical sense, I learned to define and name these skills in a class called “Viewpoints” taught at the Atlantic Acting School by Kelly Maurer of Citi Company. It was derived from work by both Anne Bogart and Tadashi Suzuki. It’s the study of where you are and how you move in the universe, and practical applications to expand that awareness. I think EVERY HUMAN ON EARTH needs this to make the world a better and safer place.

Navigating US Healthcare: My mom and grandma both needed to transition into long term care at the same time, and I was on my own in doing it. Sadly, trauma is a fantastic teacher. Hard times teach you the best lessons, whether you heed them and rise to the occasion, or not. You will learn from bad times. Every moment is a teacher, but the bad ones hold potent lessons. I’ll leave that there.

Transcendental Meditation: I had heard of TM since I was a teenager and was always curious. In 2023, I found a TM center and learned. It’s been almost 2 years of knowing the TM practice, and I continue to grow everyday from it. I think it’s something that I’ll still continue to grow from, even decades from now. It’s a very good companion for spatial awareness as I feel like it improves your mental and spiritual dexterity. TM in particular has been groundbreaking for me, but any kind of meditation or quieting of the mind, I couldn’t recommend more.

My advice is cliche, but, follow your north star. There are infinite ways to do any one thing, so make sure you’re following the path that your soul and being truly wants to be on, and is unique to you. Always check in with yourself to make sure you’re doing something because you’re passionate about it, or because it’s in alignment with your goals and/or values. Anyone can be an actor, but what kind of actor do you want to be? Anyone can be a lawyer, but what kind of lawyer do you want to be? Specifics matter. The more specific you are in articulating your goals and your values, the more you’ll find that life and the universe stay in balance with you. Follow your North Star as best you can, and when your vision is hazy, ask specific questions of yourself and others to help get you back on track xoxoxo

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

My biggest area of growth this past year I would say has to be putting boundaries on the time I give to others. Because of that, I’ve been able to pursue artistic projects that I always thought “I didn’t have time for.” We always have the time, but how do we MAKE the time?

I also thought doing so would sacrifice the care and attention I give to others (yes, caring for my mom, but also just, my interactions with my friends and loved ones, which I truly cherish!). And it turns out, you don’t have to give those things up to be able to put yourself first. Actually, when you put yourself first, you’re on a more direct path, and you can better schedule and budget your time to allow all you truly want in, and also, keep what may be extraneous out.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Personal Photo/Headshot: Michael Kushner Photography

Show Pictures: Mark Shelby Perry, Tom Kochie

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