Name, please: Michal Sinnott
Draw us a map of your existence:
I've lead a somewhat nomadic life. So the map goes all over. I was born in a small town outside Chicago. We moved around a ton from the years 0 to 5. My father was restless and always uprooting us. In these early years, before my parents divorced, my 2 younger brothers and I lived in Illinois, Colorado, Iowa, Massachusetts, and Florida before finally settling in Virginia for my mom to go to grad school for Theater. There, I lived in just two cities, Virginia Beach and then Norfolk until college. College was spent in Charlottesville VA, Washington DC, and Rome. I became somewhat obsessed with travel in those years, backpacking through most of Europe and spending some time in Norway with a close friend I met in Oslo at thirteen.
After college, I moved to Seattle to work as an international flight attendant. From there, I traveled extensively throughout a lot of Asia, mostly in Japan and South Korea. I also spent time throughout Europe and in Australia and a little bit of Africa and the Middle East. I met my husband Joseph during that time, and after briefly moving to LA, we decided to settle in NYC, where we lived in both Manhattan and Staten Island, where we still own a home. NYC is it's own world, so I didn't feel such a need to travel while there. NY has the world in it, so it was easy to stay put and focus on the work. Still, we did find time to travel for short jaunts, making it to Costa Rica, Thailand for a month, Trinidad, Cannes, Norway, and parts of the US. During that time, I also helped care for my grandmother in her twilight years. My years in NY were hard but good and growing.
Last year, Joseph and our two dogs, Wylie and Jasper, drove through the deep South with just our car to move to LA. We love having the mountains and the ocean within such close vicinity. At the end of the month, we're packing up our rental house and putting everything in storage for a month while we travel to NYC, Virginia, and Seattle to see family. We'll move into a new place in January and continue putting pins in the map.
I used to think that traveling and acting were equal loves. But after getting away from acting during my year and a 1/2 as a flight attendant, I realized that acting is it. I'd rather stay in one place and never travel then travel the world and never act.
What puts a fire in your belly?
Passion, love, a strive for goodness and truth in the face of adversity, combatting injustice, cutting through ignorance, standing up for what you believe in, spicy food.
What do you do when you aren't acting?
I manage 6 units in the house we own in Staten Island. I write. I go for hikes with my dogs. I cook new things. I explore and learn and always try to grow and let go.
Tell us a story about when you were really embarrassed or afraid.
I grew up in a household that had a pervasive air of fear and tension in it. And I think I took on this fearful energy in my being for much of my childhood. I was a fairly quiet, timid child until around 7 when I discovered acting. It was also at this time that my parents split up. It sounds strange to say, but I think that in a way I became my mother's husband at that time. I don't mean in any weird way. But I mean as her protector. So I appeared strong, but I was always fighting and fretting over adult things. I was afraid of not being good enough and staying forever in my childhood situation of lack. As an adult, I've had to work to let go of the need for perfection and a clinging to fear. I now work to march towards my fears.
What's the last play you saw that left a lasting impact on you?
A one woman performance of Jessica Dickey's The Amish Project at The Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in NYC.
What's your favorite acting book and non-acting book?
Acting Book: "The Intent to Live" by Larry Moss. Non-acting books: Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth" and Toni Morrison's "Beloved."
What do you think happens when we die?
I don't know.
But I believe that we all have a soul that exists beyond our material body. I was raised in a number of different types of Christian churches before my mom became a Catholic when I was in 3rd grade. I don't really ascribe to any one religion anymore but I very much believe in God. I think that God is in us and that we help to make up God in the fullest potential of our highest selves. I think of God as ultimate goodness and love. I think it depends on how open we are consciously when we pass. I think it is possible that reincarnation exists: if we didn't get it all right in this life, that we could come back and explore our issues and the things we need to learn again and perhaps get it right in a second or thirtieth try. I believe that souls that are grossly wronged, like in the case of a murder, can get trapped between worlds, and that's what ghosts are. I believe that we can pass on into higher realms if we really have learned what we need to learn and if we have truly let go of selfishness. Maybe that's what angels are.
But all of these ideas are just dreams. I can't say that they are true with any degree of certainty. But I do know and think in my heart that we are not just food for worms in the end. Life is too unexpected and miraculous for everything to just be what we see in this one life.
When did you know/decide you were an actor?
I fell in love with acting right away when I was first introduced to it. My mom has her Masters in Theater. And she took me along for a commercial audition that we both ended up booking. So I did it all growing up, but it wasn't until the summer before college that I really gave myself permission to pursue it as a career. Being reared by a single parent, I always knew the hard realities of making a living in the arts and I vowed to have a "real" job when I grew up. I attended a performing arts high school and in the second semester of my senior year, I was forced to write a play for one of my classes. This was the last thing I wanted to do. I had already been accepted into college and my head was at the beach, not on writing something original. But I wrote it anyway and ended up submitting it to a number of contests and it won a young playwright's festival in Richmond, VA. I was given the opportunity to attend a 3 week conference where mentors helped me develop my play that eventually culminated in a staged reading of the play with Equity Actors in an 800 seat LORT Theater. Watching my play for the first time, I realized that I could never have a life outside of the theater and performance. It's home.
Finish this sentence: Once upon a time a bear humped a frog and _______________.
the little frog felt taken advantage of for a while but eventually learned that even unpleasant experiences like this one leave room for growth and so he started to transform from a frog into a prince, but not a prince that ruled over everyone but one that offered up an example of what true leadership can look like when he asked the bear to join him for tea and they sat and chatted about the humping and he learned that the bear was really just lonely and believed that humping things 1000 times smaller then him was not at all a problem that maybe needed to be addressed but after talking with the frog prince the bear saw the error in his ways and hence forth only approached frogs for humping that were bear size not frog size and then the world grew a little.
Why is Theatre important and do you think the theatre will ever die?
Theatre is important because we are so busy living that we sometimes can't see ourselves in others. When we are sitting in a dark room with other people next to us also sitting in that dark room, watching real people on stage act in the moment with material they've rehearsed but are making look fresh for the first time, we sometimes get a glimpse of our own humanity in a new light. We are then sometimes able to let go of something we may have been holding onto that doesn't serve us anymore. We are able to grow. And we do this as a community even though it is our private experience. So sometimes we feel both safe and held and also not alone at the same time as a result of these performances.
I don't think that theater will ever die. We humans have always told stories. Stories are our myths. They push us as a culture to become more consciously aware of our place in the whole. Movies do this too. But there is a layer of separation between the actor and the audience with the screen. In theater there is no separation. I believe we need this lack of separation and that we will always need it. So as long as we live in a world where there is freedom, I believe theater will always exist. Like music, it is food for the soul.
If you were the king of the world, what's the first rule you would implement?
We will no longer solve our disagreements by waging war on one another. The entire budget for the wars we used to wage will go towards the food, shelter, needs, and education of those who don't have their basics covered, starting with the most in need.
What attracted you to The Vagrancy?
The company's strong, specific mission statement that drives towards the things that most people drive away from: fear, vulnerability, and embarrassment. Sabina and Caitlin, two seasoned female artistic directors, with links to the NYC theater world. A group of hungry, like-minded artists that share a passion for the work. The company's educational outreach. The company just seemed awesome and I wanted to be a part of it.
Shameless plugs?
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