Susan Cinoman
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Susan Cinoman grew up in Philadelphia, an adopted child in a family of bookkeepers and business people. While the rest of her family was talking economics and market trends she would be in another room, drawing, dancing, singing and writing. Now, she has a movie to show for her efforts.
“I was always uber-creative, to the point where it became ridiculous,” said Cinoman. “It was hard in the family to relate; they were very pragmatic.”
Cinoman, 51, grew into a versatile woman who teaches English and drama by day and dons a playwright’s cape by night.
This past year when her mother died she set out in search of her birth parents and found the seeds of her creative tendencies.
“They are all very artistic. My biological father had aspirations to be a writer, my half-brother was a musician, one sibling went to NYU for acting, and there it is – it’s all genetic,” said Cinoman.
Her most-recent creative leap, a joint project with her directorially inclined fiancé Doug Tenaglia, is a feature of the Connecticut Film Festival, currently touring cities across the state. Together, Tenaglia and Cinoman head the new production company Destino Productions.
Cinoman attended Temple University where she studied theater and acting, and then went on to Bryn Mawr College to study English.
While at Temple, she lived the bohemian life and had an all-female comedy group called “The Soubrettes.”
She stayed with the comedy show for a number of years after college, but the troupe got older and developed different interests.
To make ends meet, she consistently found teaching jobs and taught English while living in Philadelphia.
Cinoman used writing as an outlet to keep her creative juices flowing and her muses satisfied.
“I had been a performer from high school on, but I decided to start writing and taking writing more seriously,” said Cinoman.
As soon as she began writing plays, her alternative life started to take off. In 1995, she headed to New York City with her plays. She became acquainted with the theater scene and her material was performed off-Broadway and continuously.
“It’s not easy,” said Tenaglia. “She seizes whatever quiet time she has and gets to her writing. Unlike other writers who have strict writing routines and work within a certain time each day, Susan can write anytime, anywhere.”
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