Spotlight On… Isabel Ginsberg, Actress and Singin’ Bohemian

DSCF2894Isabel Ginsberg, 16, has been an actress with MacGuffin since she was ten. She has taken many classes and has appeared in The Sound of Music, Santaland Diaries, Wicked, A Chorus Line, The Tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, Romeo and Juliet and currently A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She is also a member of MacGuffin’s The Singin’ Bohemians Cabaret Troupe. She has won Shakespeare Awards for her performances in Romeo and Juliet and The Sound of Music. She attends Germantown Friends School where she will be a junior in the fall. Isabel is a creative, hardworking actress with a bright future.

MacGuffin Questionnaire for Isabel Ginsberg

1.What is your favorite word?
I don’t have a favorite word, but I guess the word ‘goddamnit’ is fun to say.
2. What is your least favorite word?
The word ‘example.’ I just have something against using the term ‘for example’ in a piece of writing.
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
For me, it’s spending time with my friends in Rittenhouse Square on a perfect day – it heightens my energy. Also, when I listen to a new song for the first time and I can immediately tell that it would be a good song for me to sing and it gets me excited to perform it.
4. What turns you off?
I can’t stand people who are rude for no reason and unnecessarily negative.
5. What sound or noise do you love?
I love the sound of my little cousin laughing. I also love, when you’re sitting in a theater, the sound of the orchestra warming up right before the show starts. That first chord you hear always has me on the edge of my seat.
6. What sound or noise do you hate?
I don’t like artificial sounds, like the sound of noise machines or elevator music.
7. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
I’d like to try being an interior designer. I always find myself wishing I knew more about design and ways to organize and design my bedroom.
8. What profession would you not like to do?
I would like to avoid working in a cubicle in an office building, if that’s possible. I don’t think I could handle that.
9. Who are your personal heroes?
One of my personal heroes is my English teacher from 8th grade, Emily Marston. I remember learning so much from her and she inspired me to work harder and have confidence in my own creative writing.
10. What is your favorite food and drink?
My favorite food is the spinach and feta savory square from Starbucks, that I’m finding increasingly harder to come across. My favorite drink would be Diet Coke or a strawberry and banana smoothie.
11. What is your favorite color and flower?
I like the color mint green and my favorite flowers are casa blanca lilies.
12. What are your favorite names?
For girls, my favorite names are Eliana, Phoebe, Audrey and Kate
For guys, my favorite names are Jordan, Owen and Luca.
13. What is your idea of happiness?
My idea of happiness is when all my immediate needs are met and I feel at ease with everything that’s going on in my life. For me, meeting those needs often means being surrounded by friends and family, knowing that those people care about me. That feeling of completeness makes me feel happier. Also, laughter is a big part of happiness for me. If I can get myself to laugh at least once, it immediately picks up my mood. I think I associate happiness with any place or environment that has laughter in the air.
14. What famous quote resonates with you?
I’ve always liked what this quote says about what the word ‘genius’ means: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” -Albert Einstein
15. If you could come back as any person in history, who would you be?
I would love to be anyone living in the time that Shakespeare was writing plays. I think it would be amazing to be around when some of his great masterpieces were published.
16. Name a recent theater piece or film that moved you.
A while ago I got very interested in the new musical, Hamilton, a hip-hop/r&b telling about the founding father, Alexander Hamilton. Initially, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it because of the genre of music, but as soon as I heard it, it immediately drew me in because of the sheer genius of the score and the incredible story it told. I have no doubt that this musical will change the face of musical theatre for the better.
17. Name something you learned at MacGuffin.
At MacGuffin I learned that to be an actor, everything that you do has to be honest. You can’t make your performance real if you can’t personally connect yourself. I learned the importance of finding ways to connect what I’m doing to my own life and use that experience to influence my acting.