For Theatre People, EVERY Day Is National Coffee Day

Anthony J. Piccione

Today is National Coffee Day. Along with Thanksgiving, World Theatre Day and May the 4th Be With You, it is among one of my favorite holidays (official or unofficial) of the year. It is on this day that several businesses across America will be selling coffee for lower prices, if not for free. For me, it is something that I am grateful for each and every year. For many others, I’m sure this will give them more of an incentive to go out there and buy some of their coffee than it otherwise would have.

However, the fact of the matter is that when you are involved in theatre – or in nearly any other form of art, for that matter – EVERY day is National Coffee Day.

Let’s be honest: As much as we love theatre, there are certain points during a show – more specifically, I mean during the last few rehearsals leading up to opening night, which tend to end with excessively long director’s notes – where we need a bit of help with making it to the finish line. Many of us NEED coffee – for quite a few of us, it’s more than once every day – so we are able to do what we do. It’s largely thanks to that extra jolt of caffeine that we are able to keep doing what we do. I know that it’s especially true for me, as today is also (coincidentally?) the first day of tech week for a show I am acting in that’s opening next week.

So yes, let’s all be grateful that on National Coffee Day, we will be seeing Dunkin Donuts, McDonald’s and several other places offering their customers special deals on getting the coffee that many of them so desperately need to get through the day. That said, it would be ESPECIALLY great for theatre people if we could get more affordable coffee on every day of the year, not just on September 29th, because words can’t describe just how grateful many of us are for the coffee that we drink each and every day. Then again, you would think that given how much coffee many of us consume, it was a holiday that was celebrated on all 365 days of the year.

On that note, I thought I’d leave you with a certain musical number that is a personal favorite of mine, but is especially worth sharing on a day like this…

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkL-0KF38vA

This column was written by Anthony J. Piccione: Student, playwright, actor, poet and blogger currently based in Connecticut. To learn more about Anthony and his work, please visit his personal blog at www.anthonyjpiccione.tumblr.com. Also, be sure to like him on Facebook(www.facebook.com/AnthonyJPiccione.OfficialPage), follow him on Twitter (@A_J_Piccione) and view his work on the New Play Exchange (www.newplayexchange.org/users/903/anthony-j-piccione).