Interview with Aaron Moten...

Aaron Moten taught at TAP Camp for four sum­mers, while he was attend­ing The Juilliard School. He grad­u­at­ed in 2011 and is already per­form­ing in a Broadway show. He is in pre­views for A Streetcar Named Desire and will open in just a few weeks. We asked Aaron a few ques­tions about his edu­ca­tion, his career and his expe­ri­ences. Enjoy…

Q: How has teach­ing at TAP helped you to become a more round­ed artist?
A: Teaching, for me, is allow­ing every per­son in the room a voice in the con­ver­sa­tion of act­ing. Together we cre­ate new def­i­n­i­tions of prin­ci­ples that are con­stant­ly evolv­ing, and in response we are becom­ing decid­ed hybrids of the artis­tic world we live in.

Q: What was the most impor­tant thing you learned in your high school career?
A: The most impor­tant thing I learned in high school was how to care for mate­r­i­al and myself. How to bring myself to a piece and allow myself and the piece to both speak and exist together.

Q:What was the most impor­tant thing you learned dur­ing your stud­ies at Juilliard?
A: Ease of work.

Q: Talk a lit­tle bit about your first rehearsal for Streetcar. What was the expe­ri­ence like for you?
A: My first rehearsal was crazy. I want­ed just blend in and not be noticed beyond any oth­er indi­vid­ual present, how­ev­er it was birth­day – and they knew – and when the cake was brought out with lit can­dles after our 2 hour press event I stood out. It took us 5 hours from my first call to even open our scripts, and around the table were faces that I felt I had know for years. Celebrities. An alto­geth­er whirl­wind was my first rehearsal.

Q: What is your favorite TAP memory?
A: My favorite TAP mem­o­ry would have to be watch­ing the camp final show. Every year there is mea­sur­able growth in every stu­dent of every dis­ci­pline. It’s like watch­ing magic.

Q: How does work­ing on Broadway dif­fer from work­ing elsewhere?
A: You can work any­where – the dif­fer­ence with Broadway is every­one from this indus­try sees Broadway shows. There’s noth­ing like doing a Broadway show to remind you how con­nect­ed you are to the indus­try of the­atre, film, and television.

Q: How do you like liv­ing and work­ing in New York City?
A: New York is cold. It cer­tain­ly isn’t any­thing like home. I do love the work here though. I’ve always believed that if you want to do some­thing with your life and you want to do it some­where – go there.

Q: If you could play one role that you haven’t already, who would it be?
A: Easy. James Baldwin.

Q: Who is your favorite char­ac­ter that you have played and why?
A: My favorite role that I’ve ever played hands down was King Henry V. Shakespeare will do noth­ing but make you bet­ter. Shakespeare is only good when you are hon­est, pure, unguard­ed. It takes a lot of work; years and years, to be able to com­mand his text, but worth every second.
‑Aaron Clifton Moten-