Aaron Tveit: On Creating Art at Open Jar Studios

THE BROADWAY SHOW with TAMSEN FADAL

Chess star Aaron Tveit is a Tony winner, new husband and father, and if that weren’t enough, he spends his time between scenes reading backstage. Did we mention he’s also gone viral for how good his hair is? Six months into his run at the Imperial Theatre, “The American” and his gorgeous mane sat down with The Broadway Show host Tamsen Fadal at Open Jar Studios to discuss navigating eight-show weeks, fatherhood and the relevancy of Chess.

Don’t try to contact Tveit during a performance of Chess. The show is set in the ‘80s, a time when cell phones were a luxury, not a certainty. Tveit took a page out of the show’s book and picked up, well, a book. “I'm not really on my phone all the time, but because you have five minutes here and five minutes there backstage or in your dressing room, it's very easy to think, ‘Oh, let me open up this and scroll away for no reason,” says Tveit. “I try to make a real concentrated effort, so I read backstage.”

Alternating between reads he describes as “for me” and parenting books—Tveit has a 17-month-old at home—allows him to stay focused and avoid the stimulus of a smartphone. Luckily, his line of work still honors the tradition of silencing cell phones. “Theater is maybe the last place where people really put their phones away. It is one of the last sacred spaces where people turn that thing off,” Tveit points out. When people abide by the rules and turn off their devices, the impact can be immeasurable—especially in a show like Chess.

AARON TVEIT AT OPEN JAR STUDIOS:
Between rehearsals for MOULIN ROUGE! and CHESS, Aaron has created ‘lots of memories in these rooms!’

Aaron Tveit at Open Jar Studios