Artist of the Month > 2021 Artists
ARTIST PROFILE
NAME: Aaron Leventman
LOCATION: Santa Fe, NM
ORIGIN: Newton, MA
ART: Playwriting, Acting, Curating, Producing
MAIN GENRE: Comedy, Drama, Memoir
TRAINING: BA in Theatre Arts from UCSC, MFA from Columbia University
ARTS AFFILIATIONS: Dramatists Guild
BIO: Aaron Leventman has performed with most of the local theatre companies in Santa Fe. has also appeared in industrials, commercials, short films, and features, and is currently represented by South West Artist Group. He has enjoyed over 30 productions of his plays all over the country, many of which are published. Aaron is currently the producer of the online LGBTQ+ short play reading series through his company Almost Adults Productions which has received tremendous acclaim and has been bringing together talent and audiences from all over the world. Aaron is also a playwriting, screenwriting, acting, and film appreciation instructor.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Fan Guest Host on Turner Classic Movies in September 2020; Finalist for Best Play at the Samuel French OOB One-Act Play Festival in August of 2019; A program of my short plays was supported by Mayor Javier Gonzales of Santa Fe, NM, who declared our opening night as “LGBTQ+ Theatre Day” for the first time in the city’s history (September 2015).
LATEST WORKS: Plays in development and production: “The Boy” deals with a gay male couple who must face important medical and commitment decisions during the height of the AIDS crisis; “Blanche in a Wheelchair” is a humorous take on issues pertinent to the LGBTQ+ community such as aging, marriage, and disability; “The Remediator” focuses on issues relevant during the time of COVID such as illness, humanitarianism, and how unlikely alliances we can form with perfect strangers can be the most significant relationships in our lives.
WORK SAMPLES: Curation, Hosting, and Acting Reel
INTERVIEW
Please describe your artistic themes
I’m interested in representing characters not frequently shown in most narratives dramatizing the lives of those often marginalized from those with physical challenges and others not defined by social norms in terms of gender identity and sexual orientation. I sometimes rely on autobiographical elements to tell these stories of those close to my life.
Please describe your creative process
I wait for a story to come to me which forms a creative idea that if it inspires me I let it mull over my thoughts for quit some time before I figure out how to develop it into a creative work. If the idea stays with me for a significant amount of time then I know that it’s a story that wants to be told by my unique point of view.
What are your artistic goals? What do you need to achieve them?
I would like to continue my work of supporting performing artists and writers whose works are meaningful to my values and aesthetic through my theatre company. I would also like to continue curating for other festivals and programs while creating new works of my own.
What are your views on the industry?
We are going through a huge cultural shift in the time of COVID where the ability to produce live events has been greatly impacted by the pandemic. As a result of these changes, creative minds have had to think outside of the box to continue their work which has resulted in some remarkable results. I think moving forward this will result in a hybrid of seeing the benefits of virtual living with the ability to connect to those outside of our local communities with the careful process of returning to live events as we once knew them.
What advice would you give to emerging artists?
Don’t compromise your vision to appeal to the masses. What will be interesting to audiences is your unique story, vision, and point of view. Find ways to make your projects work by listing the support of link-minded artists in your life.
WEBSITE: aaronleventman.com
FACEBOOK: aaron.leventman
FACEBOOK: almostadultstheatre
LINKEDIN: aaron-leventman
IMDB: Aaron Leventman
