Interview: Belén Moyano of HADESTOWN at Ottawa's National Arts Centre

I was lucky to have the opportunity to chat with Belén Moyano, who is playing one of the Fates in Broadway Across Canada’s presentation of Hadestown in Ottawa next week. Belén shared her insight into the show, including its reflection of our society. Keep Belén on your radar, as she will be someone to watch out for on Broadway in the coming months!

[For anyone who doesn’t know the story behind Hadestown and wants to keep it a surprise, please be aware that there are spoilers included in the interview below. To avoid spoilers, do not read the rest of a paragraph after a "SPOILER ALERT" indication.]

How is the tour going so far?

It’s been great; at seven weeks, Toronto has been our longest stay in one place so far, so it has been nice to have some days off. I went to Algonquin Park for a weekend, which was so lovely. I’m a runner and I’m training for the New York City Marathon, so I’ve been running all around the lake and it has been wonderful.

How long have you been on this tour?

Next week is my two-year anniversary, so it’s been a long time! I’ve been playing a Fate for two years but then, six months ago, I became a Euridice understudy so that gave me a chance to do something a little different.

But you must enjoy it, otherwise you would get fed up of doing the same thing.

Yes, I feel very fortunate. Our company is amazing, and our management is wonderful, so I go to work, and I genuinely like being there with my coworkers. And my husband travels with me, so that has also been a blessing. And sometimes he plays rehearsal piano for Hadestown, so it all works out!

Can you tell me a little bit about Hadestown and your role as a Fate?

Hadestown is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Euridice, as well as Hades and Persephone; their stories intertwine with their Fates. We are a trio of Fates. In mythology, the Fates decide the destiny of mankind. In our production, I’ve always seen us as invisible women who are moving the pieces without anyone knowing. At the beginning of the story, we tell you that it’s a tragedy. As a Fate, I know the beginning from the end, and I am just there to make sure we get to the end – and [SPOILER ALERT] the end must be a tragedy.

Sometimes the Fates are seen as villains, but I had this cool realization about a year ago (it also helped when I started playing the role of Euridice). I was on stage one day, and I realized that the Fates are like the voices inside your head constantly asking you questions. The questions are not new to any of the characters they are speaking to. They are things the characters already know, but are wrestling with. For example, in all of Act I, the Fates follow Euridice who believes that the world is a horrible place, that people will leave you, and no one will take care of you. And the Fates back up those beliefs. We say, “Yeah, the world IS a horrible place and no one’s going to take care of you, so how are you going to take care of yourself?” That is the challenge that we give to Euridice.

In Act II, the Fates do kind of the same thing, but to Hades. With Hades, it’s more like, “You’re going to be seen as a failure; you’re not going to be seen as the king. Do you want to lose power?” And we represent the inner psyche of this god, with his stress that his wife will not come back to him. He has so much anxiety surrounding that, and all this doubt plays into his story arc.

Eventually, we latch on to Orpheus and we play on his weaknesses [SPOILER ALERT] and he decides to believe the voices inside his head, which is how the story ends.

I also play the violin in the show. One of my sister Fates plays the accordion, and the other one plays percussion, so we also get to jam out with the band which is great.

Did you play the violin before this role?

Yeah, I’ve been playing since I was eleven; it’s pretty easy for me, though – it’s an easy track. But all my understudies have not had any formal training and they have all had to learn the track for this role and I’m amazed because that’s a lot of work!

Do you have a favourite song from Hadestown?

It changes, but my favourite currently is “If It’s True”. It’s the moment where [SPOILER ALERT] Orpheus discovers Euridice’s betrayal – that she has chosen to go to Hell and give away her life. Orpheus has made all of this effort to find her and to be with her, only to find out that nothing changes. And so, it’s his way of grappling with the world.

“If it's true what they say;
If there's nothing to be done;
If it's true that it's too late;
And the girl I love is gone.”

These are such powerful lyrics. Our current Orpheus, Antonio [J. Antonio Rodriguez], is incredible. The Fates are not in the number, but when I get to play Euridice, I get to be in it, which is such a gift. I always leave so immensely moved, because it’s a piece that asks whether we choose to believe that the voice of a few is the voice of many. Do we choose to believe that there is nothing we can do in this moment of great injustice? And I feel like that plays into the world at large, with respect to politics and other things like that. Sometimes we lose sight of how powerful our voices truly are. Watching Antonio do this number and knowing his history as an immigrant and a person of colour, for me – also as an immigrant and a person of colour – is very, very powerful.

Thank you for sharing that.

The original story of Orpheus and Euridice has been altered so that now, as you said, Euridice willingly goes to Hadestown. Hades is portrayed in the musical as the leader of a capitalist society. Can you elaborate on the anti-capitalist message within the story?

As I have read interviews and watched videos of Anaïs Mitchell and her process in writing this musical, the very first song that she ever wrote was “Why We Build the Wall” towards the end of Act I. And this song was written prior to everything that happened in the U.S., so she had this incredible foresight.

Hades can be any tyrannical leader in history; someone who utilizes the bodies of others to create wealth for themselves without any consideration the needs of these individuals or the communities they reside in. The two Hades that I have seen play the role, Kevyn Morrow – our first Hades – and Matthew Patrick Quinn, our current Hades, have each portrayed him a little differently, but with the same energy. There is a point where the audience becomes part of this community and call out, “my children, my children” – that is how they relate to them. And that is what dictators in the past have done; they have called their followers their “children”. It becomes more than just politics; it becomes personal. There is this whole underlying tone of capitalism and there are so many individual moments that reflect that, but when audiences come to the show, the second we start singing, “Why We Build the Wall”, it becomes very clear!

The imagery is so specific that you can’t help but make the connection.

And the song itself is so powerful because there is a line that says, “what do we have that they don’t?” and this idea that poverty is our enemy, and we can’t let them in, and that’s the reason we are protecting ourselves.

This discussion flows into my next question. I understand that you are an advocate for immigrants and anti-racism efforts. With that in mind, how does Hadestown reflect what you see in the world today?

It’s interesting how history repeats itself and we’ve seen that over and over again, and I think that’s the reason the show continues to be relevant. In various communities that we’ve been in during my two-year tenure with the show, the song has been received differently. It’s always very telling… with the first show that we do in any city, the audience’s reaction is enough for me to understand that this community is going through these things, or that this community is trying to avoid these things... it has been fascinating.

As an immigrant and a person who grew up in a country that wasn’t my own, I faced racism and prejudice in ways that other people might not have experienced. As a performer, I have to separate myself from the source material because of that. If I’m the person screaming, “we build this wall”, I need that degree of separation for myself because it’s not necessarily what I believe, or how I would choose to move around in the world. It’s been intriguing for me on an empathetic level to explore that. It’s also been very important to figure out how to put on a character that is completely different from me, but to also make sure that the second I take the costume off, she’s gone.

When you gauge the audience reaction, does it ever surprise you or is it in line with whatever you are expecting from any given location?

Oh no, I’m definitely surprised! Sometimes I think I need to do some more research when we go places. We get to a point on tour where it just becomes one city after another, and you have a hard time keeping up. But it then becomes an activity for me to engage in the community in some way, or go to museums, or try to figure out the history of the place. I’ve also had the strange blessing, I guess you could say, of having the job of painting the wall tags on tour. Some theatres have this tradition where every show that comes through gets to paint a little section of their wall with whatever they want. When I’m in charge of doing them, I’ve always made it a point to make them reflective of the place and time that we’re in. So if something is happening politically that we want to make a statement on, it goes on the wall somehow. Or if the town is known for some monument or amazing feat, I will do the research and put it on the wall to reflect where we’ve been. So that has been my way of getting to know these places a bit more.

What lessons do you think we can learn from Hadestown?

[SPOLIER ALERT] The one that I always keep coming back to is hope. I think that’s the reason we tell this story repeatedly. And we’ve heard the audiences’ reaction when Orpheus turns around and Euridice goes back to Hell. We hear “Nooo!” or gasps from the audience, and we get the occasional boo. We have to stay in that moment for a second and then Hermes, our narrator, gets to have this moment with the audience and reminds them that it’s a tragedy. But the reason I think we keep sharing this story is because we keep hoping that it will change. In our own lives every day, even when things aren’t perfect, we strive to make the best out of our circumstances. I think that’s what makes the show so powerful.

Thank you so much for sharing that. What is your personal favourite moment of the show? Sometimes performers have a moment that really captures them, whether it’s a moment of their own or a turning point within the show.

My favourite moment is at the very end of the show. I made it a ritual where I look at every single person on the stage – including the band – and I name them by name. That’s the moment for me where we are no longer our characters but just the players in our roles. That’s my favourite moment; getting to the end of the show and turning to look at every single person and say, “KC, Cecilia, Antonio, Matthew…” and, literally, I’m turning this way and that way to capture everybody in this moment. Again, I think it’s an opportunity for me to take off that mask and be able to say, “wow, we did this together and we gave this experience to the audience this evening”.

I’ll try to be on the lookout for that special moment! What’s next for you after this tour?

My contract ends October 2nd and I do have something booked after that starting a week later, but I’m not allowed to say what it is yet. But I’m going back to New York to make my Broadway debut and I’m very excited! We left New York during the pandemic, and we’ve been living with family ever since. My husband just went to New York to sign a lease, so we’re coming back after being away for so long!

That’s amazing – I’m excited for you! Is there anything else you would like to add for our readers?

While we were on the road, I produced a podcast musical called McCobb Mortality Services. It’s a six-episode series available across all streaming platforms. It’s a project that I hold near and dear to my heart, with incredible artists and lots of New York/Broadway talent. It’s been three years in the making and we released it at the beginning of this year. I’m proud to be one of the producers and I’d love for people to listen to it.

That sounds great! Is there a web site people can go to for more information?

Yes, you can also find it at mccobbmusical.com.

Belén Moyano will be one of the three Fates (and the understudy for Euridice) in Hadestown on tour in Ottawa from August 22nd through 27th at the National Arts Centre. Click here for more information or to buy tickets.