Joe Mantello

One of the jobs of a director is to ask questions. One of the jobs of the director is to stand in for the audience until they get there.

My first real job as a director was working with Robbie Baitz on his play 'Three Hotels.' It was an incredible collaboration.

In 'The Humans,' there's a gay character, and the fact that she's gay is probably the least interesting thing about her.

For some reason, I was deeply ashamed of the theater early on. I think it had to do with this growing sense I was gay, although I couldn't have put a word to it back then.

I have a responsibility to diversity onstage, but one of the things I've heard about our production of 'Boys' is that it's a bunch of white guys. Well, race is a component of this play. You can't just drop people in willy-nilly and say, 'Well, we're going for diversity.'

I was never in the closet as an actor. It never occurred to me that my sexuality was something to be ashamed of.

I'm able to think more clearly when I don't have clutter and stuff around.

I think good actors - good, collaborative actors who see themselves as leaders in a given production - can and should offer ideas that have nothing to do with wanting to direct themselves.

I was always rather outspoken. I worried about what people thought of me but there really wasn't room for a lot of self-doubt.

I think actors are brave souls that have to use parts of themselves that I'm just not comfortable doing anymore.

I think that from day one, when it became clear that 'Wicked' was going to have a life, that we have set a standard for ourselves that we are never going to shortchange the audience; that every person that we put into that musical is going to be held to the highest standards; and that nobody is going to be coasting.

Jayne Houdyshell and I - when I was 17 years old - did summer stock together at the Timber Lake Playhouse in Mt. Carroll, IL. She was the leading lady of the company, and I was an intern.