Michael Arden

Growing up as a gay boy in West Texas, I definitely felt like a bit of an outcast sometimes - that there was a world that I would never be a part of.

If you've never heard a piece of Mozart, then Mozart could sound scary or confusing, so it's all about learning.

When you step off a plane into a place like Haiti, you're just surrounded by overwhelming stimulus: the people selling you things, asking you to engage.

I had a sort of rocky upbringing, and I think the theater was a safe place for me.

I found that the same things I loved about performing were the things I liked about directing and creating a piece - striking a chord that was in tune with the world and was reflecting back what I saw, just from a different angle.

I had taken a directing class in high school. Looking back on it now, I think it was all heading that way.

My dream would be to have 50 people in a show with each person from a different country.

I've played gay, and I've played straight... I'm proud to be a gay man myself, and I'm thrilled to get the opportunity to play a variety of different gay men.

The most exciting thing I've seen is directors not only being open to actors coming in the room with different abilities but actively looking at ways that the story can be enlarged with disabled actors.

So many gay men are mothers to so many young people, me included. I've had gay men who were more mother to me than my own mother ever was.

I think Rafael Nadal is pretty spectacular. I have a feeling he might be part animal.

I refuse to go onstage without looking into the eyes and touching everyone I'm working with... we're all in it together, and everyone's an equal part when we're onstage.