Michael Arden

We don't ever realize how precious life is while we're living it.

There is no distinction, no echelon of actors within a company. A company is only as strong as its weakest link.

A lot of times, comedy writers will go for the gay joke, and I've been vocal about saying, 'Go for the smart joke.'

It's exciting to share an art form that I would never have imagined sharing with the deaf community. Doing musicals, it's not like, 'Oh, I'll do a musical with a deaf person.'

My grandparents, Jim and Pat Moore, were an incredible couple. They drove me to the community theater, where I did plays as a kid.

Helping to open up the conversation about inclusion and diversity in casting has been a dream come true.

The deaf community has shaped me as an artist and a person, and I am very grateful that I have been able to share and create so much art with a group of people I would have never imagined sharing and creating with. It's a true testament to the power of theater. There are no walls.

I created my family with the people I met in the theater and escaped in the stories I told and the characters I got a chance to play. It's just always felt like home.

Haiti is a proud nation, rich in heritage and spirituality. How they have been able to not only survive but thrive is a testament to how the Haitian people have come together to rebuild, create new families, and care for one another.

I really enjoy 'The Beauty Is' from 'Light in the Piazza.'

At the end of the day, we need to realize that segregation is not the human condition at its best. Which isn't to say we need to all be the same. It simply means we need to embrace each other's differences to help tell our stories together.

The protest that we go to or the time that we stand up for someone or do the right thing - despite its difficulty... We might not see the return of it, but who knows whose lives we can change by doing those things.