Dan Amboyer

When you're coming up in the business, there are so many people giving you advice and people prepping you for interviews: what to say, what not to say. When you don't know the business, you kind of take all that on and say, 'This is what I need to do, and I need to do what people tell me to do.'

I put it forth as a challenge to the industry to continue thinking of actors, regardless of sexuality, with open eyes and open hearts that they can play any role.

Theatre is all about the process and the sense of community that is created. You have weeks of rehearsal, time to explore your character and get to know the other actors. There is opportunity to try off-the-wall ideas, to find layers and nuance over weeks. You become like a second family with your cast.

I grew up in Michigan and - where to start? I mean, my dad was a doctor who worked at a jail. He was more like a jail administrator. My mom was a public school teacher. There's no artists in my family whatsoever.

I came out to my family when I was 13. I was a very young kid, a vulnerable kid.

I was extremely shy, but since college, I think I have opened up and gained confidence. I find it much easier to make friends, I let myself go a bit more.

I did 'Christmas Carol' off and on through my teenage years, so I always had that dialect and that sound in my ear, which was so helpful. It became second nature.

When you do a show eight times a week, you are constantly living in the same world for that whole time, but when you have such drastically different characters and circumstances, you have to find a way to take a moment to reconnect.

No amount of gym time will make you feel beautiful if you don't feel it on the inside.

It is exhilarating and dangerous to perform live. You are walking a tight rope in front of hundreds of people: anything could happen on stage, and whatever does, you must find a way to make it work.

I don't really get nervous about the people I'll audition for, especially if it's people I admire and want to work with: it actually makes me more excited.