Ethan Slater

“I start with a pretty yoga-based warm-up. I do jumping jacks and burpees, and I do a lot of dynamic stretching.”

“I'd like to think I'm optimistic and imaginative.”

“I was a wrestler in high school, and that was a pretty big part of my life.”

“We're all sort of aware what 'SpongeBob the Musical' could be in the hands of the wrong people.”

“SpongeBob's voice is really pingy and forward and nasally. The problem is, if you live in the extreme of that for more than 10 minutes, it can be a little grating, and it can be hard on your voice. Also, it gets in the way of the acting to be forcing your voice into this place.”

“Tom Kenny is awesome.”

“To be honest, it was a little bit of a surprise to me that my Broadway debut was a musical.”

“When the show starts, I am in my SpongeBob stance, and I walk like SpongeBob, and the first step that I take, I am SpongeBob.”

“I think I'm a little less naive than SpongeBob can sometimes seem to be.”

“In my senior year of high school, I was doing a dance with a bunch of friends for the talent show, and my pants split entirely in half. It was incredible.”

“In the room, when I'm playing SpongeBob, I'm optimistic and I'm happy, and I smile in the face of those who are upset in order to make them happier. You know, there's this overwhelming optimism. And I've been lucky enough to have that become a part of my life. I like to think that it's influenced me.”

“Wrestling is a small, intimate sport.”

“The more you see somebody else's version of something, the harder it is to make it your own.”

“There's a social element of me that's pretty reserved. High school was when I was starting to come out of my shell because of the theater community.”

“Making my Broadway debut was, in and of itself, just a dream come true. I've wanted to be on Broadway forever.”

“I feel like I've been able to grow personally because of playing SpongeBob.”

“The magnitude of being able to make my Broadway debut as SpongeBob in 'SpongeBob SquarePants' really only started to hit me when we took it out of town.”

“Playing SpongeBob is freeing. There is something intrinsically about him that people identify with no matter their age.”

“Yellow's never been a good color for me, but it's actually grown on me. I like it more than I used to!”

“When I'm in the audience of Broadway shows, I feel like I'm in the presence of something really special with artists working at the height of their craft and doing the best work that they possibly can.”