A biography for Michael Ardenhasn’t been written yet.
“I want to create an environment that actors can be really free in.”
“I had taken a directing class in high school. Looking back on it now, I think it was all heading that way.”
“At its core, 'Spring Awakening' is about the perils of miscommunication and what happens when people are denied a voice.”
“The love I have for my husband is intertwined with his, and we are two individuals looking in the same direction - as opposed to staring in each other's eyes all the time.”
“I think all my favorite directors have acted. They understand how an actor thinks.”
“We don't ever realize how precious life is while we're living it.”
“I would love to create a piece of theater that is devised by a company of actors and creators that I'd put together, and I'd love for it to be nonverbal so it's something that someone with any communication ability can enjoy.”
“I was lucky enough to make my Broadway debut in 'Big River.'”
“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.”
“If you've never heard a piece of Mozart, then Mozart could sound scary or confusing, so it's all about learning.”
“Magic in plays and musicals, I think, is more often created because of the work of an incredible company rather than a single component.”
“Kelli O'Hara is incredible.”
“It's my goal to help actors achieve their best work, and I think I speak the same language as actors, so I understand how they do it, and I just love being able to create the playground in which they build their beautiful sandcastle.”
“I really enjoy 'The Beauty Is' from 'Light in the Piazza.'”
“You can't ever go back; life is incredibly short and fragile.”
“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.”
“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.”
“We learn the most from listening, and I don't just mean with our ears.”
“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 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.”