Michael Arden

I think that's like a divining rod in some way.

And, you know, I just I wanted to be in New York City.

And I was excited to study drama as opposed to musical theater because I felt like it would be a more kind of specific type of education and just being in New York.

So I got to move to New York and my second day of school was September 11th.

Can you believe that?

Yes.

How did you manage through that?

I mean, I think we all just did it together.

It was just a group of kids in a white room on that Lincoln Center asking that question.

What are we doing here?

Why are we studying the winter's tale when the city is literally on fire downtown?

And some people decided that they didn't want to.

It's not worth it.

I need to rethink my life here.

But in my mind, it sort of solidified my calling and my desire to make art and to be an artist and that that is what I had to offer the world.

That that actually might not seem like an antidote to what was happening at the time, but like,

Could be a healing force and has been and was after the fact.

So it was a really interesting time in which like we were asking ourselves really big questions for young minds.

You said you randomly went to an audition for the Broadway revival of Big River.

How does one randomly go to an audition?