Michael Arden

I was agonizing over it.

And the director of that production, Big River, who I truly credit for my I mean, he gave me my first Broadway role.

And that particular one, Jeff Calhoun, this amazing mentor and subsequent friend of mine, he said, any decision you make, you should be afraid of.

Then it's worth doing.

That combined with I, um...

As I was agonizing about what decision to make, I was flipping through one of my favorite books, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

And I was flipping through, talking to a friend and just sort of thumbing through at the time.

And I said, I wish I could just like open up a page of this book and it would tell me what to do.

And I opened it up and I put my finger there and it said, you have to leave that college.

And the next line was, it's just like Huck and Jim.

And it was the one point in this book where Mark Twain's characters were mentioned and it said the words, you have to leave that college.

And one of the next lines said something to the effect of, the only reason you're staying there is because you're afraid.

I mean, it was like I, when I tell you, I like, you know, you see those cartoons of like one of the nine lives leaving the body of the cat.

It was like that was like three of my nine lives.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's incredible.

And I like shut the book, turned off my lights, and I was like, well, I guess that's my decision.

Yeah.

I mean, you talk about looking for signs.