Michael Arden

I was doing Hunchback.

So I was starting to think from a different perspective about what's happening on stage and where do I fit in in it as opposed to just having on my blinders and thinking about the perspective of the character.

Which I don't think is actually a great idea for an actor to do.

I actually like – I think it's important to be able to turn off the outside eye as an actor.

And so that was an interesting time of struggle for me of like wanting to think about the whole.

But when you're on stage, you can only just be and do the actions of the character.

But there was a shift during that time in terms of how I thought about –

acting and theater and my place in it certainly

You chose to play Quasimodo as a deaf person, as he was originally written.

What did that entail in comparison to a role playing him as a hearing person, as he'd been primarily played?

Yeah.

I mean, as I was reading the novel, it was clear that he was deafened by the bells and that he would have invented language with Frollo.

And yet he did have to sing and speak in soliloquy to his gargoyle friends.

And so it was a really interesting opportunity to play kind of the version of Quasimodo that people could see and the version of Quasimodo that existed in his own mind.

Yeah, it just drew upon so many things, and it was such a gift.

I mean, what a score.

What a character.

What a story.

What a story.

I mean, Victor Hugo, man.