Michael Arden

So I'm involved.

Right.

Because there's no scenery because that would block the audience behind you, behind you.

So I'm imagining the world behind you.

So you're already like you're in the play as an audience member.

So it does that to the audience member.

And it also puts you in the empathetic place of the character that you were behind.

It involves the audience in a way that I think is like so magical.

I can't wait to get back in that theater.

I love it so, so much.

I mean, if I had to like work in one space for the rest of my life, it would be in the round.

After several nominations in 2023, you won two Tonys for Parade, for Best Direction of a Musical, and for Best Revival of a Musical.

And you've spoken about revival, not as preservation, but reinterpretation.

And when you first encounter material, what tells you where something still has more to reveal?

I start kind of every process when looking at a work and deciding if it's something to embark upon, I think.

What is this actually about?

What is this challenging me to examine?

And sometimes that really relates to the world today and sometimes more closely to the world today than the world in which –

Certainly for Parade, it was.

Yeah.