Michael Arden

She had me when she was 16 years old and had struggled with drug abuse and alcohol when I was a kid.

And so once I found this place...

It was where I was.

If I wasn't in school, I was at the theater.

Even if I didn't have to be.

I'd hang out in the lobby.

I'd work on the lights.

I'd spend a lot of time in the lighting booth and up in the grid.

And so it's interesting that that's now become part of my life.

Or I would work in the costume shop.

Or I was in the play.

Or I would stage manager.

Anything I could do to be there.

And I think partially because I loved it and partially because it felt like...

a home.

It felt like a safer place for me.

Probably in retrospect, it was like a place I knew I would be taken care of.

And I was like the first one there and the last one to leave all the time.

And I did so many shows there.

And that really, I think, solidified both my love of the theater, my interest in the craft, and in a way, like my discipline for it, because I had incredible mentors and teachers there.