Michael Arden

Isn't that funny?

How did you get to Interlochen?

How did your grandparents even know about a school like that?

I had a choir teacher at my school in Midland, Texas named Diane Wisnand.

And she put a poster up on the choir room wall about Interlochen Arts Camp.

Interlochen is both a boarding school and a summer camp.

And she said, this is a really cool place.

I mean, I thought, oh, my God, they do musicals there in the summer.

You could audition for it and be around artists all summer.

I mean, it was like utopia going there.

I made friends I still keep in touch with every day.

My chief collaborator and creative partner was my –

One of my friends from Interlochen and I still speak to him every day and we produce together and, you know, we're always returning to ideas and dreams and questions that we had when we were there at school.

That's Dane Laffrey?

That's Dane Laffrey, yeah.

These things that we think about and are chasing and become interested in as young artists, I think, like, carry with us.

Very early on, theater wasn't only performance for you.

You mentioned just hanging around and wanting to be near the theater.

You also helped build sets.

You were designing the lighting for your high school production of Jesus Christ Superstar.