Michael Arden
Design Matters with Debbie Millman
Design Matters Media
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2026
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Michael Arden is a Tony Award–winning director and actor whose productions, including Parade, Maybe Happy Ending, and Spring Awakening, blend intimacy, spectacle, and extraordinary humanity. Across film, television, and theater, his work returns again and again to questions of belonging, connection, and what becomes possible when people truly feel seen. He joins to discuss the childhood experiences that shaped him, his journey from actor to acclaimed director, and the enduring power of live theater to change lives.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | everyone who worked on that show believed 100% that if we could just get people to see it, |
| 0:09.1 | that it would melt any heart that came through the door. |
| 0:15.4 | From the TED Audio Collective, this is Design Matters with Debbie Millman. |
| 0:22.8 | On Design Matters, Debbie talks with some of the most creative people in the world about |
| 0:26.7 | what they do, how they got to be who they are, and what they're thinking about and working on. |
| 0:31.8 | On this episode, a conversation with Michael Arden about his career in the theater and about |
| 0:37.1 | some advice he once received. |
| 0:39.0 | He said, any decision you make you should be afraid of. |
| 0:44.8 | Michael Arden builds theater that asks us to listen differently, see differently, and pay |
| 0:51.3 | closer attention to one another. Over the last two decades, he has moved through |
| 0:56.0 | film, television, and theater, first as an actor, and now as one of the most celebrated directors |
| 1:01.6 | working in theater today. He has created productions that hold intimacy alongside spectacle, |
| 1:08.6 | and humanity alongside extraordinary craft. |
| 1:12.1 | From Spring Awakening to Parade, from maybe happy ending to bringing the Lost Boys to the stage, |
| 1:18.5 | his productions return again and again to questions of belonging, connection, |
| 1:24.1 | and what becomes possible when people truly feel seen. |
| 1:28.3 | Michael Arden, welcome to Design Matters. |
| 1:30.3 | So happy to be here with you. |
| 1:31.9 | Michael, is it true that one of your earliest adult performances was starring in a dominoous pizza commercial? |
| 1:38.7 | This is true. |
| 1:40.1 | Yeah, it was one of my first jobs out of after I left school living in New York, very broke actor at the time. So I was very happy to get that job. |
| 1:51.0 | And were you a Domino's pizza fan? Or are you still one now? I was not. I mean, I do partake. My husband is a huge Domino's fan. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 24 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Design Matters Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Design Matters Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.