Michael Arden '01

He was active in the Pickwick Players, Midland Community Theatre's youth performing company, and starred in several community productions. Michael began his Trinity School career in 5th grade, where he excelled both academically and in the performing arts. As a student, he participated in Choir, MOAS, Student Council, Coffee House, and starred in several annual school musical productions. A Presidential Scholar in the arts, he received a scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy as a theatre student, where he graduated in 2001. He was accepted on a full scholarship to the Juilliard School, where he was in the Drama Division's Group 34. He left Juilliard in 2003 to join the Broadway revival company of the musical Big River. Arden is a Tony-nominated director for his revivals of Spring Awakening and Once on This Island. He won the Ovation and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical for Spring Awakening. Once on This Island recently received the Tony Award for Best Revival and is currently playing at Circle in the Square. He has directed the Los Angeles premier of The Pride by Alexi Kaye Campbell, My Fair Lady at the Bay Street Theater, and has won an NAACP Award for his production of Merrily We Roll Along at the Wallis Annenberg, where he served as Artist in Residence. He most recently directed Annie at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This year he will be at the helm of a new production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol starring Tony winner Jefferson Mays at the Geffen Theater. As an actor, Michael has appeared on Broadway in The Times They Are A-Changin’ and Big River as well as in numerous films and television shows, most notably Anger Management, Bride Wars, and Source Code. He also created the role of Quasimodo for the American Premier of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He has toured and sung with Barbra Streisand and starred in Trevor Nunn’s production of Aspects of Love in London. Michael has a servant’s heart and has performed for several fundraisers for the Midland Area Aids Support and benefit concerts for World Aids Day, Covenant House, Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids and the St. Vincent’s School in Haiti. He directed Deaf West Theatre's acclaimed Broadway revival of Spring Awakening. The production featured a cast made up of both deaf and hearing actors, performed simultaneously in American Sign Language and English. Michael and his husband, Andy Mientus, reside in upstate New York.