SDCF One on One Conversation with Michael Arden - Podcast Replay

SDCF Podcast Series

Check out this podcast replay of our one on one conversation with 2023 Tony Award Winner Michael Arden hosted by SDCF and the Museum of Broadway. Interviewed by SDC Executive Director Laura Penn, this conversation focuses on Michael's expansive career to date including a deeper dive into his work as an artist and practice as a director. We held this conversation in March 2024.

The video and audio was recorded by Michael Weir supported by the Maria Torres Emerging Artists Foundation. Transcript available upon request.

Michael Arden (Director) was awarded the 2023 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for his production of Parade starring Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond, which will have a national tour beginning early 2024. Michael was also Tony nominated for his revivals of Once On This Island and Spring Awakening. Michael wrote and directed Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol which played the Nederlander Theatre last Holiday season and starred Jefferson Mays. Michael will helm the new Stephen Schwartz and Lindsey Ferrentino musical The Queen of Versailles starring Kristin Chenowith and a new musical adaptation of the cult film The Lost Boys. Other directing credits include: Maybe Happy Ending at the Atlanta Alliance, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, and site specific works: American Dream Study and ALIEN/NATION with his company The Forest of Arden.

Arden has been named on Variety’s Impact List and is the winner of an NAACP Award for best direction of his revival of Merrily We Roll Along at the Wallis Annenberg in Los Angeles. In addition to directing theater in America and around the globe, he regularly directs “The Connors” on ABC, and has appeared in numerous features and TV shows, most notably: Grey’s Anatomy, Bride Wars, Anger Management, Source Code, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. On stage, Arden has appeared on Broadway in Big River; The Times, They Are A-Changin’, and King Lear. Arden is a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and alumni of the Interlochen Arts Academy and The Juilliard School. Michael and longtime creative and design partner Dane Laffrey founded AT RISE CREATIVE, a production company that strives to create groundbreaking live experiences with an emphasis on design and innovating technologies. Photo credit:

Laura Penn has been Executive Director of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) since 2008. This year, she was appointed by President Biden to serve as a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Most recently, she was elected to the Board of the Entertainment Community Fund.

Under her leadership, SDC’s Membership has grown more than 100%, a result of her work expanding jurisdictions; leading bold and successful negotiations; and furthering the Union’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) initiatives and political engagement. She serves on the General Board of the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) and is an active member of DPE’s Arts, Entertainment, and Media Industry Coordinating Committee (AEMI). She is co-Chair of the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds, the first woman to hold a leadership position with this coalition of 18 influential unions representing workers on Broadway.

Laura serves on the Tony Awards Administration Committee and is a Tony Voter. She served as a panelist for the New York State Council for the Arts, for more than a decade was a site evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts, was Vice President of the League of Resident Theatres, and was two-term Chair of the Seattle Arts Commission. Recognized with Seattle’s Distinguished Citizen Medal, she is an advocate for civic dialogue and public participation and has been dedicated throughout her career to the idea that artistic excellence and community engagement are intrinsically connected. Laura previously served as an arts executive for Intiman Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre and began her career at D.C.’s Arena Stage, Living Stage Theatre Company. She currently teaches Labor Relations in the graduate program at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.