Michael Arden Quotes

I learned mime back when I was in college, at Ball State University, Indiana. That woke up my body from the neck down and made me realize that acting and communication - portraying a story, event, or emotion - is a full-body experience.

Everybody uses mime and gesture in real life, though we don't realize it. It's very useful as a performance technique, though it can be boring to watch on its own.

I'm interested in putting something on stage that will have a very wide appeal without being condescending; that will reach an audience and make it part of the dance; that will get everybody in the theater.

Realizing that my surroundings were going to be built around me, the way that I performed, we helped the directors through the performance, to create the world that we were going to be seen in. I was very fascinated with that.

It's highly collaborative, musical theater, so everybody has got to somehow get along.

I think making a documentary gets you out and about more, with people. With stand-up, you're talking at people. With documentaries you're talking with people, and you're listening a lot more.

Storytelling is really at the root of everything that I do.

My brain can form thoughts that come out through my mouth. The problem is sometimes I stumble the words because I speak five different languages - we know all that - so the thing is, I like to speak the language that everybody speaks all around the world, that the WWE Universe loves... that's the language of wrestling that I do in the ring.

Just like music, I consider wrestling to be an art form, and I have a vision of what that art should look like.

While the concert is instant communication with the audience, composing is a creative process where a song comes up out of nowhere and then transmits happiness to many, translates into money, fame, or whatever.

Reading aloud to other people is wonderful - if you have people who will suffer it.

I always think the audience should be part of the show.

Play is a medium of word and film is a medium of picture.

The skill set of pastor and comedian are incredibly similar. You want to affect people. You're good at reading rooms. You're persuasive, and you're likable.

I need an audience to look at what I've done so I can understand it, so I can step back and watch them respond and figure out what they're understanding about what I'm trying to do and what they're confused about.

Wrestling really is kind of the highest form of theater.

I have always had open conversations with Shahid. He would discuss what he felt as a performer, and I would talk to him about his performances.

Acting is all about creative ideas and sharing, so the more places those ideas come from, the better.

When I directed the 'Ring' cycle at the Metropolitan Opera in New York recently, there were people texting all through the show. But theatre isn't a communication device: it's a communion.

I am very straightforward. If I have something to communicate about dance steps, I just go up to the actor and tell them my thoughts. Language is never a problem.

I'm interested in making art that is available to everybody.

WWE is like showbiz boot camp.

I don't think there's been many chances for people to see a black, gay, pop experience and that's what I want to have with my shows moving forward.

I'm an artist, a performer... There's an art to what we do to the wrestling... I don't want to really fight anybody.

When I am on the opera stage, I am playing someone else. In recitals, I even have the chance to talk to the audience, which is something you don't get to do in opera.