Michael discovered his self-confidence and the theater all at the same time. His best friend and roommate in college was trying out for a rock musical based on Lysistrata. The year was 1970; and rock musicals were all the rage, although Michael had never seen one, or any musical for that matter. While the roommate’s motive for auditioning involved a girl he was interested in, Michael’s says his was mostly curiosity. But he got a part in the play, and when the finale came and the cast, in the manner of rock musicals in those days, flung off their clothes to express liberation, Michael gleefully joined in. Overnight, everything changed. As his mother said when she came to see the production, “And to think you were too shy to become an altar boy.”

But Michael’s gift for directing didn’t become apparent until he was out of college and teaching high school. As part of his duties he was assigned to direct a production of Jesus Christ Superstar, with a cast of 80.

“It was a sensation,” he recalls. “It changed my life.” He got a grant to study in England, and ever since he has been busy working on one show or another. There was a stint in Los Angeles, another in New York, directing for the Metropolitan Opera; and he was associate artistic director at Syracuse Stage just before he came to Sarasota. But he was also at a point in his life where the constant traveling and guest directing weren’t as satisfying as they had been. He found himself not looking so much for a job as for an artistic home

Yesterday Michael had his last regular appointment before rehearsals begin. It was with Amy Schecter, a New York casting director, and it mostly concerned Asolo business. Juggling his commitment to the Asolo and his responsibility to A Tale of Two Cities is now the major factor in his life.

Back in 2005 Michael was offered the Asolo job and directing A Tale of Two Cities, both at the same time. He knew that whichever one he chose would determine the next phase of his life. It never occurred to him to do both. That was the Asolo board’s idea. It was their canny plan to not so much do both as combine the two, to the Asolo’s benefit. A Tale of Two Cities would open at the Asolo, in a sort of hybrid arrangement with the New York producers. The Asolo run would function as an out-of-town tryout. It was an arrangement the Asolo had flirted with back in the days of former artistic director Meg Booker, with disastrous results. Would it work this time? It wasn’t just a hit on Broadway that Michael had to pull out of his hat, but a hit for the Asolo, and the two things are by no means the same.

Michael and Amy have known each other a long time and have worked on many shows together. As they discuss possible actors for the upcoming Asolo season, the comments come fast and uncensored.

“He’s a little old for it,” Amy points out of one actor.

“But he’s sexy,” Michael shoots back. “And he can handle the language.”

Another name comes up and once again, the age issue.

“I don’t know how old she is,” Amy says. “I just know how old she looks.”

Sometimes the problem isn’t age.

“I don’t love him. He’s tiny. He’s a mosquito.”

But for every criticism there seems to be a compliment, and both are clearly in awe of a good actor and what he or she can bring to the success of a production. They bemoan their loss of four people to job offers from other Broadway shows. “They’re pinching our cast,” Michael moans. It’s a real problem. “There is only a finite number of amazing voices,” he points out. “And we need amazing voices.”

And then they gossip a little. Amy fills him in on “the Joan Rivers project.”

“It’s being written just for her and it’s about the red carpet experience,” Amy says. “I hear it’s going over sensationally in San Francisco.”

“But then,” Michael points out, “how could it not?”

The meeting concludes. Amy wants to get an early start for her birthday weekend in Provincetown. In fact, she’s already dressed for the beach, in shorts and a T-shirt. “You have to go walking at night and take in the O’Neill vibe,” Michael advises her. Provincetown, Mass., was long the home of Eugene O’Neill, who wrote, among other things, Long Day’s Journey into Night.