Arden grew up in rural Pennsylvania and has been teaching at high schools and universities since 1994. She is also the co-founder and Associate Artistic Director of MACH 33: The Festival of New Science-Driven Plays at Caltech and an Instructor in Theater at the New York Film Academy-LA. Arden received her PhD in Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University, and she loves introducing students to theater and helping them come alive as artists.

Recent directing credits include Chicago by Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb; Pride and Prejudice by Kate Hamill; Carrie by Dean Pitchford, Michael Gore, and Lawrence Cohen; The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 by John Bishop; Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare; Radium Girls by D. W. Gregory; Big Fish by Andrew Lippa and John August; Peter and the Starcatcher by Rick Elice, Trifles by Susan Glaspell, The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard, Antigone X by Paula Cizmar, Almost, Maine by John Cariani, Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace, and Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht. When she’s not teaching or making theater, Arden loves hiking, camping, and, most of all, spending time with her sons.