Al Miller, the Theater Project

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Al Miller is the Artistic Director of the Theatre Project, a non profit community based theater in Brunswick. He also teaches theater workshops in various states as well as Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Thanks for coming in today.

Al Miller:

You're welcome. Thanks for asking me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, we got your name from Dr. Emily Isaacson, who apparently really enjoyed her time with you at the Theater Project in Brunswick. I think it was a little while ago now.

Al Miller:

It was it, yeah, I was.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But apparently you've been doing this work for a little while.

Al Miller:

A long time. A long time.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How did you start doing this?

Al Miller:

I came to Maine from the Middle east and I took part of a year to write the Great American Novel which was awful. And then I needed work and I saw, well actually my then wife saw an advertisement in the paper for a summer director for the Portland Children's Theatre and I'd done some directing with kids in the Middle east so I applied and got the job and we toured a show and I thought this is really fun and that was the beginning. So then I started a children's theater in Brunswick. I had a Volkswagen camping van that we had used in the Middle east that we brought back and this was before the days of seat belts. So I would, when we had did a show I'd cram the actors in there. The actors were junior high and high school kids and we toured at different venues and eventually we got a real van and toured around the state with shows for schools and families and community groups. That's the beginning.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it sounds like things are Actually, even more interesting because you got your bachelor's degree from Williams College and your master's degree from the University of Michigan, and somehow you ended up in Lebanon. Those things don't necessarily follow.

Al Miller:

No, it's a long story. The short version.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Short version, Yes.

Al Miller:

I was at Harvard summer school due to a severe deficiency in freshman physics at Williams College, which took a long time to resolve. And it was the summer of 1958 when there was a civil war in Lebanon. Eisenhower sent in the Marines, there was a coup d' etat in Iraq, and there was a civil war in Jordan, and King Hussein pretty much chased the Palestinians out or some of them. So I got really interested in the Middle east. And I had met a Saudi Arab who became a good friend and was going to Amherst and I was to going Williams. So our friendship continued, and by the end of the summer, I wanted to go to the Middle East. So I asked my friend Saud, how do I get to the Middle East? And he said, teach. I'd never thought of teaching, nor surely had my college professors ever thought of my teachings. So I asked him where. He said, apply to the school where I. I went before I came to Amherst, which was a school, an old Protestant mission school with a mainly Lebanese board of trustees for kids from Lebanon and the Middle east and a few from Europe. So I applied and just kept applying, and I think they hired me so that I'd stop writing them. And that's how I got it. So right after graduating from Williams, I had a job for like two months that summer and then left.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How does one get from physics to teaching to being an artistic director in theater? It sounds like maybe there was another path that you might have been going down.

Al Miller:

A friend. A friend. When I was in school, freshman and sophomore year, you had to take a science. The only science I'd ever liked was biology. And having taken it, I thought, well, I shouldn't take it again. So I asked a friend, actually a friend from the freshman football team, because we had to be there early, and I said, what am I going to do? What will I take? What will I take? He said, oh, take freshman physics. It's nothing. It's a breeze. So I took it and it became sophomore physics and junior physics. And then finally, I think from exhaustion, the physics Prof. Passed me. Let me go.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This sounds like a pattern, the wearing down of people.

Al Miller:

Yeah, well, maybe it is. Yeah, maybe it is. Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So what was your field of study initially?

Al Miller:

English. English. I hesitate because of the word study. As an undergrad, I was a Typical. Not very serious undergrad. When I went to graduate school, that's when I should have gone to college. That's when I was really interested. So I studied English. You know that it's like the narrator of the Great Gatsby. So I was qualified to do nothing or anything and went off to teach English to mostly Arab high school kids.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And what was your master's degree in English?

Al Miller:

But then I was interested. It still didn't have much to do with. Well, then I taught high school for a couple of years in the States and then I got the urge to go back to the Middle east and they were looking for someone to head the English department and another program at the same school back I went.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Is there naturally a connection between drama and English? I mean, I think of Shakespeare, obviously, but

Al Miller:

no. Well, that way, what was my connection?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I guess so, yeah.

Al Miller:

I never did theater when I was in school. Not in elementary, high school, college, never when I got to the Middle east, when I went back, actually there was a repertory theater in Lebanon that worked with English speaking people, English speaking, Lebanese, Brits, Americans. And every year they did a show for kids and families and then they did a couple of other serious shows of Shakespeare and whatever and the phys ed. The head of the phys Ed department at the school when I went back was a guy who had been the US national trampoline champion and he also juggled and I juggled, so he taught me how to do the trampoline. And then we used to juggle some and people found out and when they wanted to cast the Emperor's New Clothes, when they wanted to cast the two shysters, they thought, let's get these two guys because they can roll around and juggle. And so we did it and I loved it. I thought, this is really fun. Which got me to get a theater program going at the school. And later that year they did Waiting for Godot and asked me to do that. And I did that. And I'm not sure I understood it because I hadn't studied it in college, but I loved it. So I think by the time I'd finished, we did a run of maybe three weeks at a little theater in town. And I think by the time I finished that I decided, I want to do something with this. So I kept working with kids and then when I came back here, started something and two years ago did Waiting for Godot again.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you understand it better now?

Al Miller:

I do, I do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's interesting that you had zero background. I mean, a lot of people in the Theater, it's from, like, they're born and they begin breathing theater. And you had zero background, and just almost on a whim, they cast you in this production. And then all of a sudden, it just kind of opened up something inside.

Al Miller:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Is that something that you see yourself with children these days?

Al Miller:

Do I see it in kids?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah. Is that an experience that's common in children?

Al Miller:

I don't know. I think what I. What I infer from it is if we're open, we'll find what we want to do. I never would have guessed that I'd do theater, nor before that. I never would have guessed that I would teach. And once I decided to teach as a way to get to the Middle East, I wouldn't have said that I'm going to be crazy about it. And then I ended up loving teaching. And I would say, if there's some force that some mystical way leads us where. Where we ought to be, that it was successful with me, I think I'm doing. I have a dream job. I love what I do. I get to teach, I get to write, I get to direct. I clowned for a while. I act once in a while, and I work with people all the time. So where'd that come from? I. I sort of stumbled into it, but it's all worked.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What about your family? Does your family have any background in the arts?

Al Miller:

No, no, no. My mother did something with children's theater, but I'm. She helped start a theater in my hometown, and I think I. No, I don't think. I vaguely remember this. I tried out for something when I was about 9 or 10 years old, and I remember my mother saying to me, she worked with another woman running this little theater, the Junior Theater, I think it was called. And her saying to me at home that I. She couldn't put me in the play because she worked at the theater, but that I was very good. I said, oh, thanks, and never took another step toward theater until stumbling into it with juggling.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Obviously, people are very attached to their childhood experiences in the arts, music, theater. Because we've had multiple people who have said to us, oh, I worked with Al Miller at the Theater Project, and I still remember. And they can give very exact details about their experiences. And there are lots of things in childhood that we do that we don't remember at all, or if we remember them, they certainly don't have positive connotations. What is it about what you are offering that you think has such appeal?

Al Miller:

Well, I think theater is fun. I think when we get Older. It scares us. Oh, I could never do that. I hear that all the time. Oh, my God. Oh, I could never get up there and do that. Kids are more experimental. It's fun. They learn responsibility because in the end they're doing it. Whether I'm the director or somebody else is. We're not doing it. They're out there. There you go. Go get them. There are different ways to communicate in theater. Sometimes I found, especially in work in schools. The teachers will say, billy has never spoken once in class. And here he is doing this amazing work and this project that involves theater. Theater isn't the only way. Music is another way. Dance is another way. The outdoors is another way. But kids, we do know that not all kids learn the same way. And. And we can also remember when we were kids, we did the stuff that was fun. What do you do? You go out and play and. And often we're doing theater kind of play. You make up stories, whether it's cops and robbers or prince and princes or whatever it is. So. So that's in us. Plus, I think people love storytelling. I don't think they would say that necessarily, but I still find when I'm storytelling that there's sort of this hubbub at the beginning, and then it turns into. If it's a good story, it turns into listening and really being involved. I don't think. We don't know that. Kids don't know that necessarily. Now. They do all these quick change things, the electronic stuff and I mean, I'm an old guy, I get it, but I don't do it like a kid. I ask my grandchildren, how do you do this? But they'll also sit on and listen to a story. And if they bite, like if they want to come in and try something at the theater. Shy or a pain or. Or interested or. Yeah, I just thought I'd try this. You know, I've done all these other things at school. Usually they'll. They'll get involved. They like it, and it's them. Did that make sense? That it's. They're expressing. They're expressing their understanding of this part, their understanding of the play. I've done Shakespeare with high school kids at the theater project, not in schools. One, they learn the lines in 1/20 of the time it would take me to learn the lines. And two, if I work through it with them, which I do. What are you saying there? What does that mean? Okay, we got to figure that out. So. All right, here's the deal. Nobody says anything that you don't understand, we stop, we figure it out. Then they do a performance that's just live. Is it? What? And Shakespeare probably would have liked it. And I've had older people say, you know, that's the first time I understood Shakespeare, when I saw that. So that's it for me. That's a kick. And I also believe in it because there's a kid growing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Is it interesting to you that in this day and age where you can access almost anything at almost any time visually, you go on YouTube or you can listen to an audiobook, or, you know, people have their own live channels where they're doing, I don't know, basically, like, I'm gonna go shopping for my kids at Walmart, and I'm gonna put it up on YouTube, and it's gonna get, like, 1.4 million views. But all of that, and we still want to see Harry Potter 1 and 2 on stage in London. We still want to go to New York and see live shows that sell out. I mean, we have access to anything we want, and we still want to see live theater. What do you think of that?

Al Miller:

Well, there are three other people in this room. One behind me and one to the side there, and you in front of me. I'd much rather talk to each one of you than to somehow see it screened. I'm not. Who is this person? Who is this person? Who is that person? What's going on? That's what's interesting. And if the. I think what gets us about theater, it gets me on both sides of the lights. What gets us about theater is I'm watching human beings up there. If I'm in the audience, if they slip up there, it is. It's not, okay, let's erase that. So if they slip up. But they're trying. I'm pulling for them so hard, and usually they pull it off. I remember seeing a show, it was actually at the Shaw Festival in Canada, and a female character came down. The audience was on both sides and in the back, and she came down between the audiences on the side. And there was a fan on the stage that was a part of the set, and she had on a boa. And when she got close to the fan, the boa started to blow across her face. And she kept putting it down, and it would blow again, and it would blow right across her mouth and nose. And so it was sort of tickling her nose, and you could see her fighting laughter. And finally she had to give in, and she started to laugh. And then she pulled herself together and went on with the show. The whole audience applauded like they'd seen this. Look at what she did. We love that. We love that. I think that's part of what. What it is. I think we love a polished production. You mentioned New York, but I. I think, you know, I don't tell anybody to go out there and mess up, but, you know, if you do, you're still out there. Go, go. Somebody will pick you up. Go. Which is also a nice thing. And. And working with people in a show to develop an ensemble feeling so that everybody's looking after everybody else. Nobody's going to say, well, what did you do that for? They're going to be picking each other up. That's a good thing. That's a good thing to learn.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah. I think that's. That's the opposite side of what people have gotten concerned about with children, which is that this is kind of the kids on stage culture these days, that they're all so used to having their photos taken. They're all so used to being on video and selfies. But, you know, in real life, if you're actually going to do drama, then it's not just about you, and you actually have to do things differently and learn different skills.

Al Miller:

Right.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you think that one of the things that adults have difficulty with as they get older is the fact that we are expected to be perfect as we age? We're supposed to be really good at whatever it is that we're now doing, and so now we can't do drama because then we might need to fail.

Al Miller:

Well, I'm old enough to no longer need to be perfect, so that's good.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm almost there, too. So that's a good thing.

Al Miller:

Oh, no, you're not. No, no, not quite yet.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

All right,

Al Miller:

maybe. Maybe. And I think kids get that, too, because I think there's a lot of pressure on kids now. You're going to do this, then you're going to do that, then you're going to do this. You know, where's the play time? Where's that? Okay, let me know when you're done. It's a different world, but I still have conversations with not people who are as old as I am, but people who are anywhere between 55 and 80 maybe, who say, when I was growing up, you left the house in the morning, and if you had to be home for lunch, then either your mom was hollering out the door, or you. You got yourself home because you knew you'd be in trouble if you didn't get home. When you were supposed to be there for lunch and then you took off again when you didn't have school after school, you did what you did. You got home on time. There wasn't that nervousness and also there wasn't the kind of programming a lot of which there is now. It's not everybody does it. You've got ballet on this day, and you've got theater class on this day, and then you're studying for the college boards on this day. And then. Ah. So I think the freedom makes a difference. And if you have more freedom when you're young, you still grow out of it, but you at least remember it then. When we're adults, I don't know, there's a lot of pressure, but we only take this ride once, as far as we know. So kind of a sad thing if you get to be 65, 70, 75, and say, oh, I wish I had. There's always some of that. But for the bulk of your life, I wish I had. So change whenever you can. Are you listening out there?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I hope so. And I'm not quite as old as the age range you just said, but I remember that my mother would send my younger brothers and I and sisters and I, we would all go out into the neighborhood. And the idea was that you come home and the street lights go on so you could stay out as long as it was dark.

Al Miller:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

There you go, almost to the place where you could not see and straight lights came in on and you all went home. I mean, that's. I don't. My kids don't really do that. I mean, they're all older now, but I think there is something lost with all the scheduling of stuff that, you know, every hour seems to need to be accounted for.

Al Miller:

Yeah. Yeah. I remember with our kids who are all grown up, I think three of them are older than I am now. But with our kids, when they were. Especially when they were teenagers, young teenagers wanting to hang around the house and their mom or I saying, get out of the house, Go. Go do something. Go. I just want to go. Get out. And then they'd go out and they'd find something to do and it would be good. Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And now we don't have them in the house enough. Some of us, they're so busy doing other things elsewhere.

Al Miller:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's kind of. We've gone a little too far in

Al Miller:

the other direction, maybe. Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I mean, it's not all bad. I mean, I. For example, the theater project has been around for how many years?

Al Miller:

Oh, it's going on I. 45, 46. Yeah. A long time.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So that's a nice thing that has evolved and has become available for kids in Maine. You know, that wasn't at one time available.

Al Miller:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We actually have arts organizations where kids can gain great benefit.

Al Miller:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's good. And we have a good, open attitude toward kids.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you ever get children who come in because their parents think that this is a good idea for them rather than them thinking that it's a good idea for themselves?

Al Miller:

Yeah, not very often, but yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So how do you deal with that?

Al Miller:

If I sense that and the kid is old enough, I'll say, Did you want to do this really? No. My mother told me. How's it going? It's going all right. Okay, let me know. And then if a kiddo doesn't want to do it, talk to the parent and say, you know, Johnny doesn't really want to do this. We'd love to have him, but not if he doesn't want to do it. Usually. Usually if they come in under pressure, they end up liking it, but sometimes not.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And then what happens? Do they quit? Or do they find another role within what you're doing?

Al Miller:

If they don't like it, yeah. And if they don't like it, one of us would. Whoever is teaching the class or directing the show would say, if you're going to do this, you need to be willing to do these things. These are the things we do. If you don't want to do those, maybe you don't want to be here. I'd love to have you here. But decide if you want to be here or not. And the language varies depending on the age of the kiddo. And if they're really on the younger end of the spectrum, speak to the parents and say, does Billy really want to do this? Or, Betty,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

are you sometimes able to find, like, some kids don't want to be on stage, but they don't mind painting sets. They don't mind being behind the scenes.

Al Miller:

Sometimes because of the nature of the building we work in. Excuse me. There isn't a lot of set painting and that sort of stuff that we do. If a kiddo really wanted to learn how to do the lights, we try to arrange that or help. Do you want to help with the production? Yeah. Okay, then we'll find something. You can help the stage manager. You can help with the costumes and see how you like that. And if you want to just get out of here, then probably that's what you want to do. And then if you feel like you want to come back later, come back.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I like it. You're giving them the chance to make a decision about what really should be play. Yeah, yeah, they do call it play.

Al Miller:

Yes, exactly. I remember a mother saying, yes, you will. Growling.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I appreciate your taking the time to come in today and the work that you've done, clearly making a huge imprint upon children around the state of Maine. I've been speaking with Al Miller, who is the artistic director of the Theater Project, a non profit community based theater in Brunswick. He also teaches theater workshops in various states as well as Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Keep up the good work.

Al Miller:

Thank you very much and have fun. Thanks, I will.