MIZZOU NEWS

Professor Cultivates
Showbiz Success

By Shannon Burke

MU theatre professor Jim Miller has a prediction about Mike Hall, the MU graduate who won ESPN’s “Dream Job” reality show last year.

“He’ll end up acting,” Miller said. He has a sense about these things.

Hall starred in two of Miller's musicals during his time at MU, and Miller knew immediately that he would cast Hall.

“When I looked down at him at the first audition and saw his face, I didn't care if he could sing,” Miller said. “He had more light, energy and intelligence on his face than almost anyone I had ever seen.”

Miller has hundreds of these stories about students that he has taught or directed in his 26 years at MU. His students have never disappointed him, he says, and he is constantly surprised by their work ethic and drive to succeed.

“I didn't know I would stay here for 26 years,” Miller said. “My students have kept me here. I have great students.”

Growing up in Woodville, Miss., Miller knew exactly what he wanted to do.

“I wanted to be a star,” he said. “Not on T.V. or film, but on Broadway.”

He performed in every musical at the University of Southern Mississippi in his time there, and was even part of a U.S.O. tour during his senior year. He earned his master’s degree in 1973, the same year he married his wife, Marsha, and moved to New York City. He went to auditions and studied theatre, but ended up working at an advertising agency as an art director. One day, while drawing a storyboard for a Pepto-Bismol commercial, Miller had a revelation.

“That wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life,” he said.

Soon after, he came to MU and began teaching and directing theatre productions. Currently, Miller teaches Acting I, Stage Movement for the Actor, Musical Theatre Performance, Costume Design and Musical Theatre History. The theatre department at MU usually has between 75 and 80 students in its undergraduate program. The department is nationally recognized, and Miller said that although many programs focus on theatrical crafts, such as acting or costume design, MU’s program is grounded more in scholarly theory. Students also have more hands-on opportunities because of the program's small size. As a result, many of Miller's former students have gone on to have successful careers in show business.

“It makes me feel great that they’re working,” Miller said. “But, I am no less thrilled for students teaching theatre or working as a lawyer and doing community theatre as a hobby.”

Melanie Moore received a bachelor’s degree in theatre performance from MU in 1993, and is probably most recognizable as the woman from the Gladware commercials. She has made numerous television appearances, including a leading role in NBC's “Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Three's Company” as Joyce DeWitt. She also appeared on the series “Early Edition” and “Happy Family” with John Larroquette and Christine Baranski. Miller said Moore's strengths were her versatility and her ability to continually reshape her persona.

“She always had this interesting little voice that made her likable in every role,” Miller said. “And that voice and her face have made her successful as a television and commercial actress.”

Brent Briscoe has appeared in almost 30 films, including Sling Blade with Billy Bob Thornton and Man on the Moon with Jim Carrey. He’s had roles on over a dozen television shows, including “CSI,” “24,” “ER,” “House, M.D.” and “Numb3rs.”

“Although he usually is typecast as an uneducated, rural type, Brent was a straight A student when he was here at Mizzou and he played everything from the classics to musicals and comedies to dramas,” Miller said. “The first time I was aware of Brent was when I cast him in the chorus of the musical, Pippin.   He didn't have to be at every rehearsal but he was anyway. I kept giving him bit parts to do, but by the time we opened he almost had a leading role. He was just totally dedicated to acting — to learning — to the theatre.”

Briscoe was a writer on “Evening Shade,” along with fellow MU alumnus and writing partner Mark Fauser. Fauser and Briscoe wrote the 2002 movie, Waking Up in Reno, which is about two couples from Arkansas driving to Reno, Nev., to see a monster truck show. Billy Bob Thornton, Charlize Theron, Patrick Swayze, Natasha Richardson and Penelope Cruz all starred in the movie. This semester, Fauser is a guest teacher in the MU theatre department.

“Mark was really the heart of the theatre department during his time here,” Miller said. “He was versatile, committed, incredibly funny and loved by everybody.”

Lindsay Alley, a former Mouseketeer who was on "The New Mickey Mouse Club" with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake, came to MU to get a normal college experience, Miller said.

“She came to MU after interviewing at UCLA and NYU, either of which she could have attended,” Miller said. “She asked Burt Reynolds, who had mentored both Brent and Mark, where she could get a good theatre education and have a great college life, too, so she came to MU.”

Alley has been in New York City since she graduated and understudied the role of the young Carol Burnett on Broadway in Burnett’s play The Hollywood Arms. She also has developed and performed her own one-woman show and will be appearing in New York in an off-Broadway musical.

“Lindsey is going to have a long career,” Miller said. “She's talented, savvy and dedicated.”

Although Miller is proud of his former students, he recognizes the fleeting success that can accompany a career in show business. The one certainty in show business, Miller said, is that it's uncertain.

“You never know who is going to make it,” he said, adding that talent is only part of the formula of success in the entertainment industry. It takes luck and a shrewd business savvy to thrive in the industry, he said. But, thriving in the industry and being famous are two different things.

“You can have a really good career and never be a name actor,” Miller said. “If you want to make a living and perform, never being a big name is a good way to do that. Look at all the big stars whose lives you wouldn’t want.”

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Last Update: November 15, 2007