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Bruce Miller (theater director) is a stage director and producer living and working in Richmond, Virginia. [1] In 2017 he received a lifetime achievement award from the Virginia Theatre Association for his work with the Barksdale Theatre, Theatre IV, and Virginia Repertory Theatre. [2]
Miller served as the artistic director of the Barksdale Theatre.[ when? ] Miller's Barksdale acting credits include Red Hot and Cole and Diamond Studs (Phoebe Award, Best Supporting Actor). Other credits include Arnold in The Boys Next Door, Berenger in Rhinoceros, Clov in Endgame, Tom in The Glass Menagerie, and Yank in The Hasty Heart. [3] Miller's Richmond directing credits include Barksdale’s productions of The Lark, Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, The Crucible, and The Little Foxes. In 2012, Barksdale and Theatre IV merged to become Virginia Repertory Theatre, which Miller co-founded with Phil Whiteway. [4]
In 1975, along with Phil Whiteway, Miller co-founded Theatre IV as Virginia’s first professional theatre for young audiences, frequently collaborating with his wife, artist and set designer Terrie Powers and creating the Acts of Faith series of plays for multiple Richmond venues. Miller was a founding director and founding producer of Theatre IV and Virginia Repertory Theatre, [5] [6] working with Phil Whiteway whom he met when they were both student actors at the University of Richmond. [7] With Theatre IV Miller wrote and produced Hugs and Kisses, a touring play. "Many people are surprised to learn that Hugs and Kisses, Virginia’s principle child sexual abuse prevention program, is implemented by Theatre IV, the touring arm of Richmond-based Virginia Repertory Theatre," wrote Susan Davenport for Richmond Family Magazine in 2012. [8] In 1986 Theatre IV purchased and occupied the building which had been the Empire Theater on Richmond's Broad Street. [9] [10]
Virginia Rep, a non-profit organization, [11] was formed in 2012 with the merger of Theatre IV and Barksdale Theatre [12] [13] [14] and grew to be the second largest touring children's theater in the United States, performing in 33 states. [15] In 1975, along with Phil Whiteway, he co-founded Theatre IV as Virginia’s first professional theatre for young audiences, [16] [17] frequently collaborating with his wife, artist and set designer Terrie Powers. He worked with the Acts of Faith series as a founding producer and receiving Phoebe awards. [18] "Bruce Miller is the Founding Artistic Director of Virginia Rep and Founding Artistic Director of Theatre IV. His work as a director has been seen around the country at prominent theatres including the Kennedy Center and the Paper Mill Playhouse." [19] His last show before retiring in July 2016 was Tennessee Williams' 1948 play Summer and Smoke. [20] [21] Miller retired after 41 years with Virginia Repertory Theatre. [22] After 41 years as the Founding Artistic Director, Bruce Miller transitioned to Founding Producer of Virginia Rep in 2016. He co-produced the world premieres of Rules of the Lake by Irene Ziegler, Four Part Harmony by Marcus Fisk and Douglas Minerd, War Story by Bo Wilson and Songs from Bedlam by Douglas Jones. He produced Having Our Say, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune , and Do Lord Remember Me. [23] Other producing credits include James Joyce’s The Dead, Proof, How I Learned to Drive , Beehive, Of Mice and Men , My Children! My Africa! , and Quilters . In the final two decades of the Phoebe Awards, Bruce’s productions earned Best Play or Best Musical of the Year 20 times. [24] A performing arts study guide about Harriet Tubman was developed by Miller and Whiteway for children in grades four to six, and Miller also wrote a study guide and dramatization of the life and activism of Martin Luther King Jr. [25]
Bruce Miller's work as a director has been seen around the country at prominent theatres including the Kennedy Center and the Paper Mill Playhouse. He has received six Phoebe Awards as Best Director of the Year. For TV and radio, he directed The Ugly Duckling released nationally by PBS, and a production of folk stories broadcast internationally over Radio Free Europe. He is co-author of Hugs and Kisses, the child sexual abuse prevention play that maintained more than 25 years of a record-breaking run. His play Buffalo Soldier was selected by the Pentagon as a morale booster after 9/11, becoming the first professional play in history to be performed within the Pentagon’s walls. For the Acts of Faith Series at Virginia Rep Children's Theatre, Miller wrote I Have a Dream about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who inspired by Christianity and Hinduism, developed his nonviolent civil rights movement protests. [26]
Miller served as a site reporter for three years with the National Endowment for the Arts, and as a professional theatre panelist with the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund in New York City. He is an alumnus of the University of Richmond, and is privileged to credit three teachers as mentors: Jack Welsh, and the late Marion Waymack and Bernard Schutte. He also thanks those who taught by example: Pete and Nancy Kilgore, Muriel McAuley, Buddy and Betty Callahan, and Lou and Fran Rubin. [27]
In the spring of 1999, STYLE Weekly honored Bruce and Phil Whiteway by selecting them as two of the "100 Most Influential Richmonders of the Century." In 2008 Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine announced his selection along with Phil Whiteway of a Governor's Awards for Arts. [28] which have only been awarded three times before - in 1979, 1985 and in 2000. Bruce Miller and Phil Whiteway share an award with Richmond's Theatre IV as the first professional children's theatre in Virginia, which has performed live for audiences totaling 28 million. [29] Upon Bruce Miller's retirement and after a national search, Tony Award winner Nathaniel Shaw was selected to succeed founding producer Bruce Miller as artistic director at Virginia Rep and began his inaugural season in July 2016. [30]
Bruce Miller is married to artist and stage designer Terrie Powers Miller, and they have two children—a daughter, Hannah Powers Miller, born in 1990, and a son, Curtis Wayne Miller, born in 1994. [31] He is an ordained Presbyterian elder and was the moderator of the Christian Education Ministry at Bon Air Presbyterian Church.
The Chesterfield Observer and Richmond Magazine announced in February 2019 that Bruce Miller was chosen to head a new arts center for Chesterfield County, Virginia. [32] [33] Groundbreaking for the Baxter Perkinson Center for the Arts began in June 2019, with Bruce Miller as its executive director. [34] [35]
Midlothian is an unincorporated area and Census-designated place in Chesterfield County, Virginia, U.S. Settled as a coal town, Midlothian village experienced suburbanization effects and is now part of the western suburbs of Richmond, Virginia south of the James River in the Greater Richmond Region. Because of its unincorporated status, Midlothian has no formal government, and the name is used to represent the original small Village of Midlothian and a vast expanse of Chesterfield County in the northwest portion of Southside Richmond served by the Midlothian post office.
Richard Kuranda is an American director and artist of stage, cinema and television. He currently is the CEO of the Raue Center for the Arts in Crystal Lake, Illinois and the current Artistic Director of Williams Street Repertory. A widower, he resides in Illinois with his four children. In 2018, Raue Center and Williams Street Rep retired an 8.8 million dollar debt under his leadership. What is more noteworthy, he negotiated a public/private deal which secured a 125-year subsidized lease at $100 per year with a 25-year corporate sponsorship from Home State Bank. This complimented an expansion of the Center's physical plant to include a new school and outdoor theater space. In 2005, The New York Times profiled Kuranda's artistic and producing work at the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater Center and labeled him as one of the nation's top theater talents to watch. It is noteworthy to point out Kuranda was the leader and produced all of the programs in a short-lived consolidation of all National Programs; halfway thru his tenure at the O'Neill he reversed the Board's consolidation of programs which lead to a rebirth of the O'Neill. Kuranda has had working relations with Former Senator Bob Kerrey, Senator Christopher J. Dodds, and others. Cumulative Box Office for projects developed under his leadership; 2.9 billion US.
Seattle Rep is a major regional theater located in Seattle, Washington, at the Seattle Center. It is a member of Theatre Puget Sound and Theatre Communications Group. Founded in 1963, it is led by Artistic Director Dámaso Rodríguez and Managing Director Jeffrey Herrmann. It received the 1990 Regional Theatre Tony Award.
Kimberly Ann Bobo is an American religious and workers' rights activist, and current executive director of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy (VICPP), a non-partisan advocacy coalition based in Richmond, Virginia. Bobo is a nationally known promoter of social justice who leads VICPP's advocacy, outreach, and development work. She wrote a book on faith-based organizing entitled Lives Matter: A Handbook for Christian Organizing.
The Hanover Tavern is a community center, theatre, and recreational tavern located in Hanover, Virginia. Originally built in 1733, it is one of the oldest taverns in the United States.
Barksdale Theatre merged with Theatre IV in 2012 to become Virginia Repertory Theatre.
Regency Mall is an enclosed shopping mall outside of Richmond, Virginia in unincorporated Henrico County, Virginia, United States. Opened in 1975 as Regency Square, the mall features a food court and more than 60 tenants, currently with no anchors. Macy's, which had two locations at Regency Square, closed in spring 2016, Sears closed in summer 2017, and JCPenney closed in fall 2020. Forever 21 closed in early 2020 as part of that brand's restructuring plan.
For information about the professional theatre company in Richmond, see Virginia Repertory Theatre.
Theresa Pollak was an American artist and art educator born in Richmond, Virginia. She was a nationally known painter, and she is largely credited with the founding of Virginia Commonwealth University's School of the Arts. She was a teacher at VCU's School of the Arts between 1928 and 1969. Her art has been exhibited in the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. She died at the age of 103 on September 18, 2002 and was given a memorial exhibition at Anderson Gallery of Virginia Commonwealth University.
Nancy Wright Beasley is a Virginia author who primarily writes about the Holocaust. Her most notable books are Izzy's Fire: Finding Humanity in the Holocaust (2005) and The Little Lion (2016).
James Bumgardner (1935–2015) was an expressionist/figurative painter, multi-media artist, and stage set designer who was a Virginia Commonwealth University professor of art in the VCU School of the Arts. As an undergraduate student at Richmond Professional Institute (RPI), Bumgardner was encouraged by his mentor Jewett Campbell to study with the notable Art Students League of New York instructor Hans Hoffman (1880–1966), and Bumgardner received the last scholarship given by Hoffman, a German-born American abstract expressionist painter. Using his scholarship, Bumgardner studied with Hoffman in Provincetown in 1957, during which time he became friends with gallery director Richard Bellamy and artist Jan Müller. In 1963 in Richmond Jim Bumgardner and Jon Bowie co-directed a series of multi-media events or "happenings". The first was called "Synthesis" and was influenced by the productions of Allan Kaprow and the ONCE Festival of New Music of Ann Arbor, Michigan. After "Synthesis" Bumgardner and Jon Bowie invited notable outside performance and visual artists who joined in a series of annual "Bang, Bang, Bang Arts Festival" happenings in Richmond.
Virginia Repertory Theatre is a professional theatre company based in Richmond, Virginia. It was created in 2012 when Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV, which had shared one staff for over a decade, merged to become one company. With an annual budget of over $5 million, the theatre employs over 240 artists annually and presents seasons at the November Theatre and Theatre Gym at Virginia Rep Center, as well as productions at the Hanover Tavern and The Children's Theatre in The Shops at Willow Lawn. It is currently run under the leadership of Managing Director Phil Whiteway.
Nathaniel Shaw is an American theatre director, choreographer, and actor. He began his career as a dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company and later became the founding and artistic director of The Active Theater in New York. He was Associate Choreographer for the Broadway production and first national tour of Once (musical) In 2015 he became the Development Director for the Tony and Olivier Award-winning producers, Glass Half Full Productions. In July 2016, he became Artistic Director of Virginia Repertory Theatre in Richmond. In October 2021, Shaw launched The New Theatre, dedicated to advancing artform and industry, with a primary focus on new play development.
Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU in Richmond, also known as the VCU Institute for Contemporary Art at the Markel Center, is an arts center at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. It was designed by architecture firm Steven Holl Architects, and built by Gilbane Building Company. Steven Holl Architects was selected from 64 competing architectural firms worldwide, along with local architect, BCWH Architects. Virginia Commonwealth University President Michael Rao, in announcing plans for the ICA in 2011, said that the prominence of the museum's location, "bordering the city's Arts District and in the Broad Street Corridor which links the VCU Monroe Park Campus with VCU's Medical Center" would have symbolic significance. The ICA opened to the public in April, 2018.
Jack Glover is an American artist living and working in Richmond, Virginia.
Richard Carlyon (1930–2006) was an American artist who lived in Richmond, Virginia and taught at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of the Arts, where he became a professor emeritus.
Sam Pinkleton is an American theatre choreographer and director. He is best known for choreographing the Broadway musical Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812, for which he received a Tony Award nomination. Pinkleton's additional work on Broadway includes choreographing the 2017 productions of Amélie and Significant Other.
Bon Air Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), which began in 1884, is an historic Presbyterian church and preschool located on Huguenot Road in Bon Air, Virginia, a census-designated place (CDP) in Chesterfield County, Virginia, in the United States. The church and its location are thought to be named after the French term for "good air". The name choice may have been influenced by the 18th century settlement in the region of religious refugee French Huguenots and by the later popularity of the settlement as a summer resort and park accessible by streetcar from Richmond. Bon Air Presbyterian Church first began worshiping in a little Victorian Gothic building known as the “Union Chapel", located on Buford Road, south of the James River in the Southside of Richmond. "Union Chapel" served the Bon Air Presbyterian congregation until 1963. The number of members grew, and a new church building was erected at 9201 West Huguenot Road in North Chesterfield, Virginia to meet the needs of the larger congregation.
Barbara Tisserat (1951–2017) was an American artist and lithographer born in Denver, Colorado. She taught lithography at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of the Arts. She was a member of One/Off Printmakers and also taught at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Robinson House lithography workshop with Marilyn Bevilacqua. She was active with the Richmond Printmaking Workshop and served on the Advisory Board of Studio Two-Three in Richmond, Virginia. She was a member of the Summer 2007 graphics faculty at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and was a visiting artist and lecturer in the Lyceum program at Emory and Henry College.
Navy Hill School was a school serving African American students in Richmond, Virginia. The school was in Richmond's Navy Hill neighborhood and opened in 1871. It was at Sixth Street and Duval Street. It was the first public school in Richmond to employ African American teachers.
