TimesLeader.com

June 4
Miller remembered as artist, friend

Former classmate to portray Scranton playwright Jason Miller in production opening Friday at Actors Circle

By Christopher J. Hughes chughes@timesleader.com
Online Editor

SCRANTON - Bob Hughes walks with sloped shoulders, holding his pointer finger to his thumb and carefully observes his surroundings. The actions aren’t his own, however. Each is a carefully crafted mannerisms exhibited by the late Scranton playwright Jason Miller.

Jason Miller Late Scranton playwright

Clarks Summit resident Bob Hughes will portray Jason Miller in the upcoming production of "Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller," opening Friday at Providence Playhouse. Hughes, a childhood friend of Miller’s, said he knew Miller’s mannerisms well.

Abington Journal photo / Christopher J. Hughes

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Hughes, a Clarks Summit resident, will portray Miller in the one-man production of “The Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller” by Tom Flannery and Rodger Jacobs, opening Friday, June 6 at Providence Playhouse in Scranton. The show continues June 7, 13 and 14, at 8 p.m. Admission is $12.

A childhood friend and classmate of Miller’s from his days at the former St. Patrick’s High School in Scranton, Hughes is perhaps the most fitting to portray the playwright and actor. He performed in Miller’s award- winning “That Championship Season” in its earliest local incarnation in the mid -1980s, as George Sitkowski, during the Pennsylvania Summer Theatre Festival at Montage Mountain.

“He (Miller) was the guy who was instrumental in getting me into theater. He told me it was a great way to meet girls,” Hughes said, laughing. Hughes classified Miller as the all-American boy and a true scholar-athlete who was every bit as much a performer as he was a student.

The show, he said, focuses on the ups-and-downs of the last 15 years of Miller’s life and primarily discusses his professional struggles. The two-act play premiered in September 2007 at The Northeast Theatre, Scranton, as part of a monodrama festival.

“It’s interesting to me that actors like James Dean and Marlon Brando – the luminaries of Hollywood – never had a one-man play written about them,” Hughes said. Filmmaker Rebecca Ferris also confirmed that a documentary about his life, “Miller’s Tale,” is currently slated to be released in the fall of 2008.

Professionally, Miller wrote his first play, “Nathan Hale, The Man Without a Country,” in high school. He won the Jesuit One Act Play Contest for “Winner,” a story about a prizefighter, while attending the University of Scranton. His one-act plays “Circus Lady,” “Lou Gehrig Did Not Die of Cancer” and “It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie” were among his originals performed off Broadway. “That Championship Season,” also premiered off Broadway in the 1970s and earned him the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1973.

His motion picture debut came in 1973 when he appeared at Father Karras in “The Exorcist,” where he was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor. Other movie credits include “Monsignor” and “The Devil’s Advocate.”

Flannery said of his show, “It’s a play about success and failure, and how blurred these two things can become when the spotlight is in your eyes. And it’s a story about wandering and finally coming home.”

“I suppose that it’s a survivor’s story,” Hughes added. “He overcame a lot of difficulties and he continued in the commitment of his art, and his son (actor Jason Patric) continues in his footsteps. To me, it’s a celebration of a friend’s life who was probably the best guy you could ever have to grow up with. He was the pro’s pro.

“He chose to come back home which isn’t easy to do when your career isn’t 100 percent,” Hughes continued. “This is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to Miller and we hope that it gives a refocused emphasis on his life.”

Want to go?

What: “The Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller”

Where: Actors Circle at Providence Playhouse, 1256 Providence Rd., Scranton

When: Fridays and Saturdays, June 6, 7, 13 and 14, 8 p.m.

Info: Admission is $12. For details, call 383-1427.