BRUCE MILLER 

Speaking to me about my own transformations, it's just how I have coped with the various things that have been dropped in my lap or have taken me in a completely different direction.  And how somehow miraculously I have ended up here. 

I'm Bruce Miller. I'm the Company Manager at the Westport Country Playhouse.  The Playhouse started in 1931 and we're in our 90th - approaching our 90th year and very excited about that and how we've been a part of Westport community that whole time. 

I grew up in Stratford just up the road. And that was in the 50s and 60s when the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre had just opened. So, from middle school through high school we saw one or two Shakespearean plays a year - whether we wanted to or not. 

My first theater experience was probably at home. I had puppets and wrote a couple of little puppet shows for the kids in the neighborhood. There was a little side porch in my house and we just put on a puppet show.  I mean, so that's real basic early theater. I had one theater experience in high school where I was in the school play. Being on stage was fun, applause was fun, but it's scary. Because you have to remember your lines and that's never been my strong suit. 

When I was growing up, I was going to be a writer for a newspaper. And I never thought of how I was going to accomplish that. And it wasn't until junior in high school, where my guidance counselor sat me down and said, You have to go to college.  So, these are three schools you should apply to. And I applied to all three. I was accepted at all three and my parents sent me to Ohio because that was the closest one. 

But somehow between the time when I applied and was accepted, and when I arrived at campus, the journalism major was eliminated. 

So, I became an English major - and the freewheeling '60s and the time of the Vietnam War, it was basically a general BA, Bachelor of Arts. I also became certified as a teacher - and that's what I ended up being to start with when I left college. 

I enjoyed teaching. I enjoyed my students immensely, but the administration and I clashed. I went off and worked at Colonial Williamsburg as a costumed interpreter. I wore a tricorn hat, probably like Seinfeld wore, a big fluffy shirt, with kind of an ascot kind of thing, three-quarter length pants, and high heeled shoes. 

You're dealing with tourists who want to gobble up facts. And after you've been there for a while you kind of test the tourists - how much are they willing to believe? 

And I remember when I worked at the jail, which happened to be an air-conditioned building.  But people would come in and, Oh, it's so cool in here!  And we would tell them various stories about - there was actually a tub in the basement with water and someone would get on a bicycle and would pump the water through the walls to chill it. People would be shaking their heads and we'd say, Well, if you believe that, this is going to be a great tour…That is not true. 

But we would then go on and cover the facts. 

So, I left Colonial Williamsburg. I moved back home. My dad, he stumbled on a store that was for sale - Welch's Hardware on Main Street in Westport. And he and his cousin decided to buy it.  And a bigger store became available in Milford on the green - Harrison's Hardware - which had been opened since 1907.  And that was an old-time New England hardware store: wooden floors with measurements on the floor for cutting rope and chain. And we had bins of nails and drawers of nuts and bolts. 

So, I went to help out my dad. And 22 years later I said, I've helped my dad enough. It's time to move on. 

The census was just starting - this was 1999 - getting ready for the 2000 census. So, I said, I'll apply for a part-time job. Then I started working in the office getting things ready and then they gave me more responsibilities. And by the time the census actually started, I had 700 employees and ran the Stamford office. So much for getting out of stress. But fortunately, you know, it was a short-term job. 

And during that period, I was looking - still looking - because I knew it was a temporary job. I was looking for something to do. I came on board here at the Playhouse in 2000, as the house manager. I fell into that.  And the job, you know, the job grew.  And, the next year, they asked me to be Company Manager and so my job would be to take care of the actors. 

I'm like their concierge and my very first company management job, I have to take care of Paul Newman and 23 other actors. 

This is a big deal.  

And at the end of the first dress rehearsal, Paul and 23 other cast members come down to the Green Room and he says, Where's the beer? And, I ran around and I found nine beers for this cast. And Mr. Newman at the time put his arm around me and said, This won't happen again. So, I kind of said, Yes. 

So, the next day, I showed up with a case of beer. Well at three o'clock that afternoon three cases of beer were delivered from Paul, and three cases delivered every single day of the run of Our Town, so that we not only had enough beer for the cast we had enough beer for the entire season. And it is a tradition that goes on to today. 

And that's why I love theater. Because you run into all sorts of creative, energetic people. You know, it's a young energetic atmosphere. It's a creative atmosphere. Everybody is challenging you with new thoughts, new ideas, and new plays.  You know, the only thing I ever used to go to was musicals and now I actually go to dark stuff and get something out of it!  I mean, it's just a great thing.