Written by Michael Claxton
Years ago, I took some students on a field trip to Piggott, Arkansas, a small town a couple of hours northeast of Searcy. We went to visit the house where Ernest Hemingway lived for a short time in the 1930s and where he wrote “A Farewell to Arms.”
Our tour guide that day made us smile with her gracious charm and her penchant for making up words. When a student asked what made Hemingway so great, she sighed and said, “I guess it was his humanarity.” We nodded politely.
Piggott was also the youthful stomping ground of my friend Robin Miller, professor of theatre, who is directing a show that opens this weekend. As he will soon retire after a remarkable 45 years at Harding, a few words are in order. The son of a preacher, he studied drama and speech education here in the 1970s, often working in the Admin. building, setting things up for daily chapel.
He gained lots of acting experience here and beyond, and he worked for a year on the grounds crew at Harding before joining the faculty in the Theatre Department in 1980. During four-and-a-half decades, he has mentored hundreds of actors just starting their careers. Though his range spans from light comedy to Greek tragedy, his sweet spot has been musical theatre, with 25 Homecoming shows to his credit.
“Crazy for You,” “The Music Man,” “Pirates!?!” and “Singin’ in the Rain” have been some of my favorites. The year his team made it rain onstage was truly magical.
Like his colleagues, he is a jack-of-all-trades. I’ve heard him eloquently explain that theatre is the sum of many art forms — playwriting, adapting, composing, singing, choreographing, set painting, costume building, light and sound design and more. It’s not unusual to find him painting sets late at night or helping students learn to sew in the costume shop. He even managed to teach sewing on Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic. He taught stage combat for years and once alarmed the Department of Public Safety when he had students sword fighting on the front lawn. He recently gave lessons on performing in hoop skirts.
We’ve had the pleasure of collaborating on a few shows, and it is a joy to watch him work. While his tall stature gives him a commanding presence, he wears his authority lightly. He is gracious and encouraging, helping actors with everything from warm-ups to make- up tips to pointers on how to deliver a line, wait for a laugh, pace a scene or react to the unexpected. He mentors directors, too, who affectionately call his class “Life Lessons with Miller.”
In a profession sometimes known for its prima donnas, he is modest and calm. Once after sitting in on a production team meeting, I marveled at how smoothly it went. “It’s amazing what you can do when there aren’t any egos in the room,” he said. It’s something we both love about working here. Miller Robin especially enjoys mentoring future Christian professionals to work in challenging environments, and the spirit of Christ is evident in all that he does. For 20 years, he served faithfully on the committee that plans chapel.
He has a painter’s eye for how things should look onstage, and it’s fun to watch him tell a group of actors to freeze and then literally move them around. Or, after a scene has been less-than-perfect, to listen as he carefully coaches the cast on how to do it better and why. We all were thrilled when he married Donna Jo, a piano teacher who has been a rehearsal accompanist and a partner in every way. Their wedding in Cone Chapel was delightful, with Dr. David Burks playing the recessional (he was taking lessons from her at the time). They are a perfect pair, and it was never so obvious than when they fought her leukemia together several years ago. I’m blessed to call both of them friends.
This weekend is the opening of Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy “The Importance of Being Earnest.” The cast is fantastic, the script is hilarious, and you will never forgive yourself if you miss it. It’s also Mr. Miller’s last show as a full-time faculty member. While he’ll still enjoy teaching a few classes, he’s officially giving up committee meetings. As Hamlet would say, “It is a retirement devoutly to be wished.”
I am grateful to Robin Miller for all the joy he’s brought to our campus and to the Searcy community, as he and Morris Ellis co-founded our Summer Dinner Theatre years ago. He has helped train the next generation of theatrical talent, while raising our spirits, making us laugh, challenging us to think and giving us countless moments of wonder.
Since Miller never seeks the spotlight, he may kill me for writing this. But I hope he’ll coach me on nailing the death scene first.
