Oddity Cinema. Not much on Miller, but a good interview.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Any volunteers?
I recently received an email concerning the lack of Jason's books as ebooks. Since I'm not the only one looking, I'm asking a favour of those of you with time and generosity to help those of us who need to read, but can't find or afford, Jason's books. The specific request was for an ebook/text file of That Championship Season. As always, anything would be appreciated. The idea is to make Jason Miller Tribute the best resource it can be. Ebooks would be a great feature.
So, help if you can, please. Thanks for reading.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
JMT template
Click HERE to view Justin's JMT template. Don't get too attached; it isn't staying up for long, and lots of the links lead to plain text stating CONTENT HERE. It's marvelous though, and a great example of what I hope to have some day. Soon...
Saturday, June 28, 2008
AMERICAN EXORCIST: Critical Essays on William Peter Blatty
My friends Ryan and Mike have had their essays published in American Exorcist: Critical Essays on William Peter Blatty!
...if you purchase the paperback through the link below, a tiny smidgen of the sale will go towards The Exorcist Fansite. Every little bit helps!So help support a great site, and buy your copy of American Exorcist HERE.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller
Scenes from the play "Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller" written by Tom Flannery and Rodger Jacobs. Starring Robert Hughes.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Internet...
I'll likely be losing my Internet connection shortly. I hope to have it back as soon as possible.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Jason Miller as Father Damien Karras by Alberto Forero
Alberto Allan Forero did this awesome drawing for me after I was stunned by his Edgar Allen Poe. As you can guess, I faved it instantly. Wonderful job! Thank you!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Damien Karras sells cereal!
Hollywood special f/x artist/concept designer guru Miles Teves (Robocop, Legend, Pirates of the Caribbean, King Kong) recently sent me his demonic possession entry, Pazuzu Bitz. If you haven't guessed it yet, the cereal box is based on William Friedkin's 1973 horror classic, The Exorcist.
Found at Cereal Killers
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Captainhowdy.com, EXMK & JM Gallery hacked
First it was Captainhowdy.com, now it's EXMK.net. Therefor the Gallery is gone.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Jason Miller Tribute video
I didn't make it (I don't make slide shows or anything...), but it looks very nice. Pretty satisfying to know that he's still appreciated! Thanks, Knoxvicious, for putting the pics to good use!
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Go Irish: The Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller
“Go Irish: The Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller” is an intense one-man show that examines the soul in afterlife of the late Pulitzer Prize winning playwright (“That Championship Season”) and film and television actor (“The Exorcist”, “F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood”) Jason Miller. Stuck in purgatory until he can answer – in a battered, loose leaf notebook, no less – for the mess that his life became before he died of a massive heart attack in 2001, Miller walks us through the shattered detritus of his career and alcoholic existence, a deeply troubled man who turned his back on Hollywood and returned home to Scranton, PA, to become the town drunk.
Copyright: © 2005 Rodger Jacobs and Tom Flannery Standard Copyright License
Language: English
Country:
Edition: First
Printed: 98 pages, 6" x 9", perfect binding, black and white interior ink
Download: 1 documents, 324 KB
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Obituary: Jason Miller
Independent, The (London), May 17, 2001 by Tom Vallance
THE PLAYWRIGHT and actor Jason Miller achieved in the space of one year notable triumphs as both writer and performer. In 1973 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his play That Championship Season, a mordant drama about a reunion of members of a winning basketball team and their coach, which also won the Tony and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award as the year's best play. The same year he was cast as Father Damien Karras, the priest who battles demons for a girl's soul in one of the scariest of horror films, William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973).
His performance won him an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor. He commented at the time, "I can't quite catch up with it. I still wake up some mornings and ask myself, `Is today the day I go to the unemployment insurance office?'" His success had come after a long struggle. "I worked for welfare, I worked as a truck-driver, I worked as a waiter. And then I'd go out to the provinces and do some resident theatre and come back and have to get another job or go on unemployment."
The son of an electrician and grandson of a coal miner, Miller was born in 1939 in Long Island City, New York, but grew up, like the ex- basketball champions in his play, in the Lackawanna Valley of Pennsylvania. Also like the men in his play, he was an outstanding athlete, but there the similarity stopped. "I was never involved in a state basketball championship, and I never had a coach like that. It is, however, the material of my life."
He was educated at St Patrick's Academy then entered the Jesuit- run University of Scranton on an athletic scholarship, studying English and philosophy. He later credited the nuns at St Patrick's with initially steering his interests in a literary direction when he was "getting into a lot of trouble and they thought poetry writing might help". They drilled him in elocution and encouraged him to act in school drama and study writing for the theatre.
His one-act play about a prize-fighter, The Winner, won him the top prize at the regional Jesuit Eastern Play Contest. Later he attended the speech and drama department at the Catholic University in Washington, but confessed in a 1974 interview that he was asked to leave "for never attending classes, never taking tests and never getting the girls back to their dormitory by 10 o'clock". In 1963 he married a fellow student, Linda Gleason (daughter of the comedian Jackie), with whom he had three children - he had a fourth child with a girlfriend, Susan Bernard.
Miller and his wife performed Shakespeare together in local high schools before moving to New York where they later divorced. Miller struggled to find work as an actor while continuing to write. "When you write a play," he said, "you act out all the parts, so what you're doing in the daytime is preparing you for your performance at night. You get to the theatre warmed up." He completed several plays, including Nobody Hears a Broken Drum, about oppressed Irish miners in Pennsylvania in 1862, which had a brief off-Broadway run in 1970, but had little success until, while appearing in the play Subject to Fits at Joseph Papp's Public Theatre complex in 1971, he showed Papp his play That Championship Season, which Papp put on at the theatre in 1972.
Directed by A.J. Antoon, and with a cast including Richard A. Dysart, Charles Durning and Paul Sorvino, it was a profanity-riddled story about four small-town Pennsylvania men who gather for a reunion at the home of their old coach 20 years after their high-school team won a basketball trophy using dirty tactics. The play then exposes the cynicism and disillusionment that has since pervaded their lives, with all of them having failed to fulfil their earlier ambitions. The critic Clive Barnes wrote, "Here at last is the perfect play of the season" and Walter Kerr in The New York Times called it "rock solid, bitterly funny, painfully shaming".
The play transferred to Broadway, where it completed a run of 834 performances, though a London production at the Garrick Theatre in 1974 starring Broderick Crawford fared less well, its cynical look at middle-American life and the collapse of the American dream having less resonance. A film version, directed by Miller himself in 1982, was also a failure, despite a strong cast including Robert Mitchum, Bruce Dern, Martin Sheen, Stacy Keach and, in his original role, Paul Sorvino. In 1999 Miller up-dated the script for a television movie directed by Sorvino.
After winning the Pulitzer Prize the author told The New York Times that he felt an obligation to continue writing for the theatre. "I think it would be ungracious not to. Theatre is in desperate straits, and I'd like to help pick it up." But Miller's writing and acting careers were never to reach the pinnacles of 1973, though he wrote several television movies and had considerable success as a television actor, playing the title role in F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood (1976) and starring in the mini- series The Dain Curse (1978), based on Dashiell Hammett's novel, and an incisive study of a girl's battle with anorexia nervosa, The Best Little Girl in the World (1981), described by one critic as an "uncommonly good `disease- of-the-week' TV movie with exceptional performances".
In 1986 Miller returned to his hometown to become artistic director of Scranton Public Theatre, and in 1990 he repeated his Exorcist character in Exorcist III. His only produced play after That Championship Season was Barrymore's Ghost, produced in Seattle in 1997, though at the time of his death from a heart attack he was collaborating with his son the writer- director Joshua Miller on a new play, Me and My Old Man. He was also preparing to appear as Oscar Madison in the Scranton Public Theatre's production of The Odd Couple. He is survived by three other children who include the actor Jason Patric.
Jason Miller, playwright and actor: born Long Island City, New York 22 April 1939; married 1963 Linda Gleason (two sons, one daughter; marriage dissolved 1973), one son by Susan Bernard; died Scranton, Pennsylvania 13 May 2001.
Copyright 2001 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Applaud The Spirit Of Jason Miller
Posted: Sunday, 12 August 2007 9:33PM
Applaud The Spirit Of Jason Miller
corbett@wilknewsradio.com
Monday, August 13, 2007
Jason Miller’s spirit hovered in the small dark theater Saturday night, as it always will no matter what production the Scranton Public Theater mounts from here until forever.
Miller shaped the soul of the acting company.
Now he is its soul.
Had he lived, Saturday night’s production of “Love Letters” by AR Gurney would have satisfied his demand for excellence. Simple and pure, the show conveyed the storyteller’s art in a way that Miller, who died in Scranton in 2001 at 62, would have enjoyed.
Master storyteller that he was, Miller loved words. After returning to his hometown after achieving fame and living in California and New York, he shared his life and his deep regard for the language of the stage with two of the best friends he ever had.
Agnes Cummings, who co-stars with Malachy McCourt in “Love Letters” and Bob Schlesinger, who produced and directed the show, never let him down. They followed his lead and learned from his example.
Miller taught them well.
Through them, and others like them, we have the continuation of all that Miller deemed holy.
Because of them and their continuing hard work, maybe one day we’ll have what he truly wanted more than anything for his town – a permanent theater for the Scranton Public Theater to call home.
For now, the company is firmly ensconced at the Old Brick Theater at 128 W. Market St. in North Scranton, a temporary place of blessed refuge from which Cummings, Schlesinger and the rest of their theatrical tribe can work their magic, casting spells with words and lights and gestures that all have meaning in our lives.
McCourt, a world-class raconteur, all-around Irish handful and dear friend of Miller, joined Cummings onstage Saturday in “Love Letters,” a play that reminds us how brittle the relationships of our lives remain and how far apart even the closest friends sometimes grow.
Cummings and McCourt read the script’s lasting words and made their syllables breathe.
Schlesinger had done well – directing them to inhale and exhale at just the right moments.
With all that fresh oxygen flying around, the audience couldn’t help but feel life in the room.
And we realized just how alive we all really are.
When McCourt spoke with us last week on “Corbett,” he expressed great admiration for his own personal relationship with Scranton and his love of the ongoing chaos that drives us who love this city deeper into the quest to know who we are.
Miller also thrived on the madness and the search for identity. Dancing with chaos helped make him who he was. Raw emotion helped him live and raw emotion helped him die.
Still, he exhibited great brilliance and discipline on the stage.
Sitting in the theater Saturday night reminded me of Miller’s priceless contributions to Scranton and the pursuit of truth through art. Miller taught us that no matter how damning, art is wisdom.
Despite his faults and failings, and he had many, Miller gave us honesty, something that many of even the bravest among us refuse to share.
Cummings continues to unfurl that sacred banner on the altar of the stage.
So does Schlesinger.
And McCourt has always been quick to enlist in the never-ending battle to do justice to art and apply art to justice. Like Miller, he too is unique – a man who will always be a hard act to follow as he steps fearlessly and willingly into life’s disturbances and dramas.
Plays are wonderful places to engage an enemy.
In many ways, the stage is neutral territory where we can broker a peace from the greatest mayhem, a place where the lessons are many and where everybody in the audience survives in the end.
Playwrights carve meaning from shining veins of creativity.
After coming home from a brief hospital stay shortly before he died, Miller told me that the doctors are like coal miners – they always find danger if they dig deep enough.
Good theater people also dig deep. And what they find in those shining veins of creativity, they share.
Accept their gifts.
“Love Letters” runs again this weekend.
Call 570-344-3656 for reservations, details or changes in the schedule.
You, too, should meet the spirit of Jason Miller.
That spirit will help you feel alive.
Source: http://wilknetwork.com/Applaud-The-Spirit-Of-Jason-Miller/800292">WILK-FM
Applaud The Spirit Of Jason Miller
corbett@wilknewsradio.com
Monday, August 13, 2007
Jason Miller’s spirit hovered in the small dark theater Saturday night, as it always will no matter what production the Scranton Public Theater mounts from here until forever.
Miller shaped the soul of the acting company.
Now he is its soul.
Had he lived, Saturday night’s production of “Love Letters” by AR Gurney would have satisfied his demand for excellence. Simple and pure, the show conveyed the storyteller’s art in a way that Miller, who died in Scranton in 2001 at 62, would have enjoyed.
Master storyteller that he was, Miller loved words. After returning to his hometown after achieving fame and living in California and New York, he shared his life and his deep regard for the language of the stage with two of the best friends he ever had.
Agnes Cummings, who co-stars with Malachy McCourt in “Love Letters” and Bob Schlesinger, who produced and directed the show, never let him down. They followed his lead and learned from his example.
Miller taught them well.
Through them, and others like them, we have the continuation of all that Miller deemed holy.
Because of them and their continuing hard work, maybe one day we’ll have what he truly wanted more than anything for his town – a permanent theater for the Scranton Public Theater to call home.
For now, the company is firmly ensconced at the Old Brick Theater at 128 W. Market St. in North Scranton, a temporary place of blessed refuge from which Cummings, Schlesinger and the rest of their theatrical tribe can work their magic, casting spells with words and lights and gestures that all have meaning in our lives.
McCourt, a world-class raconteur, all-around Irish handful and dear friend of Miller, joined Cummings onstage Saturday in “Love Letters,” a play that reminds us how brittle the relationships of our lives remain and how far apart even the closest friends sometimes grow.
Cummings and McCourt read the script’s lasting words and made their syllables breathe.
Schlesinger had done well – directing them to inhale and exhale at just the right moments.
With all that fresh oxygen flying around, the audience couldn’t help but feel life in the room.
And we realized just how alive we all really are.
When McCourt spoke with us last week on “Corbett,” he expressed great admiration for his own personal relationship with Scranton and his love of the ongoing chaos that drives us who love this city deeper into the quest to know who we are.
Miller also thrived on the madness and the search for identity. Dancing with chaos helped make him who he was. Raw emotion helped him live and raw emotion helped him die.
Still, he exhibited great brilliance and discipline on the stage.
Sitting in the theater Saturday night reminded me of Miller’s priceless contributions to Scranton and the pursuit of truth through art. Miller taught us that no matter how damning, art is wisdom.
Despite his faults and failings, and he had many, Miller gave us honesty, something that many of even the bravest among us refuse to share.
Cummings continues to unfurl that sacred banner on the altar of the stage.
So does Schlesinger.
And McCourt has always been quick to enlist in the never-ending battle to do justice to art and apply art to justice. Like Miller, he too is unique – a man who will always be a hard act to follow as he steps fearlessly and willingly into life’s disturbances and dramas.
Plays are wonderful places to engage an enemy.
In many ways, the stage is neutral territory where we can broker a peace from the greatest mayhem, a place where the lessons are many and where everybody in the audience survives in the end.
Playwrights carve meaning from shining veins of creativity.
After coming home from a brief hospital stay shortly before he died, Miller told me that the doctors are like coal miners – they always find danger if they dig deep enough.
Good theater people also dig deep. And what they find in those shining veins of creativity, they share.
Accept their gifts.
“Love Letters” runs again this weekend.
Call 570-344-3656 for reservations, details or changes in the schedule.
You, too, should meet the spirit of Jason Miller.
That spirit will help you feel alive.
Source: http://wilknetwork.com/Applaud-The-Spirit-Of-Jason-Miller/800292">WILK-FM
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Behind the scenes of Murdered Innocence
Unavailable for embedding, so click HERE. If you can't spare 7:54 minutes to watch the whole thing, skip to 4:51 (aprox.).
Saturday, January 5, 2008
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