{"id":9230,"date":"2021-05-20T09:10:17","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T13:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/earlham.edu\/?p=9230"},"modified":"2022-01-28T09:31:23","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T14:31:23","slug":"grad-transforms-from-theatre-hobbyist-to-winning-playwright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earlham.edu\/news-events\/grad-transforms-from-theatre-hobbyist-to-winning-playwright\/","title":{"rendered":"Earlham commencement 2021: Grad transforms from theatre hobbyist to award-winning playwright"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Brianna Miller loves the rush of performing on stage, but she otherwise considers herself shy and awkward. So, when she was deliberating where to study after high school, her personality played a role in the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just typed into Google \u2018good schools for introverts\u2019 and Earlham College was on a Top 10 list,\u201d Miller remembers. \u201cI looked into it more and I really liked Earlham\u2019s Quaker Principles and Practices and small class sizes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The list, which underscores how Earlham faculty get to know students on a first-name basis, didn\u2019t disappoint when Miller traveled from her Arizona home to visit campus a year later. \u201cI really liked how welcoming Earlham was, including the environment for the LGBTQ community,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m an ally, that\u2019s something that\u2019s really important to me. That\u2019s why I ended up coming here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller will graduate with the Class of 2021 at Comstock Field on Saturday, May 22<\/a> after a four-year journey where she transformed from a theatre hobbyist into an accomplished performer and award-winning playwright. She is one of 249 students earning degrees from the undergraduate college, Earlham School of Religion and the Graduate Programs in Education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just really loved the entire theatre arts department and it helped me realize that theatre is something that I want to be a larger part of my life,\u201d said Miller, who will tour with the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company as an intern for one year after earning her degree in theatre arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI just really loved the entire theatre arts department and it helped me realize that theatre is something that I want to be a larger part of my life.\u201d \u2014 Brianna Miller, Class of 2021<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI had only ever tried acting in high school, but because Earlham is a small and tight-knit community, especially in theatre, we rely on everybody to be part of several different aspects of our productions,\u201d she said. \u201cI got a lot of shop experience, helping build costumes and props, and held leadership roles that I never would have received if I went anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graduating on a high note<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Miller\u2019s Earlham education ended with an unusual and unexpected opportunity: witnessing the production of Rotten Illusions<\/em>, a play she began writing in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wrote Rotten Illusions<\/em> for a playwrighting class and I wrote it as a joke because I was really close to all of the people that were in that class,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI knew their really dark senses of humor and I wanted to write a play that encapsulated that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though the play received the 2019 Janica Zuck Richards Memorial Award, which is awarded by the College\u2019s Religion and Theatre Arts departments,<\/strong> Miller never expected to see it performed on stage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month, a cast of 10 students performed the play over two nights on the Wilkinson Theater stage. Miller spent the last year fine-tuning the play\u2019s original script with mentorship and encouragement from Lynne Perkins Socey, associate professor of theatre arts. In addition to her playwrighting duties, she was a fight captain for the production and a member of the marketing and promotion teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLynne just kept pushing me and told me this was something we should try to produce,\u201d Miller said.  \u201cI think Lynne has always seen more in myself than I knew was there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rethinking her original plan<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Miller\u2019s journey has been a pleasant surprise, and led her down an unexpected path almost immediately after arriving on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never thought I could be a part of a production in an administrative role because I am so soft-spoken and introverted,\u201d she said. \u201cLynne has just really pushed me to voice my opinions a lot more and it has helped me become a better theatre artist and a better person in general.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She never expected to be a theatre artist in the first place. As a first-year student, she was intent on pursuing a degree in English, thinking performing on stage would continue as a hobby that started her sophomore year of high school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her thinking changed when she auditioned for a role in the College\u2019s production of She Kills Monsters<\/em>. Since then, she has performed in key roles in multiple productions every year since, including The Importance of Being Earnest; Much Ado About Nothing; Company;<\/em> Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play<\/em>; and a series of short plays written by Samuel Beckett.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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