Rees Miller is a chemistry teacher at West Anchorage High School. As of next year, he will be taking over the theatre department. Miller is very excited to be a director but he is also nervous. His schedule for next year includes culinary arts, chemistry, and acting classes. David Block, the current theatre director said, “Miller is the perfect person to be a director. I have been looking around for four years and I have been trying to get Miller for most of that time, he finally said yes this year.”  Miller added, “David is not leaving West permanently, he is going to be seen in the building and doing stuff.”

According to Block, the qualities that the teacher should have are patience, mad skills, and sense of humor. Block said, “I am directing for years and years, for me it’s a process of creativity and also an educational setting. Directing is fun because it is not the same thing that you do everyday and it is a hard work.” Miller explained how he didn’t know that Block was thinking of him as a director for the last four years but he had an idea in his mind to do something related to acting for the last two years.

Block said that everybody should be in a school play at least once in four years because it builds confidence and the ability to talk in front of people. He said, “there are some secrets coming out and some interesting things that we will be doing at West this year. It is going to be fun to see Miller and how he does some interesting things. There may be some surprises that happen which I am not going to tell.”

Marie Tialino, one of Miller’s chemistry students said, “Miller have a strong personality. As a director I am sure he would do great stuff. Many students will love him.”  She continued on to say, “If I grade him on the scale of 1-10,  he would probably break the scale. He is just really awesome. I don’t have words to explain, his acting is like bomb.”

Miller talks about how his family feels about him being the director of the theatre. “My family will be okay with that I am going to spend most of the time in the theatre. I have a performing arts family, my wife performs, my daughters perform. We are very used to having those schedule in those time when you know that you are not available.” Miller added that directing is not something that he had ever done before. He had been in a lot of plays as well as have been an actor under many directors, including Block. He is very excited to see if the idea of being a good director comes true.

According to Tialino, if he gets a role of young teenager, he would probably shave his beard and get a nice haircut to get into his role. She added If Miller give her a chance to play a role she will take that chance. In other situations she will volunteer and do some stuff for help but she will never play any role. She added, “The reason of Miller’s not being a director in the last four years could be because he was doing many plays downtown those plays gave him more experience. Maybe he thinks that he can handle this job now cause he have enough experience.”