Art Miller Valencia resident Art Miller dreamed that one day he’d be a performer.   In high school, however, a theater director told him it wasn’t in the cards for him, adding that Miller would become a teacher instead.  “I was taken aback by it,” Miller, a drama teacher at Canyon High School, said in an interview before school one recent weekday morning in his classroom. “I’m like, ‘Really, that’s what I’m going to do? Thanks. Thanks a lot, buddy.’”  Miller didn’t like hearing his director’s prediction because Miller had a whole plan for his life that included performing on stage in the floodlights. He wanted to be a concert symphony oboist, but he wasn’t limited to just that. He also aspired to act and sing on the stage.   Miller, 39, was born and raised in Pittsburgh. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in voice performance from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. That’s also where he met the person who would become his wife.   The couple got married and moved to New York, where Miller got his Master of Music degree in voice performance from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Despite what his old high school theater director told him, Miller was determined to sing and act.   “We were given a full package of performance curriculum that built our skillset, not just as singer and actor, but also as director and conceptualizing ideas,” Miller said. “Both of my degrees had that very well-rounded sequence to them that allowed me to translate it into the work I now do on the daily.”  After Miller received his master’s degree, he set out to work in his field. New York, of course, home of the Broadway Theater District, was the place to be to make his dreams come true. Though, Miller found more steady work across the bridge in New Jersey, as a private voice and acting instructor to 40 to 50 students a week.  “This is what I did,” Miller said. “Because performance gigs, you know, you never know when you’re going to get one. And so, this was to have a consistent income. But it became the thing that I enjoyed most. I realized it had more weight and more value than being a performer to me.”  Miller couldn’t help but recall those words from his high school director, telling him he would not act, that he’d instead become a teacher.  Art Miller speaks with Canyon High School students on Wednesday during their rehearsal of “Grease” at the CHS Performing Arts Center. Habeba Mostafa/The Signal One of his big moments was working with a high school freshman in Central New Jersey.  “She had a beautiful voice,” Miller said. “But unpolished, unrefined. One of her high school teachers had told her, ‘You need to do something else.’ He labeled her with this status, sealed her fate with this statement. And she told me about it. I felt inside like a fire came out. I said, ‘Absolutely not. No, that is not you.’”  That student attended Syracuse University for musical theater, which Miller noted is one of the top programs in the field. The last Miller had heard, the former student had been doing quite well.   “To know that I was able to be a part of her journey — a part of her story,” Miller said, “you realize the value of being an educator — being a teacher — and yeah, what a privilege it was to be a part of someone’s development like that.”  Miller added that he always tells his students that it’s not where they begin, but where they end up. It’s that fact, he said, that makes teaching drama so rewarding to him. Because kids come in with minimal previous knowledge, and, as such, they have that much further to go.  In 2011, Miller and his wife were thinking of a change of pace and place. Miller’s wife is originally from the Santa Clarita Valley. And so, the couple moved to Valencia.  “It was different coming out west,” Miller said. “But honestly, I’m happy to have made the change. I don’t have to shovel snow anymore.”  When the couple got to California, Miller immediately got to work on attaining a teaching credential, and soon after that, found a job teaching show choir, theater and piano at Lancaster High School. He did that from 2013 to 2016.   Clocking almost 80 miles round-trip a day, his commute from Valencia to Lancaster got old fast. He racked up 80,000 miles on his car in no time.   Lucky for him, his search for something local turned up. Rio Norte Junior High School in Valencia had an opening. Miller jumped at it. He did that job for about a year and a half.   Then, in 2017, Miller applied for a theater director job at Canyon High School.  “It was fun to work with the junior high students,” he said. “But my heart is really with high school and developing the skillsets in high school for those kinds of performances.”  Miller got the Canyon High job in January 2018. His response to the work was immediate.  Portrait of Art Miller on Wednesday in front of Canyon High School’s Performing Arts Center. Habeba Mostafa/The Signal “The junior high school that feeds into Canyon doesn’t have a theater program,” he said. “Most of the kids in my class have never been to a live performance. This is their first exposure to theater, their first understanding of what it is to be on stage, to develop that skillset. And so, in a sense, it’s on me to help provide them that knowledge and insight and growth over their time.”  Miller loved it. To see where his students began and where they ended up has been most satisfying. What he found unfortunate was an unfair understanding of the school hierarchy he’s observed in the area.  “I think sometimes, just based on our location, Canyon can seem like it’s on the outside looking in,” he said. “I don’t believe that’s actually valid, because I see the results of the students at this school, and I experience their accomplishments with them in my program. To me, when I hear people whispering things about what they assume Canyon is, it’s upsetting. It makes me want to work harder to ensure that my students are a force to be reckoned with.”  For the last number of years, Miller added, Canyon High has made its mark at Drama Teachers Association of Southern California festivals.  Art Miller works with Canyon High School students on Wednesday during their rehearsal of “Grease” at the CHS Performing Arts Center. Habeba Mostafa/The Signal “DTASC is approximately 70 schools from the region who compete in different categories of performance and tech theater,” he said. “Canyon High School has consistently been a top-10 school.”  But that’s the theater program as a whole. Miller takes much joy in seeing his students thrive individually.   Seventeen-year-old senior Sofiah Lopez said Miller created a safe space in his classroom that gave students the freedom to create and experiment. The result of that was a newfound confidence in herself.  Sixteen-year-old Canyon High junior Brandon Davenport said he, too, had confidence issues.  “My sophomore year, Mr. Miller started to invest in me more,” Davenport said. “But I felt a new pressure of letting him down. It wasn’t until our spring (play), ‘The Marriage of Figaro,’ that I truly found my place in the program. I was originally cast as ensemble, but after one of the leads couldn’t be in the show, Mr. Miller offered me the part.”  Davenport said he timidly accepted. Something that contributed to his stress was that the group was tasked with putting the play together in a month and a half, which was not much time. It was the biggest challenge he’d personally faced.  “But Mr. Miller believed in me and made me feel like I was valued and wanted,” Davenport said. “This role I portrayed was very outlandish and bold, which was intimidating in itself, but it was also my first lead. After the show ended, I felt nothing but pure love for my craft, and the opportunity I was given and the support from Mr. Miller helped me see that acting is what I was meant to do.”   Davenport said that this year, Miller has continued to work with him to further develop his skills.   Canyon High School students rehearse a number under the direction of Art Miller on Wednesday during rehearsals of “Grease” at the CHS Performing Arts Center. Habeba Mostafa/The Signal Canyon High senior Bailey Bond, 17, similarly credited Miller with helping her dig deep within herself.   “Mr. Miller is the person who truly made me fall in love with theater and find my abilities,” she said. “My freshman year, I competed in my first-ever theater competitions. At a local competition, I was given an award for best supporting actress in a dramatic role. That was the exact moment I knew I would stay in theater all four years.”   She added that Miller showed her how to use her voice and also how to use the space of the stage.  “Doing performances and different scenes gives you so much control over yourself,” Bond said. “I am an actress who loves monologues because I am able to express myself in so many ways.”  She also praised Miller for helping her knock down walls of fear she’d previously built up around herself. Thanks to Miller, she’s now able to focus solely on the character she’s playing and not on any outside negative ideas.   “The drama program is so important to me,” she added, “because it helped me find something I could truly be myself in.”  Miller’s program has his students putting on three shows this year — two of which are musicals. They’re currently at work on a production of “Grease,” which is set to run Nov. 20 to 23. Then they’ll move on to a stage adaptation of “Rocky” in April and finally “The Crucible” in May.  Art Miller directs Canyon High School students Wednesday during their rehearsal of “Grease” at the CHS Performing Arts Center. Habeba Mostafa/The Signal “The daunting task to do two musicals in a year with a third show creeping up slowly behind it? Yeah,” Miller said. “It’s an opportunity for these kids to put in the work, to rise to a challenge, and that’s what you want them to do. You want them to work to something. You want them to have a challenge.”  Miller and wife have two daughters, 8 and 6 years old. They’re involved in their community and church. And even though Miller is not on stage in the floodlights as he once dreamed about, his experience as a teacher has been more fulfilling than he ever imagined.  “We say here at Canyon, it’s a great day to be a cowboy,” Miller said, referring to the school’s mascot. “It is a great day to be a cowboy. I enjoy coming in to work every day. And I have since I started.”  Know any unsung heroes or people in the SCV with an interesting life story to tell? Email [email protected].  The post Faces of the SCV: Valencia resident goes from dreamer to mentor appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.