Artistic & Managing Directors
Bruce Miller – Artistic Director
Bruce is Artistic Director of Barksdale Theatre and Founding Artistic Director of Theatre IV. He co-produced the world premieres of Rules of the Lake by Irene Ziegler, Four Part Harmony by Marcus Fisk and Douglas Minerd, War Story by Bo Wilson and Songs from Bedlam by Douglas Jones. Other producing credits include James Joyce’s The Dead, Proof, How I Learned to Drive, Beehive, Of Mice and Men, My Children! My Africa!, and Quilters. In the final two decades of the Phoebe Awards, Bruce’s productions earned Best Play or Best Musical of the Year 20 times.
His work as a director has been seen around the country at prominent theatres including the Kennedy Center and the Paper Mill Playhouse. Richmond directing credits include Barksdale’s productions of The Lark, Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, The Crucible and The Little Foxes, and Theatre IV’s productions of Having Our Say, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, and Do Lord Remember Me.
Bruce has received six Phoebe Awards as Best Director of the Year. For TV and radio, he directed The Ugly Duckling released nationally by PBS, and a production of folk stories broadcast internationally over Radio Free Europe.
His Barksdale acting credits include Red Hot and Cole and Diamond Studs (Phoebe Award, Best Supporting Actor). Other credits include Arnold in The Boys Next Door, Berenger in Rhinoceros, Clov in Endgame, Tom in The Glass Menagerie, and Yank in The Hasty Heart.
Bruce is co-author of Hugs and Kisses, the child sexual abuse prevention play that will soon begin the 25th year of its record-breaking run. His play Buffalo Soldier was selected by the Pentagon as a morale booster after 9/11, becoming the first professional play in history to be performed within the Pentagon’s walls.
He served as a site reporter for three years with the National Endowment for the Arts, and as a professional theatre panelist with the Lila Wallace—Reader’s Digest Fund in New York City. He is an alumnus of the University of Richmond, and is privileged to credit three teachers as mentors: Jack Welsh, and the late Marion Waymack and Bernard Schutte. He also thanks those who taught by example: Pete and Nancy Kilgore, Muriel McAuley, Buddy and Betty Callahan, and Lou and Fran Rubin.
In the spring of 1999, STYLE Weekly honored Bruce and Phil Whiteway by selecting them as two of the “100 Most Influential Richmonders of the Century.” In 2008 Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine announced the Governor's Awards for Arts 2008, which have only been awarded three times before - in 1979, 1985 and in 2000. Bruce Miller and Phil Whiteway share an award with Richmond's Theatre IV as the first professional children's theatre in Virginia, which has performed live for audiences totaling 28 million.
Bruce’s greatest blessings will always be his wife (artist and designer Terrie Powers Miller) and their two wonderful children.
Visit The Barksdale Buzz for blog posts by our Artistic Director.
Phil Whiteway – Managing Director
Phil co-founded Theatre IV in 1975, and continues to serve as Managing Director. He was named to the same position atBarksdale Theatre in 2001. His allegiance to Barksdale began in 1977, when he originated the role of Moss Hart in the world premiere of Red Hot and Cole.
Phil moved to Virginia from his New Jersey home to earn a B.S. from the University of Richmond’s School of Business Administration. When professors on the other side of the lake learned that he could sing and dance, he was courted by the theatre program, and wound up adding a B.A. in Theatre to his business resume.
In 1995, Phil was appointed by the University to the Committee of 50 to advise development efforts associated with the University’s capital campaign to construct the Modlin Fine Arts Center.
After graduation, Phil entered the Navy flight program in Pensacola, Florida and was commissioned as an Ensign. Following his military service, he returned to Richmond and starred in numerous shows at Swift Creek Mill Playhouse and the Haymarket Dinner Theatre. For television, he appeared opposite Fritz Weavein Ironclads, Mary Tyler Moore in Lincoln, and Richard Chamberlain in Dream West.
Phil is a graduate of Leadership Metro Richmond, and currently serves on their Board of Directors. He has served as a Trustee of his church and the Broad Street Association. He is active with the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, and has participated in annual Chamber leadership visits to many of our nation’s major cities.
Phil was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Richmond Arts Consortium. He has served/serves on the Governance Board of Partners in the Arts (central Virginia’s arts-in-education cooperative) and grant review panels for the Virginia Commission for the Arts.
Phil serves as Secretary/Treasurer of the Board of Directors of Virginians for the Arts, the statewide nonprofit organization that manages arts advocacy efforts across the Commonwealth. He was named Outstanding Young Citizen by the Richmond Jaycees in 1990, and received the Community Builders Award from the Central Virginia Lodge of Masons. In 1999, STYLE Weekly selected Phil as one of their 100 Most Influential Richmonders of the Century. In 2008 Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine announced the Governor's Awards for Arts 2008, which have only been awarded three times before - in 1979, 1985 and in 2000. Bruce Miller and Phil Whiteway share an award with Richmond's Theatre IV as the first professional children's theatre in Virginia, which has performed live for audiences totaling 28 million.
Phil is thankful for the love, support and patience he receives from his wife (actress and realtor Donna Holmes Whiteway) and their four terrific children.
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