We were lucky to catch up with Jordan Miller recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jordan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

My nonprofit youth theater company recently presented a play called “Mockingbird” which centered around an 11 year old girl on the Autism Spectrum. This play was the culmination of my life and career thus far, as in addition to training all the actors involved in the project, and playing the main character’s “Dad”, I have a personal connection to this material as I am also the parent of a child on the spectrum. The scenes that are in the play I have personally lived, and I feel it is important for our community of parents and teachers to see how the interworking of a child on the spectrum works, and how we, as their guides, can better support them.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I began my career as an actor, singer, and stunt performer and my career took me from New York, to Las Vegas, to Los Angeles to cruise ships and currently to San Diego, where my wife and I decided to raise our son and begin our own nonprofit youth acting school and performance company Theater For Young Professionals. We specialize in taking young artists with little or no experience and sharing all aspects of performance skills from acting, to voice to dance to writing and technical aspects of production. I think what sets us apart is that we believe that young artists are capable of deep, artistic integrity and offer training and projects that provide mentorship with adult professional actors to jumpstart their skillsets to either assist in getting them into college theater programs or beginning their careers while still youth actors.

: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I think traditional arts training has held the notion that “talent” is something you’re either born with or not, and that only those who have “the gift” are worthy to pursue careers in the arts. I think this is completely incorrect, that acting, singing, dance and so on are skills that can be trained, honed and mastered, and that it is a matter of the student having the will and desire to learn and matching them with the teacher who is able to impart that learning. I also believe that a person’s worth is within themselves and not their “work,” so we try to impart that philosophy in our training to help build a youth’s sense of self as an individual, and not as someone who has to “make it” in order to be successful and overall a happy, well rounded and emotionally mature person.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect for me, especially as a director, is creating something truly unique and beautiful, something that everyone can connect to and find something within themselves that really resonates. The most “artistic” endeavors in my opinion are those that you feel you’ve shared a part of your soul with your audience and that you have somehow left them with a piece of yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.typsandiego.org
• Instagram: typsandiego.org
• Facebook: Theater For Young Professionals
• Youtube: TYP Productions

Image Credits
Images by David Rumley, Ken Jacques