Author’s Work Lives On
 We still live in the shadow of AIDS some 25 years after its first documented case. So many wonderfully talented people were victims to this virulent plague. We know all about the famous cases. One “nearly famous” case was author Terry Miller.
This July 16, 17 & 18, TCC and Carriage House Arts Center will be presenting a reading of one of Terry’s plays, “Pines ’79,” which paints a very vivid –and funny - portrait of life on Fire Island before the shadow of AIDS darkened our community.
Director Frank Gaffney is excited to tackle the play. “It really is an accurate portrait of the era: drugs, sex and disco music. It had it all.” The production has an interesting twist in the casting, Frank explains, “Since there were 8 characters, I decided to use four couples as the cast.”
Six of those actors are TCC members: Anthony Carregal & Frank Gaffney, Chris Spiegelman & Michael Fishman and Glenn Packman & Bill Biggs. Rounding out the cast are Michael Limone & Brad Eaton and Andrea Garmun as the older lady who “loves her gays.” Terry Miller’s sister, Deborah Burke, will serve as the host of the evening.
It was Terry’s sister who championed reviving his work.
Triangle Community Center: What was it like growing up with a gay brother?
Deborah Burke: Terry was 7 years older than me, and so I really knew him best as "my older brother," not as a gay man. So I really can't tell you much about his lifestyle. From what I gather, he spent many a night in the Greenwich Village bath houses at the height of the sexual revolution when multiple partners per night were the norm.
TCC: Not to mention summers on Fire Island?
Deborah: He loved The Pines. That was the place Terry asked his ashes to be scattered. My father, mother and I took a trip to Fire Island, followed a path deep into the back woods to a very small clearing - which is where I assume he had some of the –uh- more intense times of his life - and we did as he asked. It must have been an odd sight: three very much overdressed people carrying an urn to the Meat Rack. Well, maybe not the urn part… [she laughs]. So Terry is now and forever a part of The Pines.
TCC: What was Terry like growing up?
Deborah: Growing up, Terry was the Producer, Director and Cinematographer of the family; he would constantly be writing plays and creating 8mm films, using his 3 younger sisters as the actors. Terry went off to Boston University when I was in 5th grade... so our family years together were short. He loved to tease and made sure to keep us laughing – particularly me. We’d spend hours shoveling through major snowstorms to create mazes and palaces for us to play in and would often play board games for hours on end... Risk, Clue, Mille Bourne, Monopoly, Careers... He was a ruthless player and basically wouldn't let us quit until he won...
Terry was often teased as a young boy. Not particularly attractive, skinny, with big ears, not masculine, and, of course, not good at sports.... he had a rough time of it. When he first went to sleep away camp at age 12, the teasing and bullying continued and Terry was miserable. My mother came up with an ingenious idea. She sent him 12 pairs of bright orange socks and told him to wear them every day. After just a few days, Terry became known as "the guy with the orange socks," and it actually established some kind of celebrity for him. The teasing stopped, and he started gaining confidence. It was the turning point in his life.
He was a complex personality....needy and goofy. He would call me every year on my birthday as the "Birthday Turtle"... a cross between Kermit and Elmer Fudd and wouldn't break out of character no matter what keeping me on the phone for at least half-anhour. I used to hate to answer the phone on my birthday because I knew he would torture me... and now I miss it so!
TCC: Tell us a little bit about how Terry’s passion for theater fueled his career.
Deborah: Terry had a brilliant mind and was "a walking encyclopedia" of "The History of Musical Theater". He was selected to identify and catalog the Joseph Abeles collection of theater photographs. (an extraordinary theater archive: about 4,580 prints and 2,655 contact sheets representing 168 stage productions from the 1950s and ’60s, the golden age of the Broadway musical).
Terry amassed a huge collection of his own of records, tapes (many of which were one-of-a-kind recordings of Broadway shows), playbills, books and other theater ephemera...all this was stuffed floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall, in every closet, nook and cranny in his tiny NYC studio apartment leaving little room for anything else other than his bed.
Terry's favorite T-shirt read "I'm Nearly Famous"... and it was so true! He was on the cutting edge of fame... always a half step behind. He was just putting the finishing touches on his first major play entitled "Please Don't Walk on the Clouds" when the concept came to Broadway as "Jesus Christ Superstar." His next project, which took years to research, was a play about jazz great Billie Holiday. Again when Terry was close to completion, the Diana Ross movie "Lady Sings the Blues" was announced. I believe these two major disappointments had a profound impact on his life.
After this, he hit his stride with minor successes of the play, "Pines '79", the novella "Standing By" and the history book, "Greenwich Village and How it Got That Way." He wrote dozens of articles, reviewed books and plays, interviewed his idols Gore Vidal and Stephen Sondheim, and wrote and gave many speeches about Gay Rights including, "Homophobia, Sexism and Racism: Unraveling the Ties that Bind" and "Gay Culture: Its Origins, Development and Importance for our Society."
TCC: How do you feel about this revival of his play?
Deborah: It's indescribable. For both him, and for my Mother, who spent so much effort trying to keep his memory alive. She would have been a weeping basket case! [A wistful smile comes over her face.] No words can explain. The fact that his work lives on is what he so desperately wanted. And I get to feel proud of myself for doing right by him! My only other memorial to Terry was when I sewed his quilt for The Names Project. I feel the same sense of pride mixed with sorrow now as I did then.
Terry Miller may have been “nearly famous,” but for three nights in July at the Carriage House his voice will be heard again.
A TCC Fundraising Event
203-229-9797
carriagehouseartscenter.org
Directed by Frank Gaffney | 
