A Haunting Drama -- From Scranton, Jason Miller Calls Up Barrymore's Spirit

----------------------------------------------------------------- Theater preview

"Barrymore's Ghost" by Jason Miller, previews tomorrow, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, opens Wednesday and runs through May 10 at the Empty Space Theatre, 3509 Fremont Ave. N.; 547-7500. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Jason Miller must have a thing for poltergeists.

In the blockbuster horror film "The Exorcist," Miller made a stirring impression as an earnest Jesuit priest, trying to rid a young woman of the demon lodged in her soul.

And in his new solo play, "Barrymore's Ghost," set to premiere at Empty Space Theatre, Miller portrays the restless ghost of the late matinee idol John Barrymore as he haunts a present-day theater.

Miller himself, however, is very much alive. And he's boisterously visible in what might seem an unlikely spot: Scranton, Pa.

Scranton, where the New York-born Miller spent much of his youth, was the setting for his hit 1972 play, "That Championship Season," about the reunion of a high school basketball team. The 1982 movie version, directed by Miller, featured members of the remarkable Broadway cast - Paul Sorvino, Martin Sheen, Charles Durning - and was shot in Scranton.

More recently, he's occasionally been spotted in Hollywood movies - often forgettable stuff, like "The Exorcist III." And now and then he takes screenwriting gigs to help pay the bills: For instance, he penned the script of a well-received TV movie, "Mary Thomas: A Mother's Courage," starring Alfre Woodard.

But Miller now spends most of his time in Scranton, presiding over artistic matters at the nonprofit Scranton Public Theatre.

And before you can take pity on a recipient of both the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize, toiling away in relative obscurity in a small Pennsylvania city, he sets you straight.

"My feeling is, in the long run, the best work in the American theater will be done outside of New York and Los Angeles," Miller maintains. "This is a very vital theater area. And I'll tell you, I couldn't do that Hollywood thing nonstop. It's not in my molecules or my nature. I'd much rather be here, working in theater."

A son in Hollywood

The expansive, jovial Miller does express pride in his movie-actor son, Jason Patric, who is doing quite well at the Hollywood boogie. But he can't help pointing out that Patric, one of his four children, "is a magnificent stage actor. He started in high school and I thought, this boy has a lot of talent."

But the twice-divorced Miller stays content in Scranton, where he's lured such colleagues as Nicol Williamson and Richard Harris to perform at his company.

And Miller mentions with pleasure how a two-man stage show at the Scranton Public by Irish brothers Frank and Malachi McCourt became the nucleus of Frank's bestselling memoir, "Angela's Ashes," which just nabbed a Pulitzer Prize.

A while back Miller began assembling his own one-man tribute to John Barrymore and playing it in local colleges. He had no idea, though, that two other noted actors were barking up the same tree.

Christopher Plummer currently stars in William Luce's monodrama, "Barrymore," on Broadway. And Williamson brought his own tribute to the same actor, "Jack: A Night on the Town with John Barrymore," to Broadway last year.

"They didn't know I was writing one and I didn't know they were," Miller says ruefully. "All of a sudden the Barrymore comet came by. Everyone asks why, and I wish I had an intelligent, erudite answer. I don't."

Barrymore, an abundantly gifted and self-destructive star who died at 60 of alcohol-related ailments in 1942, is certainly a colorful subject. And Miller's theatrical approach to him sounds unique: In his "imaginative biography," Barrymore "is really a ghost, in the great tradition of actors' ghosts haunting theaters. I like the premise because it's whimsical and has a certain airiness to it, rather than me just hitting away with a lot of literal, biographical historicity."

Miller admires the thespian's talent, and his "gallantry. He fought a lot of demons and satyrs, but made some very good films. And did you know he was a mystic? He was going off to India long before that became popular. He was also an excellent sailor and hunter, and always wanted to be a painter."

In Miller's view, Barrymore "had a very difficult time getting over the enormous response to his Hamlet and his Richard III, and an aching guilt for leaving the theater. I think that's what killed him, so I talk a lot about fame and greed and gluttony, and the surrealism of what happened to his life."

No distortions

Though freely embellishing the historical material he found on Barrymore, Miller insists he hasn't "distorted or violated anything about him. I've just interpreted it in my own way."

Empty Space artistic director Eddie Levi Lee got the script for "Barrymore's Ghost" from a mutual acquaintance. "I read it, liked it, and just called Jason up to tell him we were interested," explains Lee.

"Marlon Brando said you can't play a character bigger than you are. It takes an awfully big actor to play Barrymore, and I know Jason can do it. This isn't just a playwright who acts, but a wonderful actor."

The Empty Space engagement marks Miller's first visit to Seattle, and what he hopes will be the beginning of an ongoing life for "Barrymore's Ghost." But he doesn't see himself playing the part indefinitely.

"What I'd like is for somebody else to do it, someone of the caliber of Stacy Keach or Martin Sheen," Miller maintains. "I'm doing it myself this time, just for the adventure. I wanted to take on something new and just see if I could make it work."