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profile L o c a l D i r e c t o r S e l l s C o m m u n i t y Theatre Local North Shore News theatre critic Martin Millerchip will soon be on the other end of a review when G l e n g a r r y G l e n Ross comes to Presentation House Theatre this February. Millerchip is directing this production of David Mamet's play, but prefers to call himself a foreman in a play that is more difficult for the actors than the director. by Ben D'Andrea ty the time Martin Millerchip returned to the theatre, first as an actor and then as a director, he'd made several detours as an assistant teacher, truck driver, travel clerk, and disc jockey. Working as a DJ in Vancouver's lively night club circuit in the late '70s was particularly rewarding in financial terms. But that wasn't enough to keep Millerchip from auditioning for a role with New Westminster's Vagabond Stage. "As soon as I stepped on stage." he says. "I thought, yeah. I've come home." Millerchip landed the role. Now in his 40s. Millerchip was 16 and living in England when he directed his first play. His grammar school in the Surrey town of Surbiton held a yearly drama competition. "One year there was no director." he recalls, so he decided to volunteer. The play was Beckett's Waiting for Godot, and directing it. Millerchip says, was like "jumping in at the deep end." When the play won the competition, however, he knew that directing wasn't just a passing whim. "I was quite convinced." he says, "that I was God's gift to directors." Millerchip now has a lot more directing experience than he did at the age of 16. But that fearless self- Martin Millerchip. Photo: North Shore News. confidence that prompted him to tackle his first play, he believes, is a basic requirement for directors. "If you don't have that confidence, you cripple yourself with self-doubt." he says. "You spend the entire process second-guessing yourself, and nothing ever gets done." Another of the director's essential qualities may well be an awareness that the director's role has certain limits. Millerchip recently finished selecting the cast for the Presentation House Theatre production of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, which he will both direct and produce. But he describes his role as director of this play in modest terms. "I'm going to be more foreman than anything else." he says. "I don't believe it's an easy play to make work, although the difficulty is more for the actors than the director." An experienced actor himself, he recognizes the daunting challenge his actors are up against: bringing the difficult rhythms of Mamet's language to life. The English-born Millerchip first visited Canada in the early 70s with a group of his then co-workers from the Automobile Association. "We ended up in California and did the whole hippy trippy West Coast thing." he says. Travelling in a Volkswagen bus. they wandered up to Kamloops and then Hope, with plans to work and save money for a trip to Mexico. That's when Millerchip decided he wanted to live in Canada. He went back to England and applied to immigrate "as a self-employed discotheque operator." Soon after moving to the North Shore. Millerchip joined the North Van Players, and in 1981 directed the group's entry in Theatre BC's annual competition. The play won awards lor direction, acting, design, and overall production. Millerchip enjoyed his success, but realized there was a lot more he needed to leam. Several years of guest directing with a variety of community groups around the province--Langley. Maple Ridge. Abbotsford. and Williams Lake--provided invaluable hands-on training not just in directing but in all aspects of production. Millerchip turned professional following a season as an apprentice director at Halifax's Neptune