TWO PERSPECTIVES—John McCool Bowers and Jackson Miller were honored at the recent Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center Foundation’s Spotlight Awards. Bowers, who is an actor, was named Artist of the Year, and Miller, who does production lighting, was named Young Artist of the Year. Both are from Simi Valley. WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers On any given week night or weekend, a visitor sitting in one of the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center’s 220 seats or walking the halls of the theater is likely to see John McCool Bowers or bump into Jackson Miller.

One has more than a decade of experience under his show business belt, while the young buck is just starting his career in the industry.

One is a gifted actor and singer, whose booming voice and presence can dominate a stage and captivate an audience. The other makes magic behind the scenes, using lights to add drama and emotion to a scene.

Both were honored as artists of the year at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center Foundation’s annual Spotlight Awards on April 30. And both would say the center has changed their lives for the better.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT—Jackson Miller, 18, works in lighting design and is often involved in productions at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center. The Santa Susana High senior will attend the Boston University College of Fine Arts in the fall. WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers The seasoned veteran

Bowers, 53, joined the ranks of the Cultural Arts Center in March 2009 after a 25-year absence from the stage.

A Georgia native, Bowers was first introduced to theater during his junior year of high school when his homeroom teacher heard him sing “Happy Birthday” and promptly took him to the choir director to audition for the musical “Mame.”

“I loved it. I love being on stage . . . never really been nervous,” Bowers said. “There’s nothing like an audience. I guess I’ve always been a ham.”

With a stageworthy middle name like McCool—his paternal grandmother’s maiden name—it would seem his name was destined to be in lights.

However, though he participated in community theater while attending college, he didn’t pursue acting as a career, instead getting a degree in broadcasting.

After graduation, he put his deep, distinctive voice to good use as a DJ, but he soon tired of the airwaves and decided to give theater a shot.

Upon moving to New York, it took him just two months to land a spot in the National Broadway Touring Company of “Evita.”

For 2½ years he traveled the country, performing. But when the show closed at the Ahmanson Theatre in 1984, Bowers was ready to settle down.

He stayed in California, and met his wife, Barbara, while tending bar in Simi.

Finding a theater gig proved difficult, so he set his sights on a job similar to acting: the law. A 1991 graduate of Pepperdine School of Law, Bowers is a business litigation attorney with Manfredi Levine in Westlake Village.

What brought him back to the stage were his stepson, Jim, and local actor Ryan Gesell. Both nagged Bowers to get back in the game, and Gesell sent him audition dates. Bowers’ comeback was official when he got the part of ex-Nazi Franz Liebkind in “The Producers.”

Since then, Bowers has made up for lost time, appearing in four more local productions this season. He’s currently on the center’s stage playing King Pellinore in “Camelot,” a musical that will wrap Sunday.

Bowers said it hasn’t been hard balancing work with theater, and while he probably won’t do six shows in a year again, he wouldn’t mind performing full time.

“I’m waiting to win the lottery so I can retire and just do acting,” he laughed. “I can’t get enough of it, I guess.”

The up-and-comer

Miller, an 18-year-old senior at Santa Susana High School, can’t get enough, either. Since he started working at the center in February 2007, Miller has put in at least 1,500 hours of volunteer work on 15 productions.

It was his younger sister Melissa who pulled him into the theater world.

Miller said he saw the fall 2006 show “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” 10 times because Melissa was in the children’s chorus.

“I saw all the techies milling about, and that looked like something that I wanted to do,” he said.

So he asked if the center needed any help with the production of “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” and he was put to work as a stagehand.

But soon enough he started looking at the lighting.

“I very quickly was naturally attracted to it,” he said.

Miller ran the lights for the center’s next show, “The Wizard of Oz.” He learned the buttonfilled board by watching others and through hands-on experience, and in the spring of 2009 he was able to design the lights for the first time for “Willy Wonka.”

The teen said what he loves about lighting design is that it works both sides of his brain, blending creative vision with technical know-how.

Over the past three years, working in the theater has become much more than a hobby for Miller. It’s become his passion.

“It’s influenced everything about what I plan to do, but it’s also changed me as a person,” he said. “I was very shy; I didn’t interact with people that often. But now that I’ve been in the theater . . . it’s made me a very social person.”

Miller’s ultimate goal is to be a professional lighting designer on Broadway. To achieve that dream, he will attend Boston University in the fall, working toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts in lighting design. With a GPA of 4.1, Miller received a scholarship that covers half his tuition at the theater conservatory.

While he admitted to being a bit nervous about moving across the country, his excitement outweighs any fears.

“I’m excited to get my start in life,” he said.

Common bonds

Though they are a generation apart, Miller and Bowers share two things: a love for theater and a fondness for the tiny arts center on Los Angeles Avenue.

For them, the players and crew who make it work have become family.

“It’s been a second home,” Miller said at the Spotlight Awards.

Bowers agreed, saying the quality of the productions is what drew him to the center, but it’s the people who keep him there.

“It’s kind of like a family every time you go to rehearsal,” he said.

For the two artists, the hours they spend at the center, the effort they put into each show, is borne out of sheer passion for their craft.

“I do it because I have a blast,” Bowers said. “It’s really that simple.”

Miller felt the same, saying in all seriousness that he hopes he doesn’t have much free time in the future for anything besides theater.

“I mean, theater is a lifestyle,” he said, “it’s not just a career.”