She'll make her next big city appearance in the Off-Off-Broadway Six Tens from a Fifty with the Etcetera Theatre Company at the Beckmann Theatre.
Coming a long way
Born in 1947 at a Polish Army hospital in Wales, Miluski said that her Polish parents tried to make a living in Great Britain after World War II. Her father was in the Polish Army, which was part of the Allied Army, and after the war, her family lived in England until she was 9.
While they enjoyed living in the U.K., Miluski said that her parents found it difficult to make a good living without citizenship. When one of her mother's friends from the Windy City invited Miluski's family to Chicago, her family immigrated to the U.S.
Miluski said her hopes of becoming an actress were already high when they crossed the pond.
"Ever since I was a little girl, from as far back as I could think, I loved to act," said Miluski. "I was about 7 years old when I was in my first play."
What was the appeal of acting?
"It's that Sally Field's quote; 'You like me, you really like me.' I think that's the basis for all actors," laughed Miluski.
But she comes from a mostly improv background, and a famous one at that.
"I was about 20, and I started taking classes at Second City in Chicago," Miluski said. "[There were] mostly people from Saturday Night Live coming out of there."
Attending classes on and off until graduating from their Training Theatre, some of the famous faces she remembers seeing around the famed Second City Theatre included Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray (Bill's brother), and Steve Carell (The Office).
Soon, she found herself moving on, however. After the companies she worked for in Chicago and then in Florida downsized, she accepted an agent's invite to move to New Jersey and pursue theater in New York.
The Garden State and the Big Apple
In 2000, Miluski moved to Jersey City.
"The rent here is a lot better, and it's quieter than New York. I live in a great neighborhood. I really enjoy living here."
Although Miluski endured setbacks and financial hardship after Sept. 11, she was determined to stay.
"Sept. 11 was tough, because at the time, I was temping and temping just dried up. I was literally one rent check away from having to move to Indiana [where her parents lived at the time], and that's when I realized how much I really loved living here."
Today, she works as an administrator in the tax department at Sony in New York City, and then auditions and rehearses for acting jobs evenings and weekends.
Miluski's work spans plays, film, and television. She's appeared in stage productions of Lady Windermere's Fan, A Month in the Country, and The Other Son. She's performed at the Samuel French Festival in New York, and she appeared in a play directed by Tony White that was a semi-finalist in the Strawberry Festival in Manhattan.
In addition, she was in the movies Happy Trails and Playing Doctor.
In Playing Doctor, which is currently in post production, Miluski plays Marta, a publicist for a celebrity relationship expert. Among the New Jersey filming locations was Hoboken's Symposia Bookstore.
Jazzmyn Banks, director of the upcoming film, thought Miluski was quite a professional.
"She brought a lot of depth to it, and made the character fun," said Banks. "She has great comedic timing."
'Six Tens from a Fifty'
"Call it guerilla theatre, call it grunge theatre, call it whatever you want," stated playwright Joel Samberg in a press release. "But the fact is that people have to come down to experience the kind of refreshing theatre we are bringing to the Beckmann."
Samberg's series, Six Tens from a Fifty, is comprised of the one-act plays "Art of Deception," "Funny, You Don't Look Dead," "Going Down in American History," "Homeless Equity," "Selective Emory," and "Two Gentlemen of Verona, New Jersey." Samberg lives in Verona, and has written for publications in Hudson County.
Miluski will perform in "Art of Deception" and "Homeless Equity," and her roles are unusual and mysterious. In "Art of Deception," she plays a wife whose husband has a confession to make about a past infidelity. The catch is that Miluski's character is asleep, and she mumbles only a few lines.
As for "Homeless Equity," bums are attempting to unionize somehow, but besides that basic premise, Miluski didn't want to give away too much.
Deborah Barone, who directed and worked with Miluski in some shows by Love Creek Productions in Florida and New York, is a close friend and believes Miluski has what it takes to make it in Manhattan.
"She's an original. She does great character work. She has definitely got a mind of her own. She's always been a joy to work with," said Barone. "I think the biggest thing is perseverance - she definitely has that. I can't see her giving up. It's a game of odds in that business. I think the ones that make it are the ones that hang in there, persevere and stick to it. She's tenacious as all get out."
Barbara Miluski can be seen in "Six Tens from a Fifty" with the Etcetera Theatre Company on Feb. 7 at the Beckmann Theatre on West 54th Street in Manhattan at 7:30 p.m. For tickets or more information, call (212) 769-7973. Comments on this story can be sent to Mpaul@hudsonreporter.com.
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