When he portrayed a nerdy florist in a popular sci-fi musical at Justin-Siena High School a decade ago, little did Matthew Teague Miller think he'd return one day to direct the school's theater arts program.

Nor did he dare to dream at the time that he'd wind up singing in a long-running Broadway musical, let alone marrying one of its leading ladies.

All of that and more has come to pass in the 10-year time span since Miller graduated from Justin-Siena.

Miller grew up in Vacaville but enrolled at the private Napa Valley school due to the reputation of its theater arts program, headed by acclaimed director Alex Urban.

While at Justin-Siena, Miller played major roles in several productions -- as Seymour in "Little Shop of Horrors," as Paul in "A Chorus Line" and as Jack of beanstalk fame in "Into The Woods." He was also featured in the school productions of "Big River," "Starbound" and "Broadway Bound."

Graduating in 1995 in a class that included another student who wound up on Broadway, Kristy Cates, Miller spent a couple of years at Solano Community College. "Originally, I planned to enroll at San Francisco State to get a teaching credential," he points out.

At Solano College, he was cast in the title role of the musical, "Pippin." It was during this production that Miller came to grips with his future.

"The show is about a young man who comes to a crossroads in life and has to make a decision," he recalls. "I was there ... (and) I acknowledged that I really loved the theater, that I would stick with it and see what happens."

His former classmate, Kristy Cates, was enrolled in the musical theater program at the University of Cincinnati's Conservatory of Music. She had a videotape of a Miller performance and showed it to instructors at the conservatory. As a result, Miller was invited to sign up for classes in one of the nation's top musical theater schools.

He spent three years in Cincinnati, graduating with a bachelor of fine arts degree in musical theater.

"When I graduated, I and 14 other grads were presented in a student showcase in New York City," he says, "and 12 were signed by New York agents."

Next came the grind of auditions, which Miller says he didn't really mind. While waiting tables at the ESPN restaurant in Times Square, he auditioned for more than a dozen shows over a stretch of two-and-a-half months.

The casting director for "Les Miserables" had seen Miller's showcase and was pleased with Miller's audition piece. As a result, he was asked to join the national tour of the long-running Broadway show in San Francisco. It was this cast -- augmented by other actors from the New York and London shows, including Colm Wilkinson returning in the role of Jean Valjean that he created in the original production -- that was tapped for the first Broadway show to play in China.

Miller spent three years in the "Les Mis" cast, taking over the role of the mercurial, reticent Marius for two of those years. It was during this time that Ashley Jarrett joined the cast, eventually assuming the role of the beautiful but sad Cosette.

Matthew and Ashley began to see one another off stage as well as on and were eventually engaged. They were married at sunset on a Maui beach several years ago.

After the Broadway show had run its course, Miller felt it was time to "do my teaching thing. I had never abandoned that idea, just put it on hold. I did direct an Off-Broadway show first, but it didn't take me too long to secure a teaching position at a performing arts high school in New Jersey."

Miller said he began to miss both weather and friends on the West Coast. When Justin-Siena officials asked him if he'd be interested in taking over the school's theater arts department, he jumped at the chance.

"I'm back where I started and glad of it," Miller declared. "I also teach a choir class and I'm the yearbook adviser.

"What's kind of funny, I guess, is that my co-workers today were my teachers not too long ago."

On the horizon

Miller's initial effort at Justin-Siena was a musical revue, "Braves on Broadway," which starred some of the school's alumni, including Kristy Cates, Diego Garcia and Ellen Toscano, along with his wife, Ashley.

At present, he's busy with rehearsals for the acclaimed drama, "The Diary of Anne Frank," slated to open this Thursday in the North Gym at the Justin-Siena campus.

"It's an intimate work ... with eight people trapped in an attic, you can't get any more intimate than that," he adds. "We employed a professional set designer in order to bring our audience closer to the stage. There will only be 96 tickets sold for each performance.

"This is an important story and most people are familiar with it. A profound work, it's about a young girl writing in her journal, not afraid to share things that touched her -- about life, the human spirit and politics. Anne is not always likable, either. Sometimes she's annoying."

Written in the mid-'50s by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, "The Diary of Anne Frank" is a harrowing story of a young Jewish girl who, with her family and their friends, is forced into hiding in an attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

Miller is staging the newest adaptation by Wendy Kasselman, who, the director says, "made Judaism more prevalent in the play. Natalie Portman starred in this version about a decade ago."

Justin-Siena's production of "The Diary of Anne Frank" opens Thursday at 7 p.m. and continues Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday through Nov. 20. For tickets, call 255-0950, ext. 659.