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Performance Artist Tim Miller Brings One-Man Play to ASU February 17

Story by David Brewer

Internationally acclaimed solo performer Tim Miller will debut his one-man show Glory Box on Saturday, February 17, at I.G. Greer Arena Theatre at ASU. The show will start at 8:00 p.m. Admission is $3 for students and $5 for the general public.

Glory Box is a funny, sexy and charged exploration of Tim Miller's journeys through the challenge of love, gay marriage and the struggle for immigration rights for gay people and their partners. An Australian term for hope chest, glory box conjures an alternative site for placing memories, hopes and dreams of gay people's extraordinary potential for love.

From Miller's hilarious grade school playground battles over wanting to marry another boy to the harrowing travails of his bi-national relationship with his Australian partner, Alistair McCartney, Glory Box leads the audience on an intense and humorous journey into the complexity of the human heart that knows no boundary.

“It could be my favorite piece,” said Miller. “I think it gets at a lot of the issues.”

Miller expresses particular fondness for the messages and themes in Glory Box, originally performed in 1999. Noting the work’s continuing relevance in today’s political and social climate, Miller admitted that after initially writing and performing the piece, he thought that things in the United States would progress in a different manner.

“I assumed I’d be on to other subjects,” said Miller. “I thought Al Gore was going to be president, and he had already come out in favor of gay citizenship legislation.”

According to Miller, every Western nation with the exception of the United States recognizes the citizenship rights of homosexuals. With McCartney’s inability to obtain a visa, the pair has been repeatedly confronted with the complications of trying to maintain their relationship in a country that refuses to afford them the rights to do so.

“Almost all of my friends in this situation have been forced to leave the country,” said Miller. “Lesbian and gay people don’t have rights here in America.”

Miller is no stranger to conflict. In 1990, he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Performer Fellowship, that was promptly overturned under political pressure from the first Bush White House because of the gay themes of his work. According to Miller, North Carolina publication The Independent ran a cover photo of him naked with a sinister Jesse Helms leering over him.

Miller, along with three other artists, successfully sued the federal government with the help of the ACLU for violation of their First Amendment rights. The four won a settlement requiring the government to pay the amount of the de-funded grants and all court costs.

Miller has also been protested many times throughout his more than 20-year career as a writer, actor and speaker. From picket lines to death threats, Miller has endured several obstacles that have not only failed to prevent him from spreading his message, but have also emboldened him to continue. Rejecting the notion of red and blue states and the audiences that may lie within, Miller continues to travel and perform throughout the country.

“I fee like it is particularly purposeful to go and perform places where not everyone is particularly on my team,” said Miller. “Social change is a big project.”

In addition to either writing or co-writing and performing nine other plays, Miller is the author of the books Shirts & Skin, Body Blows and 1001 Beds. Since 1990, he has taught performance in the theater department at UCLA. He is a founder of the two most influential performance spaces in the United States: Performance Space 122 on Manhattan's Lower East Side and Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, Calif.

Miller’s performance is supported by Appalachian State University’s Department of English, the Hubbard Center, Department of Theatre and Dance and BGLAAD

Want To Go?

Date: Saturday, February 17

Time: 8:00 p.m.

Location: I.G. Greer Arena Theatre

Cost: $3 for students/$5 for general public