TIM MILLER NEWSLETTER & FALL TOUR ...ALASKA! S.F YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR ARTS! BOSTON! and MORE!

TIM MILLER NEWSLETTER & FALL TOUR ...ALASKA! SMU! BOSTON! S. ILLINOIS UNIV! COE COLLEGE! and MORE!

Hi Folks!

Hope you have and are having/had a great summer. (I am a firm believer - in spite of the semester system- that summer continues till the Autumnal Equinox and my birthday Sept 22) .

I am very excited about all my touring, performances and residencies for the coming year with my new show LAY OF THE LAND. Just premiered in LA in May and has started its national tour. (First stops this summer- L.A., Tallahassee, Cleveland Ingenuity Festival and Alaska! "lay of the land" indeed! Coming up is S.F. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Boston Center for the Arts, Out North in Anchorage, SMU, Southern Illinois University, Coe College and Pacific University. Fulls chedule below.

I am especially excited to be doing a week long performance workshop in S.F. Nov 15-22 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts that will build toward a public performance at Yerba Buena Nov 22. here's the link and info below.
http://www.ybca.org/tickets/production/view.aspx?id=10141
Wanted to let folks know about the workshop! It's open to the public. Space is limited!
I will be performing my new show LAY OF THE LAND - all about our post Prop H8 mess- Nov 20-21 at YBCA too!
http://www.ybca.org/tickets/production/view.aspx?id=10134

LAY OF THE LAND feels super strong and mega timely. Very much the piece I would want to be doing at this juicy time-one year to the day after marriage equality came to California (only to be snatched away months later) And as this issue races all over the country from, Iowa to New England

Great review in L.A. TIMES!
The Los Angeles Times: “Miller's LAY OF THE LAND enters territory as exhilarating as it is meaningful. Miller lays out his unapologetically renegade viewpoint with exemplary economy and sardonic humor. The final apotheosis stands high in Miller's canon, which, together with the overarching relevance, makes "Lay of the Land" a vivid, must-see achievement.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/05/review-lay-of-the-land-at-highways.html


Had a great run of shows this summer of LAY OF THE LAND at the GORGEOUS Hanna Theater. (Where the Ohio regional theater Great Lakes Theater Festival performs.) Amazing restored vaudeville house with a fantastic thrust stage. The Ingenuity Festival was great.
I have thought a lot about a gorgeous moment before my last show at the Hanna on a sunday. It was so exciting to have theCleveland gay men's chorus singing out there on 14th street as I scurried over. It was such a beautfiul claiming of space with the chorus there. I can't imagine a more charged way to arrive at the theater before I perform. and then they finished and people piled into the Hanna for LAY OF THE LAND (which really takes place ona street!) It felt full of hope and possibility for all the work we have to do ahead!

Sept 15-22 Anchorage, AK OUT NORTH THEATER
Oct 3-4 Dallas, SMU
Oct 5-11 Southern Illinois University
Oct 19-25 Coe College Cedar Rapids, IA
Nov 2-8 Boston Center for the Arts
Nov 12 Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR
Nov 14-22 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco

Coming up in winter 2010...a huge Ohio tour with residencies at Ohio University, Ohio Wesleyan and Kenyon College.

Very excited, just got a run at the amazing Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago with Lay of the Land for March 15-22. Such a wonderful theater with the added frisson of where Dillinger was killed!

best, Tim
http://www.timmillerperformer.com/

LOS ANGELES TIMES May 22, 2009

Review: LAYING INTO BOLD TERRITORY 'Lay of the Land' at Highways
Given that Prop. 8, the anti-same-sex marriage ballot measure, is currently under review by the California Supreme Court, an automatic edge accompanies the giddy timeliness of "Lay of the Land," which ends its Highways run on Saturday. Gay performance artist Tim Miller's latest foray into purposeful self-examination is in some ways his most important work to date.
Miller's technique hasn't essentially changed, just ripened like wine. He still investigates the audience close-up from the outset, invading the aisles with a flashlight. His delivery remains a fusion of half-closed eyes, mercurial inward focus and outwardly pointed insouciance. The rambling commentary, peppered with interjections that trade gloss for spontaneity, enters territory as exhilarating as it is meaningful.
What particularly distinguishes "Land" is the tautly impressive text. The story of Abraham and Isaac forms one point of identification, choking on gristle and a near-tracheotomy by his father another, as Miller lays out his unapologetically renegade viewpoint with exemplary economy and sardonic humor. Marriage equality is the thematic undercurrent against which reminiscences of various activist and performance landmarks coalesce into something larger than the sum of their considerable parts.
Stagecraft is minimal -- a microphone, projections of the 48 continental states, delicious childhood pictures, and a clothesline. This comes into indelible play at the climax, where the U.S. and California state flags provide fodder for Miller's most audaciously effective observations. The resulting tableau and final apotheosis stand high in Miller's canon, which, together with the overarching relevance, makes "Lay of the Land" a vivid, must-see achievement.
-- David C. Nichols