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Performance Artist Tim Miller Presents “US”
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Theatre for the Claremont Colleges, The Department of
Theatre & Dance at Pomona College and Pomona College Public
Events will present internationally acclaimed solo performer
Tim Miller in his new production of “US.” The performance
for this “timely” comedy is Friday, February 4 at 8:00 p.m.
in the Seaver Theatre (located on Bonita and Columbia
Avenues on the Pomona College campus.) This production is
not recommended for children.
Hailed for its humor and passion, Tim Miller’s performance
works have delighted and emboldened audiences all over the
word at such prestigious venues as Yale Repertory Theatre,
the London Institute of Contemporary Art, the Walker Arts
Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Brooklyn
Academy of Music. He is the author of the books Shirts &
Skin and Body Blows, an anthology of six of his performance
scripts with an introduction by Tony Kushner. Since 1990,
Miller 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.
“US” is fast, funny and furious. This show ricochets between
Miller’s love affair since childhood with Broadway musicals
to an exploration of home, exile and homophobia in the good
ol’ USA. “US” is a hilarious and pissed-off exploration of
these most American contradictions as the piece careens from
the little boy who did stripteases with the musical GYPSY on
the record player, to memories of a ten year old’s plan to
flee to Canada to escape the war in Viet Nam, to a surreal
gay wedding day tug-of-war at the edge of America as the
Niagara Falls rushes between his legs.
According to Charles Isherwood in the New York Times:
”Tim Miller, the fiercely political gay performance artist …
is now gabbing merrily about his childhood crush on the star
of "Oliver!" in his new solo show, "Us.” Show queen is, of
course, the technical term for a person, of either gender
who is inordinately fond of Broadway musicals. Mr. Miller's
bona fide as an artist of righteous political commitment
might seem to exclude him from this category. He briefly
tasted infamy or, from another perspective, glory as a
member of the "N.E.A. Four,'' artists whose financing was
revoked in 1990 by the arts endowment after right-wing
politicians objected to the content of their work. Mr.
Miller's frankly explicit, ardently polemical performances
have often explored the intersection between sexual identity
and moral consciousness.
But as he sets out to illustrate here, a highly developed
social conscience does not necessarily preclude a deep
immersion in the cheery aesthetics of the American musical.
Indeed, Mr. Miller may never have put forth a more
provocative idea than the one that informs the finest
moments of this delightful show: namely, that his proudly
radical queer politics were indelibly shaped by a youthful
obsession with Broadway musicals. As he puts it: "I learned
everything I needed to know from these shows about love,
politics and America. Forget Marx and Engels, I had Rodgers
and Hammerstein!"
Mr. Miller is, as always, a frisky and charismatic
performer. Performance artists, as you might have heard,
were once known for their tendency to disrobe on stage… Mr.
Miller performs ….his concluding striptease …as an endearing
joke at his own expense. Accompanied as it is by a series of
incantatory exclamations - "I have always been a stripper!"
- it is an unabashed admission of his predilection for
literal as well as emotional self-exposure.”
The tickets for “US” are free but are limited to one ticket
per person. Patrons must be present at the box office to
obtain a ticket. Tickets will be available to the public on
February 1. No reservations will be taken. Tickets are
invalid after 7:50 p.m. on the evening of performance (at
which time patrons without tickets will be seated.) Ticket
holders will only be admitted if seats are available upon
their arrival after 7:50 p.m. For further information,
please call the Pomona College Seaver Theatre Box Office at
(909) 621-8525 or 607-4375. Box Office hours are Monday
through Friday 11am to 4pm.
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