These days, Miller's laughing a little less frequently, as he tackles perhaps the most politically charged topic of his career in his new show Glory Box. The title, which sounds vaguely naughty, is actually the charming Australian term for "hope chest."
In 1994, Miller fell in love with an Australian man, and in Glory Box, he recounts the bureaucratic struggles he and his partner are undergoing in order to build a life together in the U.S. "I'm forced to live this nightmare in which my government could choose to take my lover away from me and kick him out of the country. With Glory Box, I want to draw awareness to same-sex marriage and immigration rights for lesbian and gay bi-national couples, and also to the complexity of relationships in general, which only get more complex when you worry about your partner being deported."
After months of maneuvering and thousands of dollars in legal fees, Miller and his partner were finally able to obtain a visa that allows them to be together, but both feel acutely that the INS clock is ticking. "We're really under the gun with this. Unless America starts treating us like humans, we'll be forced to leave the country when his student visa ends next year."
Understandably, this is not an option that particularly thrills Miller. "I'm not in the mood to be forced into exile, because my audience is in Seattle and Minneapolis and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and 60 other cities. I'd still work here, but we'd seek asylum in Canada, largely so that I could come back to the U.S. and remind people that gay people don't have civil rights. Which is something that should embarrass and energize progressive people in this country."
Miller spoke from the home of friends in Vermont, where the most sweeping civil union legislation in the country has just been passed. "This state, which was the first to outlaw slavery, is the only state that shouldn't be ashamed of itself. They've done their bit, and it's up to California and Washington and Pennsylvania and any state we can think of to pick up the slack now."
If immigration rights seems like a less-than-arousing topic for an evening of theater, then you obviously have never witnessed the drop-dead gorgeous Miller drop his drawers and make magic happen with subjects just as politically arcane. It's as if the Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue came to life and started dishing about just what it's like to grow up and live queer in America, the very thing that got him in so much hot water with some very right-wing politicians in 1990.
Miller is one of the notorious "NEA Four," the artists whose National Endowment for the Arts grants were rescinded due to their queer or challenging content. The four sued the agency and ultimately won reinstatements of their grants. But despite the media attention focused on the subject, in 1998 the U.S. Supreme Court decided to overturn part of Miller's case, and ruled that so-called "standards of decency" can be constitutional criteria for federal funding of the arts. Miller admits, "Since my NEA troubles, I haven't gotten a single grant, and not for want of applying. I haven't had any support for the creation of my performance work in 10 years."
Still, Miller continues to make work that is defiantly progressive. "It may seem that the performance of Glory Box is in the Open Circle Theatre, but the performance space is really the U.S. Congress, the 50 states, and the psychic space of the courtrooms. I like imagining that those are all the performance spaces that I inhabit. This tour is as much about grassroots organizing as it is about doing some shows."
Tim Miller performs Glory Box at Open Circle Theater, May 5-7. Call 382-4250 for tickets and info.
