Interview with Tim Miller
by Jonah Bokaer
Jonah Bokaer: New York audiences seemed resoundingly appreciative of your new work, "US," presented at P.S. 122 in September. Will the recent re-election of George W. Bush affect your performance of "US," or perhaps the content of you work?Tim Miller: I imagine it will only fuel the political heat in the show.
Tim Miller, "US"
JB: I understand that you and your Australian partner have decided to leave this country to pursue the option to have recognition of a same-sex civil union. When will you relocate to the United Kingdom, and what prompted your decision to leave the United States?
TM: I always tell people we're not choosing to "move." We're being "forced to leave" when [my partner] Alistair's visa runs out next year. We do want to stay in the States, of course. It's where our home is. But we do have to face the real likelihood that at a certain point soon it just won't make any sense legally, financially or emotionally to remain here. When you don't have a visa, you get deported, as has happened to any number of my friends around the the country. It's quite a horrible experience. The situation also limits Alistair's ability to make any kind of living or establish his career, and it keeps us as victims in an abusive relationship with the U.S. We'll see. I do think that it is important to stay and fight if people can. We will have been doing that for five years this fall! On the other hand, I know the fact that we may well be forced to leave the country does shake people out of their denial and apathy. We don't have that many options, especially in terms of a business visa, etc. At a certain point, we may just want to stop organizing our lives around this fear and just get on with our lives in Canada. I do feel that our being pushed out of the country over the border would make the STRONGEST possible statement about the way things are in the U.S. (I would of course keep coming to the States weekly to perform/teach/agitate as an American-in-exile from U.S. human rights abuses to remind people of this). I have been meeting with couples all over the country that are so inspiring. Every week some couple I know, U.S. citizens and their foreign partners, are having to seek asylum in Canada or Europe to maintain their families. I can't understand why people aren't more pissed off about what America is becoming. GRRRR!!!!
Tim Miller, "US"
JB: As an artist whose performance work came to prominence in the East Village in the 1980's, it seems that in addition to institutional support, the gay community has been integral to your support structure and development. In your opinion, does such a community exist in London? Is there support for performance art with gay subject matter in the U.K.?
TM: Oh sure. I have been performing in the U.K. much longer than I have toured widely in the U.S. Val Bourne [Artistic Director of Dance Umbrella, London] brought me over for a huge tour more than twenty years ago, when I was only 23 years old.
Tim Miller, "Glory Box"
JB: While Edinburgh and Glasgow have a reputation for progressive performance festivals, it seems that recent London theatre is spangled with the presence of American Hollywood stars. Kevin Spacey is the new artistic director of the Old Vic; Christian Slater is starring in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest;" and many of the current West End musicals include "FAME," "The Producers," and "Chicago." Where do you see yourself in the landscape of theatre in the U.K.? How might your references to the American Musical in "US" be received by U.K. audiences currently viewing such musicals?
TM: Oh, I think everyone has seen the "Sound of Music!" I was just on the cover of the huge newspaper "The Independent" naked with my flag surrounded by my cast albums!
Art Criminal Chain Gang Civil Disobedience Resulting in 20 Arrests in L.A. 1990
JB: As in much of your work, "US" strongly integrates the use of personal and political content. How do personal and political content intersect during the creation of your work? Does autobiographical material broaden the appeal of your work? Are there ways in which it narrows your frame of reference, or perhaps your audience?
TM: In performance, my hope is that by witnessing one person raise their voice and tell their story - as well as bring our focus to systems of injustice - it can encourage any of us to find that space of truth-telling within ourselves too. I have received that encouragement in my life from other theater artists and social movements and I hope my performances have emboldened people as well! The new show "US" looks at my love affair since childhood with Broadway shows, crosscut to this exploration of home, exile and the injustices lesbian and gay couples face in the good old U.S.A. But then, I was once an 8-year-old boy who did stripteases for his brother with "GYPSY" on the record player! In the countdown right now before being exiled because of America's anti-gay bigotry, it has been really fun and URGENT to do this exploration of how musicals informed my queer identity and current situation; that meets my personal expectations for theater or performance art!
Tim Miler
JB: Many artists, regardless of their sexual orientation, have been censored for their representation of the human body; this seems a crisis that continues to run parallel to the historical development of art, as well as live performance. Could you speak about the role of the body in your work, and its representation?
TM: I am really interested in the narratives that live in the body, clothed or otherwise. I am not that thrilled when nakedness is used as a seduction to display the cutest possible man in the cutest possible light at the cutest possible moment in the show! In my own work I am more interested in exploring the most vulnerable, human, humorous and fucked up parts of myself in a naked performance section.
JB: Artists across the country have suffered under the Bush administration, particularly due to the dramatic loss of funding. Yet strangely, this administration has not been prone to censorship; instead they seem to turn a blind eye to the arts altogether. Do you have any thoughts on this? Can you describe how today’s funding climate is different from the infamous times of "The N.E.A. Four?"
TM: OY! Which Bush administration? They have both been small-minded and bigoted.
I do have to say that the worst of my experiences as "The N.E.A. Four" poster boy during the culture wars doesn't hold a candle to the horrors of trying to live in the U.S. under George Bush II as a gay citizen in a bi-national relationship with Alistair. This experience of being threatened with exile has been so much worse than the attacks on my performance work during "The N.E.A. Four" controversy ten years ago. Even in the darkest period of George Bush the First and his culture wars, I never thought that I, an American theatre artist, not only would have my grants taken away but could eventually be forced to leave my own country.
JB: While I am aware of the recognition of gay marriage and domestic partnership in European countries such as Belgium, Holland, and more recently Spain, I am not as clear on conditions in the United Kingdom. I do assume that gay rights are more advantageous in the U.K. than in the U.S., and same-sex partnerships will enjoy better social benefits because of this. Can you describe the specific laws or civil liberties that will be available to you upon relocating?
TM: They are moving a civil union bill through Parliament, and gay folks have had immigration rights for years. Things aren't perfect there of course. They are fucked up in their own way.
The issue that is so much better in the U.K. than here is that my Aussie-British partner can routinely sponsor me as his partner and allow me to immigrate as his spouse to the U.K. under British law. Something denied to gay people in the U.S. and which is forcing thousands of gay Americans each year to seek asylum abroad with their foreign partners. Of course, the U.S. is the ONLY western country to deny its gay citizens these rights. When we enter the British Consulate in west L.A. and I suddenly realize we have rights there that we immediately lose as we step back onto Wilshire Blvd. in L.A. is very distressing, to say the least, and depressing about the state of civil rights in the U.S. But then we have a bizarre president who wants to amend the U.S. Constitution to permanently deny gay Americans their rights! Yipes!
JB: Could you see yourself returning to this country? What would precipitate the decision to relocate again?
TM: I would be returning twenty times a year to the states to kick ass in performance as an American-in-Exile!
© Tim Miller - Jonah Bokaer, 2004
For more info on Time Miller please visit:
http://hometown.aol.com/millertale/timmiller.html
Jonah Bokaer
All images (C) Tim Miller, courtesy of the artist.