Performer Tim Miller at Winthrop Jan. 7-12 for Week-long Residency

Quick Facts

Miller is known as a member of the "NEA 4," one of four artists whose National Endowment for the Arts grants were challenged by conservative politicians because of purportedly controversial content in their work.

Miller's work focuses on theatre and/as activism, theatre for social change, civil liberties, gender in performance, arts advocacy, constitutionality, the First Amendment in practice, humor and change.

Tim Miller

ROCK HILL, S.C. - Tim Miller, a Los Angeles-based, solo performer who has pushed the boundaries of censorship, makes his first appearance in South Carolina with a week-long residency Jan. 7-12 at Winthrop University.

Miller is known as a member of the "NEA 4," one of four artists whose National Endowment for the Arts grants were challenged by conservative politicians because of purportedly controversial content in their work. The artists appealed their case in the courts in 1993 and won. The case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley in 1998, where the high court said the National Endowment for the Arts can consider "decency" in deciding who gets the public money for the arts.

Miller's work focuses on theatre and/as activism, theatre for social change, civil liberties, gender in performance, arts advocacy, constitutionality, the First Amendment in practice, humor and change.

During the week at Winthrop, Miller will conduct a workshop on performance art with students and give several public events. The residency is hosted by the John C. West Forum on Politics & Policy and the Department of Theatre and Dance.

Here is his schedule:

* Thursday, Jan. 10: 11 a.m. Public Lecture/Performance, "The NEA4: The National Endowment for the Arts, the Supreme Court, and My Story of Censorship." Held in Johnson Studio Theatre, this is free and open to the public. It is an approved Global Learning Cultural Event for students.

* Thursday, Jan. 10: 8 p.m. Solo Performance, Glory Box (contains adult language and content). This is a funny, sexy and charged exploration of Tim Miller's journeys through the challenge of love, marriage equality for gay Americans, and the struggle for immigration rights for gay Americans and their partners from other countries.

From Miller's hilarious grade school playground battles over wanting to marry another boy to the harrowing travails of being in a bi-national relationship with his Australian lover, Glory Box leads the audience on an intense and humorous journey into the complexity of the human heart that knows no boundary. Glory Box (the term that Australians use for "hope chest") conjures an alternative site for the placing of memories, hopes and dreams of gay people's extraordinary potential for love.

Held in Johnson Theatre, this is free and open to the public. It is an approved Global Learning Cultural Event for students.

Reception to follow in Johnson Theatre Lobby. Free and open to the public.

* Saturday, Jan. 12: 8 p.m. Performance. Body Maps - Tim Miller and Student Residency Performance. Miller will employ a variety of strategies to create original performances by students from the tremendous energies and stories that are present in their lives. Using memories and myths as a jumping off point, students will see where a deep sense of personal history creates performance that leaps from their bodies onto the stage or the page. Held in Johnson Theatre, this is free and open to the public. This is an approved Global Learning Cultural Event for students.

Miller, who has been hailed for his humor and passion, has performed solo theater works in North America, Australia and Europe at such prestigious venues as Yale Repertory Theatre, the Institute of Contemporary Art (London), the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis) and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

He is the author of the books "Shirts & Skin," "Body Blows" and "1001 Beds," which won the 2007 literary prize for best Drama-Theater book from Lambda Literary Foundation. Miller has taught performance in the theater departments at UCLA, NYU, the Claremont School of Theology and at Cal State L.A.

He is a founder of two of the most influential performance spaces in the United States: Performance Space 122 on Manhattan's Lower East Side, N.Y., and Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, Calif.

For more information, contact Laura R. Dougherty, assistant professor of theatre, at 803/323-4854 or e-mail her at doughertyl@winthrop.edu or Judy Longshaw, news and media services manager, at 803/323-2404 or e-mail her at longshawj@winthrop.edu.

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