PS122 Presents LAY OF THE LAND 12/1-11

Tim Miller, co-founder of Performance Space 122, will premiere Lay of the Land to New York audiences Wednesday, December 1 through Saturday, December 11 at PS122. Lay of the Land friskily gets at that feeling of the gay community's perpetual presence on the ballet and on the menu with this saucy, biting look at the "State of the Queer Union." Miller wastes no time putting the constitutionality of Proposition 8 on trial in this timely production as one of the most hotly contested topics in American culture unfolds in the Federal 9th Circuit Court on December 6.

Concurrent with the run of Lay of the Land, Miller will also lead a performance workshop intensive from December 4 to 12. Using memory and myths as a jumping off point, participants will explore how a deep sense of personal history creates performances that leap out from the body onto the stage. The workshop will address key questions of queer identity and will culminate in an original ensemble public performance on Sunday, December 12 at PS122. The workshop also launches a seven-month mentorship for three participants that will include free tuition for the workshop and a one-on-one process with Tim developing a new piece to be presented as part of PS122's 30th Anniversary events in spring 2011.

Video trailer for Lay of the Land: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYrH-PKJPnA

Hailed for his humor and passion, Tim Miller is an internationally acclaimed performance artist. He is a co-founder of two of the most influential performance spaces in the United States: Performance Space 122 and Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, CA. Miller's creative work as a performer and writer explores the artistic, spiritual and political topography of his identity as a gay man.

Miller has received numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1990, Miller was awarded a NEA Solo Performer Fellowship, which was overturned under political pressure from the Bush White House because of the gay themes of Miller's work. Miller and three other artists, the so-called "NEA 4", successfully sued the federal government with the help of the ACLU for violation of their First Amendment rights and won a settlement where the government paid them the amount of the defunded grants and all court costs. Though the Supreme Court of the United States decided in 1998 to overturn part of Miller's case and determined that "standards of decency" are constitutional criterion for federal funding of the arts, Miller vows "to continue fighting for freedom of expression for fierce diverse voices."

Since 1999, Miller has focused his creative and political work on marriage equality and addressing the injustices facing lesbian and gay couples in America. Glory Box and US are funny, sexy, and politically charged explorations of same-sex marriage and the struggle for immigration rights for lesbian and gay bi-national couples. They recount the trials Miller has been forced to undergo in trying to keep his Australian partner in the United States.

Miller said, "I want the pieces to conjure for the audience a site for the placing of memories, hopes, and dreams of gay people's extraordinary potential for love."

After a nine-year stint in New York City, Miller returned home in 1987 to Los Angeles, California where he was born and raised. He currently lives there with his partner Alistair in Venice Beach.

Miller's performances have been presented all over North America, Australia, and Europe in 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 & Skins, Body Blows and 1001 Beds, which won the 2007 Lambda Literary Award for best book in Drama-Theatre. His solo theater works have been published in the play collections O Solo Homo and Sharing the DeliriuM. Miller's newest book 1001 Beds, an anthology of his performances, essays and journals, was published by University of Wisconsin Press in 2006. Miller has taught performance at UCLA, NYU, the School of Theology at Claremont and several universities across the United States.

Lay of the Land was supported in part by the National Performance Network.

Performance Space 122 is one of New York's ultimate destinations for cutting-edge theatre, dance, music, live art and multi-media. PS122 is dedicated to supporting and presenting artists who explore innovative form and provocative content and who rigorously challenge the boundaries of contemporary performance. PS122 is committed to a steadfast search for pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures, nations and beliefs.

For thirty years, Performance Space 122 has been a hub for contemporary performance and an active member of the East Village, as well as the wider cultural community in NYC and across the globe. In just the past five years, under the curatorial vision of Artistic Director Vallejo Gantner, PS122 has opened the curtain on more than 2,500 performances, welcomed more than 125,000 visitors, and supported the work of more than 2,100 artists, performers, choreographers, playwrights, directors and designers.

Performance Space 122 passionately advocates for U.S. artists in New York and across globe. Our organization and the artists we present are reclaiming their relevance to wider social discourse by engaging artists, audiences and other community leaders in cultural, economic, and environmental debates about what it means to live in contemporary society. www.ps122.org

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Tim Miller's LAY OF THE LAND runs Wednesday, December 1 - Saturday, December 11 on the following schedule:
Wednesday - Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday Night Social: December 2

Tickets $20, $15 (students/seniors), $11 (with the PS122 Passport - limited availability)
Available at www.ps122.org, 212-352-3101 and at the Box Office.

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