Gay performer Tim Miller can always be counted on for a healthy dose of theatrical activism. His brings his politically-charged “Lay of the Land” to 7 Stages this week.
The one-man show, slated for Nov. 10-13, deals predominantly with marriage equality and queer citizenship — the status of being gay in America right now. It came about shortly after Prop 8.

“For me, the big prompt is always about what you can’t make peace about and for me, it’s my state – California,” Miller says.  “For five joyous months we had marriage equality followed by this endless and visible battle and eventually it was declared unconstitutional.”

In previous shows Miller has talked about immigration laws, which is especially relevant as that his partner since 1994, Alistair McCartney, is an Australian that he is not allowed to marry. The couple has had to deal with threats of deportation for many years. Miller admits they face an uncertain future, as do all LGBT couples in the country.

“After 17 years with him, we have no protection,” he says. “I’ve spent most of my life with him. He keeps pulling things out of the fire. He has this weird Australian visa. If it was British he’d already have gone.

“If you had told me at age 17 (our country) would be this backward, I would not have believed it.”

Miller feels like the Obama administration has “improved dramatically.” While he is still upset about marriage inequality, he is nonetheless pleased that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was recently done away with. But he feels there is much more work that needs to be done, particularly with the Defense of Marriage Act.

“I continue to ask more of him, but I am much more pleased than I was a year ago,” he says.

“Lay of the Land” has been around a few years, says Miller, and he’s taken it to more than 30 cities already.  Lobbying for gay marriage equality is something he has been doing for a while now, though, and he will be glad when he can move on to other topics.

“I do long for the days when my shows like this are outdated,” he says.

In addition to his political musing, Miller is also known for getting naked onstage. This go-around, he gives us his own comic and political variation of “turning the other cheek,” he laughs.

Miller was one of the infamous NEA Four, four performance artists whose grants from the National Endowment for the Arts were voted down in 1990. A former member of ACT UP, he has been arrested for his activism.

It’s been a while since Miller was last in town.  It was six years ago for his “Glory Box,” which had its world premiere in Atlanta.  Ironically, he just got through taking that show to a place that might not have seemed possible years back – Middle Georgia’s Milledgeville and the Georgia College campus.  He says that in college locations, even in areas that aren’t known as being terribly liberal, the crowds are responsive and receptive to his brand of theater mixed with politics.

Top photo: Tim Miller (Publicity photo)