Meredith Miller:
“She Majored in Moonlight”
Variously referred to as the “Buster Keaton of Chanteuses” and “the demented love-child of Marlene Dietrich and Lucille Ball,” American singer/performer Meredith Miller evokes a classic, old-fashioned, 1930s glamour that is both stately and timeless.
With subtle facial expressions and very precise movements, Miller conveys dark, macabre, and creepy in an enticing and fascinating way. Manically beautiful and humorous, her performances have been described as a “slow and subtle gripping about the neck”, and her rendition of Mack the Knife has been described as “the worms and beetles that scurry out if you peek at the mud under Sinatra’s Rendition.”
Miller’s work has an ingenious way of creating visual metaphors, little pieces of visual poetry that use objects as revelatory symbols to create pieces that are almost haikus — simple yet nuanced depictions of universal experiences. Her work defies expectations with clever revelations and surprises.
Possessing a strong stage presence that can hold audience attention with nothing more than a gaze, she can command a room — and more than anything, she knows how to sell a song with her rich voice.
Miller’s dramatic (some say sick!) sense of humor runs deep and her work is a more than a little tongue in cheek and deliberately absurd.
Biography
A cabaret artist known for her unique fusion of music and object theater, Meredith performs regularly in Chicago, the US, and Europe both, as a singer and with her unique variety acts. After returning from a month of performances of Compagnie Umbral’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Aruturo Ui at The Avignon Theatre Festival in France this summer, Meredith joined fellow Chicagoans in The David Bowie Variety Hour, presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art. She closes out the year as a resident artist at The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Earlier in the year, Chris Hefner’s feature film The Poisoner, in which Meredith played the title role, was previewed at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall, and is currently being submitted to film festivals. Additionally, she performed regularly with her cabaret act at local venues and on tour in New York and Europe.
In 2012 she developed her one-woman show, Pale Hands I Loved, at Chicago’s Links Hall, and received a 3Arts Fellowship for a residency at The Ragdale Foundation. Meredith performed in New York City as part of Banner and Cranks’ The Singing Picture Show, and joined the cast of Parisian director Victor Quezada-Perez’s production of The Arsonists at Trap Door Theatre in Chicago.
In 2011, Meredith’s work was featured in a two-month run of her critically acclaimed evening of cabaret and puppetry Madness in Miniature at The Chopin Theatre, as well as in Collaboraction’s Sketchbook Festival. Previously, Meredith’s solo performance The Abduction was featured in Great Small’s Works’ 9th Annual Toy Theater Festival in New York (following the performances in “The World is Flat! A Weekend of Toy Theater” at Chicago’s Links Hall, and at Open Eye Theater’s annual “Toy Theater After Dark” festival in Minneapolis.)
Meredith has also been an important figure in the revival of burlesque and Vaudeville internationally. She was several times a featured performer with Chicago’s Gurlesque Burlesque, and has presented her work in cabaret and variety shows across the US and Europe. Is in a proud member of The Windy City Blenders, a queer dark/burlesque troupe devoted to international exchange.
In addition to her performance work, Meredith is one of the Midwest’s leading puppet and specialty props designers — in fact, she creates every object in her shows. Her creations have been featured at The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The Goodman Theater, Writer’sTheater, Chicago Children’s Theatre, The Court Theatre, The Paramount Arts Center, DePaul University, Blair Thomas and Co., and Trap Door. Meredith received a Joseph Jefferson nomination for her puppetry design work for Blair Thomas/Victory Gardens production of The Snow Queen in 2007.
Meredith is a graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has studied vocal technique with Deborah Bulgrin and Kate DeVore, acting at The Acting Studio of Chicago, Butoh with Diego Pinon, Yukio Waguri, Rumiko Yoshiko, Vangeline, and Nicole LeGette, and Clown with George Fuller, Barnaby King, Adrian Danzig/500 Clown, and Victor Quezada-Perez.
Download Meredith’s Performance Resume PDF