As a 16-year-old touring Baptist minister, Steven Milford was in hot demand in the churches of the Bible Belt. Four years later he was bounced out of a Baptist college in Birmingham after rumors of his nascent homosexuality soaked the campus. Today, 26 and living in Chicago, his religion shed, Milford is co-owner and artistic director of the Rudely Elegant Theater and Gallery in Wicker Park.
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“In church the whole point was to push people to an emotional limit, to scare them into believing. We bought security with that technique. But in terms of making money, theater is much more risky. God plays on guilt and fear; in theater you’re at the mercy of the audience. I still like to jolt people with certain things–like the idea of Barbie wearing a strap-on, for example.” The ex-Baptist smiles. “I’m making fun of my preacher past, I suppose.”
Milford and business partner/assistant director Lance Hunt–a thin young man with bleached white hair and a look of constant estrangement from sleep–have shoveled mounds of time, money, and hope into their loft space at 1934 W. North (above Urbus Orbis). The space was a hollow shell when they found it; the pair renovated and custom-designed it, financing the enterprise with credit-card cash advances.
In September they’ll stage a “quantum theater.” It’ll be improv format, lasting 45 minutes to an hour and using a wheel of probability to determine the play’s direction. It might land on GOOD LUCK, BAD KARMA, PLAY GOD, CATASTROPHE, or MIRACLE, and the actors have to adopt the circumstance.
Self-definition through creative expression is a recurring theme for Milford and Hunt. “When I left the church I discovered myself,” Milford says. “Now I set my own rules rather than following those of the church, and earn personal rewards rather than working for the glory of God.”
