[photo credit: Sierra Madre Playhouse]
What followed was more than two decades of research, adaptation, and solo performance work that has now arrived at Sierra Madre Playhouse, just east of Pasadena, as One Million Words – Rilke — a show making its North American premiere Friday, April 24, before heading to its European debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The timing is not incidental. Rilke died in 1926. This is his centennial year, and Müller sees the convergence of history and current events as more than coincidence.
“There’s also the moment we are living in this world with wars and pain,” Müller said in an interview with Local News Pasadena. “Rilke lived through the First World War, you know, in a moment where authoritarian governments were rising — just like we are living right now. And that makes me feel like, ‘Wow. I’m speaking about the days we are living [in] right now, even though I’m using something that was written more than a hundred years ago.'”
The 60-minute solo show, directed by Arieta Corrêa and co-directed by Darrell Larson, draws on Rilke’s letters, poems, and prose to stage an encounter between two figures: an actor in the present and a poet from the past. Together they navigate creativity, belonging, and the challenge of staying present in a world that moves too fast. Müller combines physical acting, spoken word, elements of shadow theater, and a soundscape to construct the piece — a form that, according to the production’s materials, began in 2010 with a production called Letters to a Young Poet that toured more than 50 cities across Brazil.
The route to Sierra Madre was long and circuitous. The show, originally performed in Brazilian Portuguese, went online during the pandemic, when Müller said he began to understand something new about what he’d built.
“I understood it,” he told Random Lengths News. “It is quite obvious when you watch the show, but I didn’t have that notion that the show spoke about mental health.”
The English-language version had its U.S. premiere in January 2025 at Torn Page in New York. Los Angeles’s Odyssey Theatre hosted a workshop performance on March 29, 2026. Now the full North American premiere arrives in a 99-seat room on the edge of the San Gabriel Mountains.
“Our flexibility and lower overhead enable us to take artistic risks and produce lesser-known works,” Matt Cook, Sierra Madre Playhouse’s artistic and executive director, said in an interview with Pasadena Magazine.
Sierra Madre Playhouse’s 2026 season carries the title “Small Stage, Big World,” according to the Playhouse’s season page. The booking of a solo show that began in Brazil, workshopped in Los Angeles, premieres in Sierra Madre, and continues to Edinburgh reflects what that phrase describes.
Opening night, April 24, features a pre-show performance by pianist Vicki Ray followed by a post-show discussion with Ray and Müller about artistic creation, mental health, and the importance of being present.
One Million Words – Rilke runs April 24, 25, and 26 and May 1, 2, and 3 at Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre. Friday and Saturday performances begin at 8 p.m.; Sunday performances at 4 p.m. Tickets range from $12 to $35. For tickets and information, visit sierramadreplayhouse.org or call (626) 355-4318.
The books were just sitting there on the shelf. Nobody had read them. Müller picked one up — and spent the next twenty years finding out why.
THEATRE | RILKE — ONE MILLION WORDS | Date & Time: Thursday, April 24, 2026, 8:00 PM |Venue: Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre, CA 91024 | Phone Number: (625) 355-4318 | Website: https://www.sierramadreplayhouse.org/event/rilke2026 | Cost: $12.00 – $35.00
