Taylor Mac

Taylor Mac

Taylor Mac performing at Celebrate Brooklyn! in August 2015
Background information
Birth name Taylor Mac Bowyer[1]
Born 1973
California
Genres Cabaret, pop music, theater, musical theater
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, drag queen, Producer, Director, Writer, Actor
Instruments Vocals, ukulele
Years active 1994-present
Website taylormac.org

Taylor Mac (born 1973) is an actor, playwright, performance artist, director, producer, and singer-songwriter active mainly in New York City.

Performance work

Mac's work has been described as a fight against conformity and categorization.[2] It draws on forms such as commedia dell'arte, contemporary musical theater, and drag performance, and Mac has noted Charles Ludlam, the Theater of the Ridiculous, and theatrical history reaching back to Greek theater as professional influences.[3] Mac's work has been performed at New York City's Lincoln Center, the Public Theater, the Sydney Opera House, American Repertory Theatre, Stockholm's Sodra Theatern, the Spoleto Festival, as well as many other venues both in the United States and internationally.

Mac is a self-described "fool" and "collagist" who puts together forms and costumes to create a complex and sometimes contradictory look and sound.[4] Mac has resisted categorization by the press: after being described as Ziggy Stardust meets Tiny Tim, Mac created the show Comparison Is Violence, or the Ziggy Stardust Meets Tiny Tim Songbook.[5]

Mac toured Europe with the plays The Be(A)st of Taylor Mac and The Young Ladies Of. Mac then developed The Lily's Revenge, combination of "camp extravaganza" and "comic self-deprecation" centered on the hero's journey of a lily that uproots itself to fight against nostalgia.[6] The play takes place during Ronald Reagan's funeral, who is figured as the leader of the nostalgia movement.[7] The Lily's Revenge played at HERE Arts Center with Taylor Mac as the Lily.

In 2014, for Mac's performance in the Foundry Theater's production of Bertolt Brecht's Good Person of Szechwan, Mac was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Outstanding Lead Actor Award and the Drama League Distinguished Performance Award. Mac also starred in Classic Stage Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Taylor Mac also created and hosted the political vaudeville Live Patriot Acts: Patriots Gone Wiiiiildd! during the Republican National Convention in 2004.[8]

Written Work

A 24-Decade History of Popular Music

Since at least 2014, Mac has been developing a new work A 24-Decade History of Popular Music that covers music popular in the United States from the 1770s to the 2010s, with one hour dedicated to each decade with a corresponding costume designed by long-time collaborator Machine Dazzle. This work will culminate in a 24-hour performance, with one hour dedicated to each decade.[24]

Personal life

Mac was born and raised in Stockton, California Taylor Mac Bowyer, the child of Joy Aldrich and Vietnam War veteran Lt. Robert Mac Bowyer.[25] Mac's mother opened a private art school that influenced Mac's early aesthetic by embracing collage and teaching students to build from mistakes rather than attempt to erase them.[26] Mac moved to New York in 1994 to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Art. After graduation, Mac began working as an actor and wrote the plays The Hot Month (1999), The Levee (2000), and The Face of Liberalism (2003).[27]

Taylor Mac prefers judy (lowercase) as a gender pronoun.[28]

Awards and Residencies

References

  1. Svich, Caridad. "Glamming it Up with Taylor Mac." American Theatre. November 2008.
  2. Fitzgerald, James. (2010) "The Lily's Revenge." Theatre Journal. Volume 62, Number 3. pp. 457-458
  3. Taylor Mac. "Taylor Mac. Interview for Theaterjones.com. Video by Mark Lowry. 2010.
  4. Svich, Caridad. "Glamming it Up with Taylor Mac." American Theatre. November 2008.
  5. Armstrong-Morris, Greg. "The incomparable Taylor Mac" XTRA! Pink Triangle Press. January 26, 2012.
  6. Fitzgerald, James. (2010) "The Lily's Revenge." Theatre Journal. Volume 62, Number 3. pp. 457-458
  7. Svich, Caridad. "Glamming it Up with Taylor Mac." American Theatre. November 2008.
  8. "Live Patriot Acts: Patriots Gone Wiiiiild!". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  9. "Dilating". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  10. "The Holy Virgin Mary Of Our Time". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  11. "Peace". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  12. "Mornings". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  13. "The Dying Sentimentalist". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  14. "The Hot Month". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  15. "The Lily’s Revenge". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  16. "The Walk Across America for Mother Earth". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  17. "The Young Ladies Of". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  18. "Red Tide Blooming". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  19. "Cardiac Arrest or Venus on a Half-Clam". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  20. "The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  21. "The Fre". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  22. "Hir". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  23. "The Bourgeois Oligarch". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  24. "Taylor Mac's History of American Pop Music in 24 Hours." Kurt Andersen, Interviewer. Aired 22 August 2014. Accessed 9 July 2015.
  25. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-taylor-mac-lgbt-20160311-story.html
  26. Svich, Caridad. "Glamming it Up with Taylor Mac." American Theatre. November 2008.
  27. Edgecomb, Sean F. (2012) "The Ridiculous Performance of Taylor Mac." Theatre Journal. Volume 64, Number 4. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. pp. 549-563.
  28. "about". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.

External links

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