Taylor Mac

Taylor Mac

Taylor Mac performing at Celebrate Brooklyn! in August 2015
Background information
Birth name Taylor Mac Bowyer[1]
Born (1973-08-24) August 24, 1973
Laguna Beach, California, U.S.
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 August 24, 1973) is an American actor, playwright, performance artist, director, producer, and singer-songwriter active mainly in New York City.

Early life

Mac was born Taylor Mac Bowyer in Laguna Beach, California[2] and raised in Stockton, the child of Joy Aldrich and Vietnam War veteran Lt. Robert Mac Bowyer.[3] 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.[4] 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).[5]

Career

Mac's work has been described as a fight against conformity and categorization.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9]

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.[10] The play takes place during Ronald Reagan's funeral, who is figured as the leader of the nostalgia movement.[11] 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.[12]

Since at least 2014, Mac has been developing A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, a performance 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 culminates in a 24-hour performance, with one hour dedicated to each decade.[13] In 2016, Wesley Morris of the New York Times said of the 24-hour concert, "Mr. Mac gave me one of the great experiences of my life. I've slept on it, and I'm sure. It wasn't simply the physical feat. Although, come on: 246 songs spanning 240 years for 24 straight hours, including small breaks for him to eat, hydrate and use the loo, and starting in 1776 with a great-big band and ending with Mr. Mac, alone in 2016, doing original songs on piano and ukulele."[14]

Personal life

Mac prefers judy (lowercase) as a gender pronoun.[15]

Awards and residencies

Bibliography

References

  1. Svich, Caridad. "Glamming it Up with Taylor Mac." American Theatre. November 2008.
  2. "Taylor M Bowyer, Born 08/24/1973 in California". California Birth Index. Retrieved August 6, 2016.
  3. Anderson, Tre'vell (March 11, 2016). "For Taylor Mac, the stage show is just part of the fight for the LGBT community". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
  4. Svich, Caridad. "Glamming it Up with Taylor Mac." American Theatre. November 2008.
  5. Edgecomb, Sean F. (2012) "The Ridiculous Performance of Taylor Mac." Theatre Journal. Volume 64, Number 4. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. pp. 549-563.
  6. Fitzgerald, James. (2010) "The Lily's Revenge." Theatre Journal. Volume 62, Number 3. pp. 457-458
  7. Taylor Mac. "Taylor Mac. Interview for Theaterjones.com. Video by Mark Lowry. 2010.
  8. Svich, Caridad. "Glamming it Up with Taylor Mac." American Theatre. November 2008.
  9. Armstrong-Morris, Greg. "The incomparable Taylor Mac" XTRA! Pink Triangle Press. January 26, 2012.
  10. Fitzgerald, James. (2010) "The Lily's Revenge." Theatre Journal. Volume 62, Number 3. pp. 457-458
  11. Svich, Caridad. "Glamming it Up with Taylor Mac." American Theatre. November 2008.
  12. "Live Patriot Acts: Patriots Gone Wiiiiild!". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  13. "Taylor Mac's History of American Pop Music in 24 Hours." Kurt Andersen, Interviewer. Aired 22 August 2014. Accessed 9 July 2015.
  14. Morris, Wesley Review: Taylor Mac’s 24-Hour Concert Was One of the Great Experiences of My Life New York Times. October 11, 2016
  15. "about". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  16. "Dilating". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  17. "The Holy Virgin Mary Of Our Time". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  18. "Peace". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  19. "Mornings". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  20. "The Dying Sentimentalist". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  21. "The Hot Month". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  22. "The Lily's Revenge". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  23. "The Walk Across America for Mother Earth". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  24. "The Young Ladies Of". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  25. "Red Tide Blooming". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  26. "Cardiac Arrest or Venus on a Half-Clam". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  27. https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-herald/20070403/282213711374361. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  28. "The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  29. "The Fre". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  30. "Hir". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  31. "The Bourgeois Oligarch". TAYLOR MAC. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
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