Taylor Mac: In Conversation

“Fabulousness can come in many forms, and Taylor Mac seems intent on assuming every one of them,” says The New York Times of the astonishing artist whose epic durational performance work, A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, was nominated for a 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and is now the subject of an HBO original documentary feature film. In this evocative conversation, the MacArthur Fellow and award-winning Mac—a playwright, actor, songwriter, performance artist, director, and producer—speaks on his vision for centering queer stories, the future of the theatre in an uncertain world, and the power of transforming calamity into communion.

Theater artist Taylor Mac is the first American to receive the International Ibsen Award. His impressive list of honors and awards also includes a Tony nominee for Best Play, the Kennedy Prize (with Matt Ray), the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim, the Herb Alpert Award, a Drama League Award, the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, the Booth, two Helpmann Awards, a NY Drama Critics Circle Award, two Obies, two Bessies, and an Ethyl Eichelberger. An alumnus of New Dramatists, judy (Mac’s personal pronoun) is the author of Bark of Millions and The Hang (with composer Matt Ray); Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus; A 24-Decade History of Popular Music; Prosperous Fools; The Fre; Hir; The Walk Across America for Mother Earth; The Lily’s Revenge; The Young Ladies Of; Red Tide Blooming; The Be(A)st of Taylor Mac; and the revues and The Last Two People on Earth: an Apocalyptic Vaudeville (created with Mandy Patinkin and Susan Stroman).