Brings together the voices of scholars, critics, and artists to celebrate the genius of Taylor Mac

Table of contents

Contents
 
Preface: “It’s going to go on a lot longer than you want it to”:
A Conversation about Taylor Mac, Covid and Collaboration.
David Román and Sean F. Edgecomb
 
Acknowledgments
 
Introduction: The Early Performance of Taylor Mac
Sean F. Edgecomb
 
1: Participation, Endurance, and the Pucker in Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge
Carrie J. Preston
 
2: Between Hir and There: Considering Taylor Mac’s Work as Bridging Genres
Kelly I. Aliano
 
3: Queer Pussy Time: Taylor Mac’s Lesbian Decade
Kim Marra
 
4: Too Slow: Taylor Mac and the Rubs of Time
Lisa A. Freeman
 
5: Taylor Mac, Walt Whitman, and Adhesive America: Cruising Utopia with the Good
            Gay Poet
Jennifer Buckley
 
6: Circles and Lines: Community and Legacy in Taylor Mac’s Gary:
    A Sequel to “Titus Andronicus”
Erika T. Lin
 
7: Designturgy, Being Queer: Taylor Mac Wears Machine Dazzle in 24 Decades
Sissi Liu
 
8: Sing the Revolution!: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Taylor Mac and the Great American Songbook
David Román
 
9: The Walk Across America for Mother Earth
Paul Zimet
 
10: An Interview with Taylor Mac
Kevin Sessums
 
11: Reflections on Collaboration
                        Matt Ray
 
                        Machine Dazzle
 
                        Viva DeConcini
 
                        Niegel Smith
 
                        Tigger! Ferguson
 
Barbara Gustern
 
Linda Brumbach
 
Contributors
 
Bibliography
 
Index
 

Description

This is the first book to dedicate critical attention to the work of influential theater-maker Taylor Mac. Mac is particularly celebrated for the historic performance event A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, in which Mac, in fantastical costumes designed by collaborator Machine Dazzle, sang the history of the United States for 24 straight hours in October 2016. The MacArthur Foundation soon thereafter awarded their “genius” award to a “writer, director, actor, singer, and performance artist whose fearlessly experimental works dramatize the power of theater as a space for building community . . . [and who] interacts with the audience to inspire a reconsideration of assumptions about gender, identity, ethnicity, and performance itself.”

Featuring essays, interviews, and commentaries by noted critics and artists, the volume examines the vastness of Mac’s theatrical imagination, the singularity of their voice, the inclusiveness of their cultural insights and critiques, and the creativity they display through stylistic and formal qualities and the unorthodoxies of their personal and professional trajectories. Contributors consider the range of Mac’s career as a playwright, performer, actor, and singer, expanding and enriching the conversation on this much-celebrated and deeply resonant body of work.

David Román is Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Southern California. 

Sean F. Edgecomb is Associate Professor of Theatre and Performance in the Ph.D. Program at the Graduate Center and the Coordinator of Drama at the College of Staten Island, CUNY.

The Taylor Mac Book is an overdue encomium to the work of an artist who defines the cutting edge in theater, performance, and the interpretation of American song. With maximalist exuberance and impish daring, Taylor Mac has revived the fortunes of queer aesthetics for our parlous times. How great that now we all get to hang out with judy and the crew in this deliriously welcome collection of essays.”

—Tavia Nyong’o, Yale University  
 

- Tavia Nyong’o

“This book is a joy to read, conveying the spirit, mischief, and intellect of Taylor Mac’s work and reflecting its genius and complexity. The mix of topics and styles is well suited to the multifaceted nature of Mac’s work and also makes for engaged reading.”

—Jennifer Parker-Starbuck, Royal Holloway, University of London
 

- Jennifer Parker-Starbuck

"Most useful and glorious are the bold full-color photographs of Mac on stage, resplendent in his dazzling head-to-toe costumes and "trademark sequined and glitter-bedecked makeup," which captures the essence of his performativity."
--CHOICE Connect, rated recommended. 

- CHOICE Connect

Read: Excerpt published in American Theatre magazine | January 30, 2023 | Link