Taylor Mac

Taylor Mac (born August 24, 1973) is an American actor, playwright, performance artist, director, producer, and singer-songwriter active mainly in New York City. In 2017, Mac was the recipient of a "Genius Grant" from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Mac was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Mac was born Taylor Mac Bowyer in Laguna Beach, California and raised in Stockton, the child of Joy Aldrich and Vietnam War veteran Lt. Robert Mac Bowyer. 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. Mac moved to New York in 1994 to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. 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).

Mac's work has been described as a fight against conformity and categorization. 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. 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 Södra Theatern, the Spoleto Festival, and 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. 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.

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. 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.

Since at least 2012, Mac and musical director/arranger Matt Ray developed A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, a performance that covers music popular in the United States from 1776 to the 2016, with one hour dedicated to each decade with a corresponding costume designed by long-time collaborator Machine Dazzle. This work culminated in a 24-hour performance on October 8–9, 2016 with one hour dedicated to each decade. 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 judy to eat, hydrate and use the loo, and starting in 1776 with a great-big band and ending with Mac, alone in 2016, doing original songs on piano and ukulele." In 2017, the performance was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It appeared fifth on a list by The Guardian writers of the best theatrical works since 2000. On October 29, 2018, in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections, Taylor Mac performed a cover of Patti Smith's 'People Have the Power' after appearing as guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

In 2019, Mac's first Broadway play, Gary, A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, premiered April 11 starring Nathan Lane in the title role. The conceit is a look at who has to clean up all the dead bodies after the carnage of Shakespeare's play Titus Andronicus—in which almost everyone is murdered. The black comedy closed in June 2019 after both praising and panning reviews.

Mac uses "judy" (lowercase) as a gender pronoun, chosen in reference to American actress Judy Garland. Mac has been influenced by the Radical Faeries and invokes "Radical Faerie realness ritual" during performances.

• ALL ARTS artist in residence (2020)
• Drama League Award (2019) for Unique Contribution to the Theatre
• MacArthur Genius Grant (2017)
• Finalist for Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2017)
• Special Citation Obie Award (2017)
• Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History (2016)
• Guggenheim Award (2016)
• Doris Duke Award (2016)
• Mellon Foundation Playwright in Resident at Here Arts Center (2016–2019)
• Herb Alpert Award in the Arts (2015)
• Ethyl Eichelberger Award
• Peter Zeisler Memorial Award
• Helen Merrill Playwriting Award
• Sundance Theater Lab Residency (2-time winner)
• Rockefeller MAP Grant (3-time winner)
• Creative Capital Award
• New York State Council of The Arts Grant
• Massachusetts Council of the Arts Grant
• Edward Albee Foundation Residency
• The Franklin Furnace Grant
• Peter S. Reed Grant
• HERE Arts Center Resident Artist
• New Dramatists Resident Playwright
• New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect