Academy Trailblazers: Taylor Mac
The Town Hall
Throughout its history, Academy alumni have been at the forefront of the performing arts, often as trailblazers who have made a remarkable impact on the world of entertainment and beyond. In order to honor these achievements, The Academy presents this series to highlight alumni who have made important contributions to the evolution of acting as a craft.
Academy graduate Taylor Mac (Class of 1996) has forged an extensive and eclectic career in the theatre. Recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship (known to many as the "Genius Grant"), winner of the Drama League Award, the Guggenheim Award, the International Ibsen Award -- which includes a $300,000 cash prize -- and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Taylor Mac has worked in theaters across the globe, from New York to Los Angeles, Sydney to Stockholm.
But Mac's work is not meant to merely entertain. judy - which Mac uses as a gender pronoun - creates theatre intended to challenge audiences. After graduating, Mac penned several plays. In 2002, The Face of Liberalism made its premiere at the Slide Bar in New York City, debuting Mac's cabaret style to New York audiences-- a style which judy has pioneered ever since.
In a 24-hour epic titled A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, Mac takes audiences on a tour of the United States from 1776 to the present. Each decade receives one hour, an extravagant costume, and ten songs from the time. The piece has garnered widespread acclaim and recognition, ushering Mac into the limelight. Mac said of the show; "The show is about different communities that are building themselves because they're being torn apart... the AIDS epidemic -- the queer community built itself because of the epidemic and because of the government and how it was treating queers at the time."
Hir (pronounced as "here", and the preferred gender pronoun of Max, the play's protagonist) debuted at the Magic Theater in 2013, with direction by Niegel Smith. A comedy, Hir explores an extended metaphor on gender fluidity and queer theory, set against the backdrop of white suburban America. The play has seen over 70 productions, and received the Sydney Theatre Award for Best New Play in 2017.
It wasn't until 2019 that Mac's work made it to Broadway. Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus saw Nathan Lane as the titular character, Gary, a janitor tasked with cleaning up the mounds of corpses left at the closure of Titus Andronicus, one of Shakespeare's bloodiest plays. The play lent itself to high production value, with stage directions reading "There is at least 1,000 corpses on the stage," a feat achieved through the use of models and backdrops.
Learn more about Taylor Mac's body of work on judy's website.