The Taylor Mac Book: Ritual, Realness and Radical Performance

Taylor Mac is a theater-maker celebrated for their 24-Decade History of Popular Music performance event, which won them the MacArthur Foundation's "genius" award. This book examines their theatrical imagination, voice, cultural insights, and creativity, featuring essays, interviews, and commentaries by noted critics and artists.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 13 February 2023
Publisher: The University of Michigan Press

Taylor Mac is a renowned theater-maker who has gained widespread recognition for his innovative and groundbreaking work. One of his most notable achievements is the historic performance event A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, in which Mac sang the history of the United States for 24 straight hours in October 2016. This event was a testament to Mac's fearless experimentation and his ability to use theater as a space for building community and inspiring reflection on gender, identity, ethnicity, and performance itself. Mac's work has been praised for its vast theatrical imagination, singular voice, inclusiveness of cultural insights and critiques, and creativity displayed through stylistic and formal qualities and unorthodox personal and professional trajectories. "A 24-Decade History of Popular Music" is the first book to dedicate critical attention to Mac's work, featuring essays, interviews, and commentaries by noted critics and artists. The volume examines the vastness of Mac's theatrical imagination, the singularity of his voice, the inclusiveness of his cultural insights and critiques, and the creativity he displays through stylistic and formal qualities and the unorthodoxies of his 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.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780472055272