Taylor Mac

About the Author

Taylor Mac is a MacArthur fellow, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, a Tony nominee for Best Play, and the recipient of the International Ibsen Award. Mac is the author of seventeen full-length plays and performances. Selected works include: Bark of Millions (in collaboration with Matt Ray); Joy and Pandemic; The Hang (with lyrics by Mac and music by Matt Ray); The Fre; Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus ; A 24-Decade History of Popular Music; Hir; The Walk Across America for Mother Earth; The Lily’s Revenge; The Young Ladies Of; The Be(A)st of Taylor Mac; Red Tide Blooming; The Last Two People on Earth. Films include Whitman in the Woods and Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music.

Matt Ray is a composer, arranger, theater maker, pianist, singer, songwriter, and music director. The New York Times called him “the musical nexus of New York’s alt-cabaret scene,” and as a fixture of downtown New York nightlife he’s collaborated for many years with luminaries such as Taylor Mac, Justin Vivian Bond, Bridget Everett, and Joey Arias. Ray received a 2023 Obie Award for his composition and music direction on his and Mac’s jazz-based theater piece The Hang (2022, HERE Arts Center). The show also received 4 Drama Desk and 2 Drama League nominations including a Drama Desk nomination for Matt Ray for Best Music. Ray and Mac have also collaborated on The Lily’s Revenge, Bark of Millions, and A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. Ray and Mac shared the 2017 Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired By American History for 24-Decade.