Taylor Mac to Embark on US Tour

Taylor Mac announces U.S. tour dates for two bedazzling, moving, and politically stirring performances. Mac will tour A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (Abridged) across the Northeast. Then in December, Mac will perform Holiday Sauce-the delightfully irreverent work exploring Christmas as calamity-in various locations across the country. Both performances are produced by Pomegranate Arts (Executive Producer, Linda Brumbach; Associate Producer, Alisa Regas) and Taylor Mac's company Nature's Darlings.

A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (Abridged), deemed by New York Times critic Wesley Morris "one of the great experiences of [his] life," will be performed in Providence, RI (September 14, Veterans Memorial Auditorium, co-presented by FirstWorks and Brown Arts Initiative | Brown University), Worcester, MA (September 16, Fenwick Theatre, presented by Arts Transcending Borders at the College of the Holy Cross), Portland, ME (September 19, State Theater, presented by Portland Ovations), and Middletown, CT (September 21 at the Center for the Arts at Wesleyan University). A 24-Decade History of Popular Music decodes the social history of the United States-all 240 years-through 246 songs that were popular throughout the country, and in its disparate communities, from 1776 to the present day. These abridged performances will feature selections from the original 24-hour work.

In performing the spectacular work, Mac will be joined by costume designer Machine Dazzle and by a band-led by Music Director Matt Ray, who created new arrangements of all of the songs. The audience is essential to Mac's spectacular pop odyssey, participating in immersive moments that are by turns deeply touching and hilarious.

Mac will bring Holiday Sauce to Newark, NJ (December 4 at New Jersey Performing Arts Center), Richmond, VA (December 7-8, Modlin Center for the Arts, presented by Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond), Washington, D.C. (December 12, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Opera House), Ann Arbor, MI (December 14-15, Power Center, presented by University Musical Society), and Seattle, WA (December 19-20, The Moore Theater, presented by Seattle Theatre Group). Holiday Sauce upends our yuletide traditions and celebrates the holiday in all of its dysfunction with the families you choose to love. The Los Angeles Times praised the performance for its "freewheeling love and generosity" and for "cast[ing] a cathartic spell to make things a little lighter for all those who find caroling, eggnog and enforced family visits destabilizing."

Conceived, written, performed, co-directed, and co-produced by Taylor Mac, the creative team for Holiday Sauce includes Matt Ray (Musical Direction and Arrangements), Niegel Smith (Co-Direction), Machine Dazzle (Set and Costumes).

Playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director and producer, Taylor Mac is a 2017 MacArthur Fellow and is the author of seventeen full-length works of theater. A 24-Decade History of Popular Music won the 2017 Edward M. Kennedy Award for Drama inspired by American History and was a 2017 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama. The work was also made The New York Times "Best of 2016" lists in three categories: Performance, Theater and Classical Music.