![Taylor Mac's “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (Abridged)" At Montclair Film Festival](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2017/TaylorMac.jpg "Taylor Mac's “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (Abridged)" At Montclair Film Festival")
(MONTCLAIR, NJ) -- Montclair Film has partnered with Pomegranate Arts to present 2017 MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize finalist Taylor Mac’s “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (Abridged)” at the 2018 Montclair Film Festival. Proceeds from this performance art concert—May 4, 2018, 7:30pm, at the Wellmont Theater—will support Montclair Film’s year-round film and education programs.
Taylor Mac’s “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music” is an acclaimed, bedazzled mashup of music, history, and theater that 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. This abridged performance will feature selections spanning the 24-hour work.
Taylor Mac is a New York-based theater artist, playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, cabaret performer, performance artist, director, and producer whose many talents combine in“A 24-Decade History of Popular Music,”a singular illustration of our nation’s diverse and sometimes dysfunctional story. In performing the spectacular work, Mac is joined by a band—led by Music Director Matt Ray, who created new arrangements of all of the songs—plus backing singers and local special guests. The audience is essential to Mac’s spectacular pop odyssey, participating in immersive moments that are by turns deeply touching and hilarious.
“A 24-Decade History of Popular Music” is created, written, performed and co-directed by Taylor Mac, with co-direction by Niegel Smith. In addition to music direction and arrangements by Matt Ray and costume design byMachine Dazzle, the work features dramaturgy by Jocelyn Clarke, scenic design by Mimi Lien, and lighting design by John Torres. “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music” is produced by Pomegranate Arts (Executive Producer, Linda Brumbach; Associate Producer, Alisa Regas) and Mac’s company Nature’s Darlings.
Already a 2017 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama and winner of the 2017 Kennedy Prize in Drama, “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music” recently garnered two 2017 New York Dance and Performance (aka Bessie) Awards—for Outstanding Production and Outstanding Visual Design, and Mac has now also been named a 2017 MacArthur ‘Genius’ grant winner.
“I’m deeply grateful to Tom Hall, his staff and board at the Montclair Film Festival who have invited Taylor Mac to participate in this year’s festival. Taylor’s spirit of joy, justice, intelligence and craft replenishes our humanity and awareness and is perfectly aligned with the values of the festival and the unique and diverse community in Montclair. Both Tom and Taylor know how community works and help bring truth into the room,” said Linda Brumbach, founder and director of Pomegranate Arts and executive producer of “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music.”
“We are honored to bring the transformative ‘A 24-Decade History of Popular Music’ to the Montclair Film Festival,” said Montclair Film Executive Director Tom Hall. “We are also proud to partner with Pomegranate Arts to present this extraordinary evening, uniting theater, music, history, and community through the power of Taylor Mac’s visionary storytelling.”
Tickets range from $25 to $99.50, with a special $200 ticket that includes a post-show reception with special guests. This performance features reserved seating, with tickets available beginning today at montclairfilmfest.org.
Taylor Mac (who uses “judy”, lowercase sic, not as a name but as a gender pronoun) is a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director and producer. “A critical darling of the New York scene” (New York Magazine), judy’s work has been performed at St. Ann’s Warehouse, where the complete “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music” made its premiere in October 2016, as well as at New York City’s Lincoln Center, The Public Theatre and Playwrights Horizons, London’s Hackney Empire, Los Angeles’s Royce Hall, Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater, Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, the Sydney Opera House, Boston’s American Repertory Theatre, Stockholm’s Sodra Theatern, the Spoleto Festival, San Francisco’s Curran Theater and MOMA, and literally hundreds of other theaters, museums, music halls, opera houses, cabarets, and festivals around the globe.
judy is the author of seventeen full-length works of theater including the soon to be produced plays, “Gary, A Sequel to Titus Andronicus”, “Prosperous Fools”, and “The Fre”, and the previously produced works, “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music”, “Hir”, “The Walk Across America for Mother Earth”, “Comparison is Violence”, “The Lily’s Revenge”, “The Young Ladies Of”, “Red Tide Blooming”, “The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac”, “Cardiac Arrest or Venus on a Half-Clam”, “The Face of Liberalism”, “Okay”, “Maurizio Pollini”, “A Crevice”, and “The Hot Month”.
Sometimes Taylor acts in other people’s plays (or co-creations). Notably: Shen Teh/Shui Ta in The Foundry Theater’s production of “Good Person of Szechwan” at La Mama and the Public Theater, Puck/Egeus in the Classic Stage Company’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”, and in the two-man vaudeville, “The Last Two People On Earth” opposite Mandy Patinkin and directed by Susan Stroman.
Mac is a MacArthur Fellow, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama and the recipient of multiple awards including the Kennedy Prize, a NY Drama Critics Circle Award, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim, the Herb Alpert in Theater, the Peter Zeisler Memorial Award, the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, 2 Bessies, 2 Obies, and the one judy is most proud to be associated with, an Ethyl Eichelberger Award. An alumnus of New Dramatists, judy is currently a New York Theater Workshop Usual Suspect and the Resident playwright at the Here Arts Center.
ABOUT POMEGRANATE ARTS
Founded by Linda Brumbach in 1998, Pomegranate Arts is an independent production company based in New York City dedicated to the development of international performing arts projects. As a creative producing team, Pomegranate Arts works in close collaboration with contemporary artists and arts institutions to bring bold and ambitious artistic ideas to fruition. With a hands-on approach, Pomegranate creates unique structures and partnerships in all performance mediums. Whether creating a new work with established artists at the peak of their career or introducing the vision of a younger artist, Pomegranate specializes in producing provocative performance events of the highest quality.
ABOUT THE MONTCLAIR FILM FESTIVAL
The Montclair Film Festival, Inc. (MFF), a non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, nurtures and showcases the talents of filmmakers from around the region and world. The MFF unites, empowers, educates and celebrates our region’s diverse cultural heritage and robust artistic community by presenting an annual spring festival and a growing assortment of engaging programs and events all year long. The sixth annual spring festival will take place from April 28 through May 7, 2017. MFF 2016 was made possible through generous support from Investors Bank, Audible, Hackensack UMC Mountainside, Chubb, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, among others. For information about MFF, visit www.montclairfilmfest.org.
Photo credit: Little Fang.
