Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music (2023)
July 3, 2023 11:02 AM - Subscribe
Drag performance artist Taylor Mac stages a monumental 24 hour marathon performance, examining the history of America through 24 decades of popular music, from a very queer and personal perspective.
YouTube trailer link
The Guardian: How a 24-hour drag show predicted the past seven years in America
"To enact this “radical faerie realness ritual,” Mac donned elaborate new costumes every decade, all designed by artist Machine Dazzle: a barbed-wire hoop skirt studded with hotdogs for the 1860s; a pop art Jackie Kennedy suit for the 60s; a Lesbian Avenger outfit of denim, shredded flannel shirts and massive vulvar wings for the 1990s. The audience – more than 600 performance arts enthusiasts – were asked to reenact the American civil war and the Oklahoma land grab and the first world war, to line up for bread during the Great Depression and rearrange their seats to mimic white flight. There was dinner and breakfast and snacks, shadow puppets, readings from Walt Whitman, a troupe of burlesque performers, even an entire marching band."
Taylor Mac website
YouTube trailer link
The Guardian: How a 24-hour drag show predicted the past seven years in America
"To enact this “radical faerie realness ritual,” Mac donned elaborate new costumes every decade, all designed by artist Machine Dazzle: a barbed-wire hoop skirt studded with hotdogs for the 1860s; a pop art Jackie Kennedy suit for the 60s; a Lesbian Avenger outfit of denim, shredded flannel shirts and massive vulvar wings for the 1990s. The audience – more than 600 performance arts enthusiasts – were asked to reenact the American civil war and the Oklahoma land grab and the first world war, to line up for bread during the Great Depression and rearrange their seats to mimic white flight. There was dinner and breakfast and snacks, shadow puppets, readings from Walt Whitman, a troupe of burlesque performers, even an entire marching band."
Taylor Mac website
I got to see Taylor Mac’s holiday show in SF a few years back, and it was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. If you ever have the chance to see judy (Mac uses judy/judy‘s pronouns) perform live I can’t recommend it enough.
posted by donatella at 9:04 PM on July 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by donatella at 9:04 PM on July 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
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posted by gingerbeer at 5:46 PM on July 4, 2023 [2 favorites]