International Performance Art Legend

TAYLOR MAC

Packs his suitcase of sequins, heels, boas and ideas

and heads for Williams College

[WILLIAMSTOWN, MA, September 23, 2008] – Legendary New York City performance artist, actor, and playwright, Taylor Mac, who has taken New York, Edinburgh, London, Sydney, Stockholm, and Dublin by storm, comes to the Berkshires for one night only. His solo show The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac, which has garnered consistent rave reviews and an armload of international awards, will appear at the Adams Memorial Theatre on Thursday, October 30 and 10:00 pm.

A flamboyant chameleon of words, music, and sociopolitical tirades, visual and vocal phenomenon Mac employs gender-bending surrealism to explore the human condition and challenge the contemporary culture of fear -- oh, and he plays the ukulele. Obie Award-winner David Drake (The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me) directs.

Taylor Mac’s broad experience has brought him to venues ranging from The San Francisco Opera House to the Sydney Opera House. He has shared bills with such performance legends as Tommy Tune, Eric Bogosian, Karen Finley, John Cameron Mitchell, and Mandy Patinkin (with whom he is writing a show), to music stars such as Nina Hagen, The Scissor Sisters, Fischer-spooner, and The Dresdan Dolls. He worked opposite C. Thomas Howell in the Sci-Fi Channel's original feature Crimson Force,and has originated over two-dozen roles in premieres of plays and musicals.

Mac’s myriad awards include PS 122's Ethyl Eichelberger Award for artistic excellence, a Herald Angel Award, an Edward Albee Foundation Residency, a Peter S. Reed Grant, The Ensemble Studio Theater's New Voices Fellowship in Playwriting, a commission from Dixon Place, and both a HERE Arts Center Supported Artist's Residency and a HERE Arts Resident Program Development Fellowship, making him one of the most-celebrated performance artists of the 21^st century. The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac has received a Herald Angel Award (Edinburgh), a Latest 7 Award, Best of Brighton Review Award, and an Argus Angel Award (all Brighton).

The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac will be performed on the Adams Memorial Theatre on Thursday, October 30 and 10:00 pm. Tickets are free to all students.

For reservations, visit the Williams ’62 Center Box Office Tues-Sat, 1-5 pm or call (413) 597-2425. For more information, please visit http://62center.williams.edu .

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WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING ABOUT TAYLOR:

“You marvel at how assured and in control this brash, genial performer is. Mr. Mac, working in drag but not in drag cliches, has the ease and bantering skills of a veteran stand-up comic, yet he can shift effortlessly to a more somber tone when he wants to drive home a message. His mastery in this one-man show is all the more impressive when you know that he is alternating “Be(A)st” with “the Young Ladies of”, an equally demanding solo work.” The New York Times

“Taylor Mac’s deeply inspiring THE YOUNG LADIES OF is a beautiful play. (He is) one of the best performers the city has to offer.” The New York Press

"HHHHH Stunning!” and “Freakishly Brilliant” Time Out (NY)

“The Brilliant Taylor Mac” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

“Taylor Mac seduces you, breaks your heart, patches it back up again and sews sequins along the scars.” The Irish Times

" HHHHH It's not just that his delivery is flawless... It's that his smart, funny, tragic songs are life-affirming in their universality, yet delivered in such an understated way he's on to the next before you realise the profundity of what he's said. Quite the most distinctive and brilliant performers I've witnessed in ages.”

The Scotsman

"Mac attacks the familiar with such brash originality that the show dazzles. He creates a sublime tapestry." The New York Times

"An unflinching witness to a host of societies ills...linked together by a gentle impassioned humanity and a wry humor that can have you helpless with laughter, then overcome by an urge to weep -- and ultimately left thinking and wanting to make life better." The Herald

"Moving, sharp, hilarious, touchingly unique.”-- The Sydney Daily Telegraph

"A prophet in drag has fluttered, whirlwind, onto the Fringe� A must see, but not for the tame. Taylor Mac is entertaining and touching. He's fierce!"

British Theatre Guide

"There's a rawness and simplicity to New York sensation Taylor Mac's show that makes it immediately compelling." Metro

"This flamboyant New Yorker exceeds expectations by busting the boundaries of transgender performance." The List

"One of the most jaw-dropping things on the Fringe this year... This man in his perfect mask is a Pierrot figure for the modern age, all broken heart and outsider insight." The Telegraph