About the Author
Taylor Mac (lyricist/concept) is a playwright, poet, performance artist, actor, singer-songwriter. A MacArthur and Guggenheim fellow, Mac is also a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Tony nominee for Best Play, and the recipient of the International Ibsen Award, The Kennedy Prize, a New York Drama Critics Award, a Drama League Award, and two Obie Awards. Other publications include The Hang (Theatre Communications Group), Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus (Theatre Communications Group), Hir (Northwestern University Press), The Lily’s Revenge (Playscripts), and The Walk Across America for Mother Earth (Playscripts). The concert-doc Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music is currently streaming on HBO Max.
Matt Ray (composer) is a pianist, multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, theater-maker, and music director. The New York Times called him “the musical nexus of New York’s alt-cabaret scene,” and he has spent more than three decades making an impact on New York’s nightlife and culture. He first collaborated with Taylor Mac on The Lily’s Revenge as arranger, music director, and pianist, and subsequently A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, for which he and Mac shared the 2017 Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History. Mac and Ray followed with the jazz-based theater piece The Hang, and for his composition and music direction on that work, Ray recieved a 2023 Obie Award. The Hang also recieved four Drama Desk and two Drama League nominations, including a Drama Desk nomination for Matt Ray for Best Music.
