Taylor Mac Named ALL ARTS First-Ever Artist in Residence

ALL ARTS, the broadcast and digital platform created earlier this year by New York Public Media company WNET, announced today the selection of its first Artist in Residence, veteran theater artist Taylor Mac.

Taylor Mac is a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director and producer with works that have been performed to critical acclaim on Broadway, at The Public Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Kennedy Center, Sydney Opera House and many more across the globe. Mac has been lauded as "one of the most exciting theater artists of our time" by TimeOut New York and carries the titles of MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama for the landmark work A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, which is co-produced by Pomegranate Arts (Executive Producer, Linda Brumbach; Associate Producer, Alisa Regas) and Mac's company, Nature's Darlings. Mac is also a Tony-nominated playwright for Gary, A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, which premiered on Broadway earlier this year.

Notes Diane Masciale, Co-Executive in Charge of ALL ARTS, "We are so fortunate to have been able to create an opportunity that amplifies the work of a talented artist like Taylor Mac, providing inspiration for our fans and viewers. Taylor has already proven to be an innovative and groundbreaking creator. We cannot wait to see the amazing works that he will create during the Artist in Residence Program."

As part of the Artist in Residence Program, Mac will create video content to air on ALL ARTS' broadcast television station, streaming app and other digital platforms, co-produced by Mac and Pomegranate Arts. The parameters of what that content will be has been left intentionally open to encourage the artist's freedom of creative expression.

Explains Jörn Weisbrodt, Artistic Director of ALL ARTS, "Artists and performers like Taylor do not come around often. In his cathartic work and live shows he has the most unique ability of breaking all taboos and rules without ever losing the audience's admiration or trust. You follow him wherever his songs and words lead you and leave the theater changed, smarter, and more enlightened. I am proud that a true innovator agreed to be the first Artist in Residence of ALL ARTS.

On the opportunity Taylor Mac states, "It's thrilling to create original content for a channel called ALL ARTS. That's like getting asked to make work for my idea of utopia."

The release schedule for videos created during the Artist in Residence Program will be announced at a later date.

Taylor Mac (who uses "judy," lowercase sic, not as a name but as a gender pronoun) is one of the world's leading theater artists. A playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director and producer, and "Critical darling of the New York scene" (New York Magazine), judy's work has been performed in hundreds of venues including New York City's Town Hall, Lincoln Center, Celebrate Brooklyn, The Public Theatre, and Playwrights Horizons, as well as London's Hackney Empire and Barbican, Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center, LA's Ace Theater (through UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance), Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, the Sydney Opera House, The Melbourne Festival (Forum Theater), Stockholm's Sodra Theatern, the Spoleto Festival, and San Francisco's Curran Theater and SF MoMA.

judy is the author of many works of theater including the soon to be produced plays, The Fre and Prosperous Fools, and the previously produced works, A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, Holiday Sauce, Gary, A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, 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, in the City Center's Encores production of Gone Missing, 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, two Bessies, two Obies, two Helpmanns, and 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.