Taylor Mac and Matt Ray: Songs from Bark of Millions

Pomegranate Arts / From USA “It’s queer church at its ecstatic best.” One of the great creative partnerships in contemporary American performance, MacArthur Award-winning icon Taylor Mac reunites with Obie Award-winning composer Matt Ray, ”the musical nexus of New York’s alt-cabaret scene” (NYTimes), for an evening that invites all to reflect on queer lineage and futures. Following their much-heralded durational performance A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (subject of an HBO original documentary), Mac and Ray created the epic Bark of Millions, that aims to create a new canon of original songs inspired by queer figures past and present. Electrifying, provocative, and equally touching as it is hilarious, this concert version of Bark of Millions is an open call to community and celebration. In Mac’s own words, if you’re not invited to the party, throw a better one! “Bark of Millions provides a source for poetic contemplation, a queer terroir out of which new forms of life can grow.” (Vulture, NY Mag) The Bark of Millions book is out NOW, published by Black Dog & Leventhal. Order a copy directly from the publisher or purchase a signed copy in the lobby before and after performances of Bark of Millions. Robert J. Orchard Stage Emerson Paramount Center 559 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111 Haze & Flashing Lights. This show contains adult content and themes such as strong language and sexual references/imagery. Audio Described Performance Sat, Oct 17 2:00 pm Touch Tour Sat, Oct 17 2:00 pm Runtime: This unique concert experience will run between 2 hours and 2 hours & 40 minutes with no intermission. Audiences should feel free to use the restroom facilities at any point. Additionally, concessions, including our bar, will be open until 90-minutes after the show begins. Note: This show is currently available as part of an ArtsEmerson season package, group sales, or individual tickets. Season Packages still provide the best ticket prices! Photo Credit: Daniel Boud Photo Credit: Daniel Boud Photo Credit: Daniel Boud Photo Credit: Julieta Cervantes Photo Credit: Julieta Cervantes Creative and Executive Producer Since 1998, Pomegranate Arts has worked in close collaboration with a small group of contemporary artists and arts institutions to bring bold and ambitious artistic ideas to fruition. Creative and executive producers Linda Brumbach and Alisa E. Regas, along with their committed team at Pomegranate Arts, have produced the Olivier Award-winning revival of Einstein on the Beach; Available Light by John Adams, Lucinda Childs and Frank Gehry; Robin Frohardt’s The Plastic Bag Store; Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch’s Shockheaded Peter; the Drama Desk Award-winning production of Charlie Victor Romeo; and A a | a B : B E N D by Ambrose Akinmusire and Aszure Barton. With Taylor Mac, they have produced Taylor Mac’s epic A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, Holiday Sauce; Taylor Mac and Matt Ray’s Bark of Millions, a rock opera mediation on queerness; the original HBO feature documentary film Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music, and the film short Taylor Mac’s Whitman in the Woods. (ALL ARTS). Pomegranate currently manages artist Machine Dazzle and composer Jlin and is proud to support worldwide touring for William Kentridge’s performance projects and North American touring for Batsheva Dance Company and Sankai Juku. www.pomegranatearts.com Taylor Mac is a MacArthur Fellow, Pulitzer Prize finalist in Drama, Tony nominee for Best Play, and recipient of the International Ibsen Award, the Kennedy Prize, two Obie Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, two Bessie Awards, two Helpmann Awards, the Drama League Award, an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from The New School, and an Oxford University Fellowship. Mac has written or created thirty full-length works of theater, including The Hang, a jazz-infused Passion play about Socrates’ final hours with music by Matt Ray; A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, a 24-hour performance-art concert about communities building themselves while being torn apart; and An American Dionysia, a cycle of four full-length plays about polarization in America that can be performed separately or as an ancient Greek festival: Prosperous Fools, The Fre, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, and Hir. The concert documentary Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music is currently streaming on HBO/Max. Matt Ray is an Obie Award-winning theater-maker, composer, pianist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and music director. The New York Times called him “the musical nexus of New York’s alt-cabaret scene,” and as a fixture of downtown New York nightlife he has collaborated for many years with luminaries such as Taylor Mac, Bridget Everett, Joey Arias, and Justin Vivian Bond. His arrangements have been called “wizardly” (Time Out NY) and “ingenious” (NY Times), and his piano playing referred to as “classic, well-oiled swing” (NY Times) and “t