Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 38, Ed. 1 Friday, February 5, 2010 Page: 18 of 36
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Dress to excess
Gender-bending performance artist Taylor Mac may be the only queen to
use inner turmoil as drag inspiration — and drag as therapy
RICH LOPEZ I Staff Writer
lopez@dallasvoice.com
For many, drag.te merely a man putting on
women's clothes lip-synching to cabaret torch
songs amid melodramatic arm choreography
and audience tips. For others, it's that one Hal-
loween costume that checks off a
bucket list item.
But drag with psychology and
theater behind it? That's Taylor
Mac.
"It's so much more than lip-
synching and vagina jokes/' Mac
says.
A man who sfees his drag costumep stemming
from emotional descriptives might never have
spoken truer words. He literally turns words of
what he's feeling into metaphoric designs and
outfits. When his two-week run of The Be(a)st of
Taylor Mac at Undermain Theatre meets Dallas
audiences, he'll not only play here for the first
time, he'll expose himself — even with layers of
makeup, glitter and costume.
See, Mac is a drag anomaly.
"'I ask, 'What is it that I look like on the inside
and how can I expose that?'" he explains. "I
GENDER BENDER
THE BE(A)ST OF TAYLOR MAC
at Undermain Theatre,
3200 Main St Through Feb 13.
$15—$25.
UndermainTheatre.org
drag monster. I didn't expect it to be drag. But
honestly, I feel both masculine and feminine. I
needed to represent that. The only people who
would book my shows were clubs and thus I be-
came part of the drag community.
I think it's fantastic, but it came
out of a concept."
His garments range from thrift
store concoctions to outrageous
designs, but all are in the name of
his art. Mac runs a spectrum that
would include the likes of Hed-
wig, Cabaret's Master of Ceremonies, RuPaitl's
Drag Race and varied characters from any Troma
film. But the drag didn't come first.
As Mac worked his theater career, applause
wasn't enough. In his mind, his theater should
have an impact to allow people to feel and be re-
minded of their humanity. Mac didn't want to
ask for permission to be creative so he com-
menced his own and it evolved into this mashup
of performance art, musical theater, stand-up
and drag.
I think this is the magical pastiche of it all,'
e*
I
DREAD-FUL FUN
Taylor Mac throws
drag convention out
the window in his
one-man show 'The
Be(a)st of Taylor
Mac' at the
Undermain, using his
costumes to expose
himself in more
honest ways than
street clothes could.
(Photo courtesy of
Marianne Barr-Mia
Jacobsen)
write it down and that's how I created this weird he says. "I want it to be lacking in any kind of
homogenous nature. The aesthetic of play
needed to match the topic as well and it's all in a
heightened theatrical way. That's what I'm inter-
ested in. Every time I go to the theater, that's
DTC gives it up for GLFD
It's the gayest tough-guy musical since the Jets arabesqued the crap out of the Sharks with ra-
zors, chains and a step-ball-change combination. So it's a good fit that the Gay & Lesbian Fund
for Dallas will hold its gala fundraiser for the Dallas Theater Center during the penultimate per-
formance of the musical Give It Up! The event starts at 6:30 p.m. with an open-bar reception and
silent auction at the new Wyly Theatre, followed by a performance of the show, set in the world of
college basketball. After the curtain call, attendees are invited onstage for a cast party and Valen-
tine's Day dance.
— Arnold Wayne Jones
Deets: Wyly Theatre, 2400 Flora St. Feb. 13. Reception at 6:30 p.m., show at 8 p.m. $150.
GayandLesbianFundforDallas.org.
what I get excited about."
As the author of his pieces, Mac wants to cre-
ate a universe that takes him outside his comfort
zone, which the costuming helps accomplish.
That more than anything makes the experience,
theatrical for him.
"Theater is about risking and exposing myself,
so I try to write the one thing I don't want any-
one to know about me," he says. "When I'm
wearing my jeans and a tee, that's safe! You're
not risking anything. Risk to me is, if it makes
you nervous, it's worth doing. I use all these
techniques and crafts to not make it therapy on-
stage because there is nothing worse than that.
The World needs one more person to do what
I'm doing."
For now, Dallas will have to do. ■
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18 dallasvoice.com
02.05.10
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Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 38, Ed. 1 Friday, February 5, 2010, newspaper, February 5, 2010; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth239102/m1/18/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.