Taylor Mac was unlike anything I have ever seen at Mass MoCA. I’ve seen other work-in-progress performances (Big Dance Theater and another Sundance Theater performance, I believe), but it was hard to believe that this particular performance was work in progress. The entire show was planned so beautifully and Taylor Mac, was so easily adaptable that, despite his claims of it not being a polished show, everything that happened on the stage seemed intentional and very fitting. It made all five hours all the more enjoyable. Mass MoCA Spring 2016 program book describes the performance as “strange music history” and “world’s wildest history lesson” and they are not wrong. The show is a part of what is going to be a 24-Decade History of Popular Music in New York, and consisted of the years 1836-1896. Although one decade was
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It seemed to complete the ridiculousness that was on stage. His costumes, created by Machine Dazzle, reflected each time period in unusual ways. They were all absolutely stunning, and the theme of them seemed to be what was invented during that time period. For example, the first outfit included a wire skirt with plastic potato chip bags, a chess piece top, while the second had barbed wire morphing into hot dogs. I was also, as always, engaged by the lighting choices and how particular it was—the four band lights in the back that were dimmed just enough so they could see to the colors chosen during specific parts of the show (ie. Red lights during the more intense moments, green during the Martian themed decade). Everything fit where it should and it all added to the performance. Something that I also found helpful and in the spirit of the show, all of his little Mass MoCA minions that helped set the scenes with audience participation were dressed in drag as well (I noticed about halfway through the show that a few of them to be MCLA students that I
It seemed to complete the ridiculousness that was on stage. His costumes, created by Machine Dazzle, reflected each time period in unusual ways. They were all absolutely stunning, and the theme of them seemed to be what was invented during that time period. For example, the first outfit included a wire skirt with plastic potato chip bags, a chess piece top, while the second had barbed wire morphing into hot dogs. I was also, as always, engaged by the lighting choices and how particular it was—the four band lights in the back that were dimmed just enough so they could see to the colors chosen during specific parts of the show (ie. Red lights during the more intense moments, green during the Martian themed decade). Everything fit where it should and it all added to the performance. Something that I also found helpful and in the spirit of the show, all of his little Mass MoCA minions that helped set the scenes with audience participation were dressed in drag as well (I noticed about halfway through the show that a few of them to be MCLA students that I