For the better part of two decades, theater artist Taylor Mac and composer Heather Christian have converged in the concrete jungle that is New York City —  part of a larger collaborative of artists who feed off of one another. Mac, a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, cast Christian in The Lily’s Revenge (2009), a multidisciplinary theatrical work in which Mac plays the eponymous role. The collaboration continued when Christian stepped up to the mic as a backup singer in Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (2016). Of late, the pair of self-described outside-the-box thinkers (who now identify as country people) are currently at work on a new piece of musical theater entitled, “Clarence, in a Pause”, excerpts from which they plan to perform during their talk on the creative process at the New Marlborough Meeting House on Saturday, August 3 at 4:30 p.m.

“We’ve never written anything together, so that’s the joy of this project,” Mac (a 30-year resident of New Marlborough, Mass.) said of working with Christian (who recently relocated to Beacon, New York) and the shift to making their art in nature. Make no mistake: This is not your typical show told from the point of view of a single protagonist through the ages; instead, the dynamic duo that is Mac and Christian plan to (figuratively) break their subject — one associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, nominated by President George H. W. Bush to succeed Thurgood Marshall in 1991 — wide open rather than adhere to established creative forms. As to the result?

“[The work] is about living in a world where someone like Clarence Thomas has power over you and why that is — and how that is — and how it's complicated when considering our [nation’s] history of white supremacy,” explains Mac with just a hint of nervous laughter before delivering the final deadpan blow: In 1857, the very same SCOTUS on which Thomas currently sits not only upheld slavery in United States territories but also denied the legality of Black citizenship in America with its decision in Missouri’s Dred Scott case.

“That somebody rises out of that, and becomes a Supreme Court justice only to oppress other people, is [why we are] trying to understand Clarence Thomas — as opposed to simply having feelings about him — and find a different way to approach our criticism, our judgment, and our own protection from him and the Supreme Court as it is right now [rather than simply use] the same tactics that they use,” explains Mac, in a nutshell, of what the current collaboration stands to crack open.

For a theater artist who has been called “fabulous” and a “genius” (and who was the 2017 recipient of a grant from the MacArthur Foundation), Mac’s praise for Christensen runs deep. “She wrote this piece called ‘Oratorio for Living Things’ that really changed my DNA sonically,” says Mac, who has listened to things differently since hearing that world premiere in 2022. “It shifted how I hear harmonics, and I just think she’s an extraordinary visionary,” says Mac, who likens the rapport with Christensen to this “back-and-forth that is so delightful,” one that keeps the ego from running amok and ensures the heart is in synch with another being.

Taking to the tiny albeit historic stage at the New Marlborough Meeting House (a classic Greek revival structure that dates to 1839), is cause for reflection on the role these small-town stages play in both building community and inspiring social change. “I do think it’s a trickle-up culture,” says Mac, who sees theater artists as grassroots activists in a lot of ways. “As [creatives] on tour, we go into small communities and we share our work — in intimate spaces like living rooms and churches where we can hear the people in the room breathing — and, in that sense, the meeting house is where it’s at.”

Taylor Mac and Heather Christian talk “CREATIVITY”
Saturday, August 3, 4:30 p.m.
New Marlborough Meeting House
154 Hartsville New Marlborough Road, New Marlborough, MA

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Written by
Hannah Van Sickle