August 3, 2026 | Theatre,

Artist Spotlight: Taylor Mac and Matt Ray

Taylor Mac and Matt Ray: Songs from Bark of Millions is coming to the Robert J. Orchard Stage at the Emerson Paramount Center in October. This is a concert version of Bark of Millions, the epic living archive of 55 original songs written for 55 queer figures from around the world, past and present. The full Bark of Millions production has toured with an international ensemble of over 20 performers and costumes from Machine Dazzle. The concert version brings a selection of these songs to the stage in Boston.

This show is a collaboration between lyricist Taylor Mac and composer and music director Matt Ray, who created a new Songbook examining history through the lens of queer lives and experiences spanning from the 1969 uprising at the Stonewall Inn to present. This work is a response to the previous show that Mac made with Ray, A 24-Decade History of Popular Music in America.

Taylor Mac, lyrics and direction, is a MacArthur Fellow, Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama, and Tony nominee for Best Play. Mac, who uses the pronoun judy, is the author of seventeen full-length works of theater including A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, Hir, and Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, and has performed at Lincoln Center, the Public Theater, the Sydney Opera House, and dozens of other venues around the world. Mac shared the 2017 Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History with Matt Ray.

Matt Ray, music and musical direction, is an Obie Award-winning theater maker, composer, pianist, and music director. His arrangements have been called “wizardly” by Time Out NY and “ingenious” by the New York Times. Ray shared the 2017 Kennedy Prize with Taylor Mac for A 24-Decade History of Popular Music and won a 2023 Obie for Music Direction and Composition for their show The Hang. Bark of Millions, his latest collaboration with Mac, premiered at the Sydney Opera House in 2023.

Ray has spent the last 15 years as Mac’s music director and arranger for A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, and for Bark of Millions, he composed dozens of original songs that span a century of genres and moods. Each song is written as a tribute to a particular figure, and therefore each has its own unique voice.

While researching for this show, the duo found much of the existing popular song cannon about queer history was written by straight people, making queer figures a footnote. Mac and Ray decided to make a new song canon instead, comprised of 55 songs— one composed for each year following the 1969 Stonewall uprising. Each song honors a queer figure from around the world, ranging from mythology to people alive today.

Taylor Mac and Matt Ray: Songs from Bark of Millions follows Mac’s commitment to reclaiming queer history from biased and incomplete portrayals in the popular media by portraying a wide array of queer figures from past and present, from all over the world.

This is the opening show of ArtsEmerson’s 2026/27 season, running OCT 15—18. Single tickets are available or can be purchased as part of a Season Package.