By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
A MacArthur 'genius' skewers philanthropy in a farcical play tackling oligarchy and arts funding
preview.jpg
This photo provided by Theatre for a New Audience shows Taylor Mac in "Prosperous Fools," written by Taylor Mac and directed by Darko Tresnjak. - photo by Hollis King/Theatre for a New Audience via AP
NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Mac does not set out to bite the hand that feeds in a new play satirizing cultural philanthropy. The MacArthur “genius grant” recipient claims to be “just trying to get some lipstick on it." Set at a not-for-profit dance company’s gala, "Prosperous Fools" invites questions about the moral value of philanthropy in a society denounced by the comedy as “feudal.” A boorish patron goes mad trying vainly to wield his lacking creative capital and thus confirms the choreographer's fears of selling out to a sleazy oligarch who represents everything his art opposes.