Recordings from the OBIE award winning play with music by Taylor Mac Lyrics by Taylor Mac; Music by Rachelle Garniez Producer: Matt Ray Recorded by Matt Ray at Studio D Mixed and mastered by Matt Ray at Studio D Arrangements by Matt Ray Jon Natchez -- cavaquinho 2,7,14,15 clarinet 1,4,10 trumpet 1,3,11 flute 3,14 baritone saxophone 5, tuba 8 Stefan Schatz -- drums 1-8,10,11,13-15 percussion 3,15 Derek Nievergelt -- acoustic bass 1-5,7,8,10,11,14,15 Matt Ray -- piano 1-4,8,10,11,13,14; acoustic guitar 5-7,15; electric guitar 5, glockenspiel 1,3 trumpet 13, keyboard bass 13; lead vocals 5; background vocals 1,3,5,6,8,10,14,15 Rachelle Garniez: Guitar on "Way of The World" and Vocals on 1, 3, 8, 9, 10, 14, and 15 Amelia Zirin-Brown: Vocals on 1, 4, 10, 11, 14, and 15 Heather Christian: Vocals 1, 6, 13, 14, and 15 Taylor Mac: Uke on "Used To Be" and Vocals on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, and 15 “Best Theater of 2009”: The New Yorker, TimeOut NY, The New York Post, Paper Magazine, Theatermania.com, Nytheatre.com, OnOffBroadway.com, NYMetroMix.com. “In its bravery, scope, creativity, extremity and sheer generosity of spirit, The Lily’s Revenge, to my mind, surpasses any American theater in New York this year. (Taylor Mac) is one of the most exciting theater artists of our time.” -- Adam Feldman, TimeOut NY “This new production—epic really is the only word that does it justice—is intelligent, endlessly surprising, and above all spectacularly entertaining. It inspires hyperbolic pronouncements like "the most important event of the theater season" or "the essential must-see event of the year..." --Martin Denton, NYTheatre.com “This was the most challenging, exciting and wonderful theater event of the year.” -- Paper Magazine “A love story about the cosmic battle between originality and cliché? A dialectic about a flower's quest to become human? A five-hour epic about the rights and rites of marriage (gay, straight, both, and none of the above)? Bursting with costumes, sets and a cast of 40+, Taylor Mac's “Lily” was a visionary ode to creativity itself.” -- NY Metro Mix Taylor Mac is a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, and sometime director and producer. TimeOut New York has called him, “One of the most exciting theater artists of our time” and American Theater Magazine says, “Mac is one of this country’s most heroic and disarmingly funny playwrights.” His plays include “The Walk Across America For Mother Earth”, “The Lily’s Revenge”, “The Young Ladies Of”, “The Be(A)st of Taylor Mac”, “Red Tide Blooming”, “Dilating” (an evening of one-acts), “Blue Grotto” and his first play “The Hot Month”. His concerts of original songs and covers include: “Comparison is Violence or The Ziggy Stardust Meets Tiny Tim Songbook”, “Cardiac Arrest or Venus on a Half-Clam” and “The Face of Liberalism”. Taylor has performed his work and/or others at The Sydney Opera House, The San Francisco MOMA and Opera House, New York’s Public Theater, Stockholm’s Sodra Teatern, The Spoleto Festival, The Bumbershoot Festival, The Time Based Arts Festival, Dublin’s Project Arts Center, London’s Soho Theater, and literally hundreds of other theaters, museums, music halls, cabarets, and festivals around the globe. He has acted in many original plays (by others), dozens of revivals, and in featured roles on television with The BBC2, BBC4, MTV, and The Sci-Fi Channel. Awards, grants, and fellowships include: a 2010 Obie, a McKnight National Commissioning Award, a Sundance Theater Lab Residency, a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, two MAP Grants, a Creative Capital Grant, The James Hammerstein Award for playwriting, three Brighton Best of Festival Awards, a Dallas Theater Critics Forum Award for Best Touring Show, a Chicago Jeff Award Nomination, three GLAAD Media Award Nominations, an Edinburgh Festival Herald Angel Award, two New York State Council of The Arts Grants, an Edward Albee Foundation Residency, The Franklin Furnace Grant, a Peter S. Reed Grant, The Ensemble Studio Theatre's New Voices Fellowship in playwriting, a Mabou Mines Suite (with collaborator Elizabeth Swados), and the one he is most proud of, an Ethyl Eichelberger Award. Vintage Press, Playscripts, New York Theatre Review, New York Theatre Experience have published his plays and he was a HERE Arts Center resident artists and is currently a member of New Dramatists. Taylor’s upcoming projects are a musical inspired by (not based on) “The Bacchae” and a concert collaboration with Mandy Patinkin. Born in New York City, Rachelle Garniez is a performer, singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. Hailed by the New York Press as "one of the greatest songwriters of our time", described by the New Yorker as "a certified free spirit with a rich voice and a wild imagination", and featured in Paper magazine's annual "Beautiful People 2008" issue; Garniez’s adventures began as a street musician in Europe and a fixture in the art scene of 1980’s New York City. Rachelle formed her own band, The Fortunate Few, in 1997 and has since then released four CDs of original songs on her label, Real Cool Records (named in honor of author Chester Himes); while also participating in a variety of music ventures including performances and collaborations with Thomas Dolby, Sxip Shirey, Claywoman, the Marvin Sewell Group, Rufus Wainwright, Hazmat Modine and Jenny Scheinman to name a few. At the present time, she is the co-musical director of renowned musical theater troupe The Citizens Band. Rachelle's songs are featured in celebrated animator Bill Plympton's first full-length film, "Idiots and Angels" (2008) and have been recorded and performed by Catherine Russell, Ingrid Lucia and the Flying Neutrinos, and The Citizens Band. Rachelle is currently collaborating with performance artist extraordinaire Taylor Mac, composing music for his piece "The Lily's Revenge" which will premiere in October 2009; and is busy writing songs and music for the Franklin Stage Company's adaptation of L. Frank Baum's "American Fairy Tales", which she will be performing in Franklin, NY August 2009. “Lily” was created as part of the HERE Arts Center resident artists program (HARP) and could not have manifested if it weren’t for their support, encouragement, and vision. It premiered in the fall of 2009 at the HERE Arts Center in New York and was a co-production between Taylor Mac and The HERE Arts Center. Book, Lyrics, and Conceived by Taylor Mac Dramaturgy by Nina Mankin Directed by Paul Zimet, Rachel Chavkin, Faye Driscoll, Aaron Rhyne, David Drake, and Kristin Marting. Composed by Rachelle Garniez Production Stage Manager: Julia Funk Musical Direction and Arrangements by Matt Ray Costumes by Machine Makeup by Derrick Little Sets by Nick Vaughn Lights by Seth Reiser Puppets by Emily Decola Part One Choreography by Julie Atlas Muz Photos by Karl Giant Starring: Amelia Zirin-Brown (Lady Rizo), Barb Lanciers, Bianca Leigh, Daphne Gaines, Darlinda Just Darlinda, Ellen Madow, Frank Paiva, Glenn Marla, Heather Christian, Ikuko Ikari James Tigger Ferguso, Jonathan Bastinan, Kim Rosen, Kristine Lee, Machine, Matt Ray, Matthew Crosland, Mieke Duffly, Muriel Mugel, Nikki Zialcita, Oona Osato, Phillip Taratula, Rae C. Wright, Saeed Siamac, Salty Brine, Taylor Mac, The World Famous Bob, Tina Shepard, Vanessa Anspaugh. WHO HELPED: THE LILY’S REVENGE was developed at HERE Arts Center through the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP); with the assistance of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program; and at New Dramatists as part of the Working Sessions Program and with support from the Creativity Fund. THE LILY’S REVENGE is a project of Creative Capital, and was made possible in part by The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation; the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art, supported by Jerome Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; Ars Nova; the New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artists Program; The JB Harter Charitable Trust; and The Visionary Trust.