Peter Brook/NY Presents Tarell Alvin McCraney In Conversation With Peter Brook

Peter Brook/NY today announces that Tarell Alvin McCraney will interview Peter Brook following the Thursday, September 26, performance of Why?, written and directed by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne; featuring Hayley Carmichael, Kathryn Hunter, and Marcello Magni; and presented by Theatre for a New Audience. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be filmed by partner organization WNET/ALL ARTS for future broadcast. For complete Peter Brook/NY programming information, please visit tfana.org/pbny.

Tarell Alvin McCraney is an acclaimed writer. His script In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue is the basis for the Academy Award-winning film Moonlight directed by Barry Jenkins, for which McCraney and Jenkins won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. He wrote the film High Flying Bird which premiered on Netflix directed by Steven Soderbergh. McCraney's plays include Ms. Blakk for President (co-written with Tina Landau), The Brother/Sister Plays trilogy, Head of Passes, Wig Out!, and Choir Boy which was nominated for four Tony Awards. McCraney is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Grant, the Whiting Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, the Evening Standard Award, the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award, the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, the Windham Campbell Award, and a USA Artist Award. He is currently Chair of Playwriting at Yale School of Drama; an ensemble member at Steppenwolf Theatre Chicago; and a member of Teo Castellanos/D-Projects. McCraney is currently working on an original scripted TV series, David Makes Man, for Oprah Winfrey's OWN Network, produced by Michael B. Jordan and Page Fright Productions.

Peter Brook was born in London in 1925. Throughout his career, he distinguished himself in various genres: theatre, opera, cinema and writing. He directed his first play there in 1943. He then went on to direct over 70 productions in London, Paris, and New York. In 1971, he founded the International Centre for Theatre Research in Paris with Micheline Rozan, and in 1974, opened its permanent base in the Bouffes du Nord Theatre. Most recently, he has directed The Suit (2012), The Valley of Astonishment (2014), Battlefield (2015), and The Prisoner (2018).

A consortium of New York City cultural, educational, and media institutions come together to create Peter Brook/NY (Karen Brooks Hopkins, Executive Producer), a citywide recognition of Brook's work and his collaborations with Marie-Hélène Estienne from 1953 to the present. In addition to the U.S. Premiere of Brook and Estienne's Why? which Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) presents September 21 - October 6 at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Peter Brook/NY features programing from BAM, The Center for Fiction, Columbia University, French Institute Alliance Française's Crossing the Line Festival, Hunter College, The Juilliard School, TFANA, and WNET. A booklet produced by BAM Hamm Archives-featuring historic photographs, a timeline of Brook's productions and New York presence, an essay by writer Violaine Huisman, and information about Peter Brook/NY events-will be available to all attendees and online at BAM.org and TFANA.org.