Tarell Alvin McCraney (born October 17, 1980) is an American playwright. He is the chair of playwriting at theYale School of Drama and a member of theSteppenwolf Theatre Ensemble.
In 2023 McCraney was appointed artistic director of the non-profit Geffen Playhouse, in the Westwood neighborhood in Los Angeles, beginning with the 2024-25 season.
A reading at Elliott Bay Books,Seattle, Washington, co-presented with the Seattle Repertory Theatre, in association with Seattle Rep's staging ofThe Breach, a play based onHurricane Katrina and its aftermath. At right,New OrleansTimes-Picayune columnistChris Rose, author of1 Dead in Attic. To his right are Tarell Alvin McCraney,Catherine Filloux, andJoe Sutton, co-authors ofThe Breach.
McCraney was born inLiberty City, Florida. He attended theNew World School of the Arts (NWSA) in Miami, Florida. While attending NWSA, he also applied to and was awarded an honorable mention by the NationalYoungArts Foundation (1999, Theater). As a teenager, he was a member of an improv troupe directed byTeo Castellanos.[1]
As an actor, he has worked with directors such asTina Landau of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago, Illinois,David Cromer, and B. J. Jones, artistic director of the Northlight Theatre (where McCraney co-starred in the Chicago premiere ofJoe Penhall'sBlue/Orange), and developed a working relationship withPeter Brook andMarie-Hélène Estienne of theBouffes du Nord, Paris.[3] He is a member of the D Projects Theater Company in Miami.[1]
While at Yale, McCraney wrote theBrother/Sister trilogy of plays, which are set in the Louisianaprojects and exploreYoruba mythology.[1] Thetriptych of plays includesIn the Red and Brown Water,The Brothers Size, andMarcus; Or the Secret of Sweet. While they are often produced withIn the Red and Brown Water coming first and thenThe Brothers Size andMarcus; Or the Secret of Sweet together on a following night, the plays are not in chronological order, but rather are "in conversation" with one another.[7]
McCraney's playChoir Boy premiered at theRoyal Court Theatre in London in 2012, with its American premiere the following year produced by theManhattan Theatre Club. The play follows young Pharus on his journey toward becoming the best choir leader in the history of the Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys and trying to find out where he fits in with the rest of his peers.[8] The 2019 Broadway production of the play was nominated for fourTony Awards, including theTony Award for Best Play, and won theTony Award for Best Sound Design of a Play.[9]
McCraney co-wroteMs. Blakk for President with directorTina Landau. The show was first performed by theSteppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 2019. Based on a true story, the play followsdrag queenJoan Jett Blakk (played by McCraney himself in the play's first production) in Chicago at the height of theAIDS crisis as she announces her bid to run for President of the United States.[10]
McCraney writes and is an executive producer for the original scripted TV series,David Makes Man, for Oprah Winfrey'sOWN Network.[11] As of April 2022, the show is awaiting renewal for its third season.[12]
Moonlight, co-written by McCraney and directorBarry Jenkins, was based on McCraney's earlier semi-autobiographical playIn Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, which he shelved.[13] The film follows Chiron (Alex R. Hibbert,Ashton Sanders,Trevante Rhodes), a young Black man who grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood in Miami.[14] The film was critically acclaimed, and McCraney and Jenkins won theAcademy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
McCraney wrote the screenplay for the 2019 American sports drama,High Flying Bird, directed bySteven Soderbergh and released byNetflix. The film follows sports agent Ray Burke (André Holland) who finds himself caught between a league and its basketball players.[15]
The Brothers Size (simultaneously premiered in New York atThe Public Theater, in association with the Foundry Theatre, and in London at theYoung Vic, where it was nominated for anOlivier Award for Outstanding Achievement at an Affiliated Theatre)
In The Red and Brown Water (winner of the Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition, produced at theAlliance Theatre and theYoung Vic)
Run, Mourner, Run (adapted from Randall Kenan's short story), both of which premiered at Yale Cabaret. He directedHamlet for the RSC's Young Shakespeare program for GableStage in Miami.
In the summer of 2006, McCraney, Catherine Filloux and Joe Sutton wroteThe Breach, a play on Katrina, the Gulf, and American society, commissioned bySouthern Rep in New Orleans, where it premiered in August 2007 to mark the second anniversary of the tragedy in New Orleans.The Breach also played atSeattle Rep in the winter of 2007.
Tarell Alvin McCraney: Theater, Performance, and Collaboration, eds. Sharrell D. Luckett, David Román, and Isaiah Matthew Wooden. Northwestern University Press, 2020. ISBN 978-0810141940.
Wooden, Isaiah Matthew. "Tarell Alvin McCraney" in Noriega and Schildcrout (eds.)50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre, pp. 156–159. Routledge, 2022. ISBN 978-1032067964.
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