Tarell Alvin McCraney (born October 17, 1980) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. He is the chair of playwriting at the
Yale School of Drama and a member of the
Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble.
McCraney was born in
Liberty City, Florida. He attended the
New World School of the Arts (NWSA) in
Miami, Florida. While attending NWSA, he also applied to and was awarded an honorable mention by the National
YoungArts Foundation (1999, Theater). As a teenager, he was a member of an improv troupe directed by
Teo Castellanos.[1]
While at Yale, McCraney wrote the
Brother/Sister trilogy of plays, which are set in the Louisiana
projects and explore
Yoruba mythology.[1] The
triptych of plays includes In the Red Brown Water, The Brothers Size, and Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet. While they are often produced with In the Red Brown Water coming first and then The Brothers Size and Marcus; 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 play Choir Boy premiered at the
Royal Court Theatre in
London in 2012, with its American premiere the following year produced by the
Manhattan 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 four
Tony Awards, including the
Tony Award for Best Play, and won the
Tony Award for Best Sound Design of a Play.[9]
McCraney co-wrote Ms. Blakk for President with director
Tina Landau. The show was first performed by the
Steppenwolf Theatre Company in
Chicago in 2019. Based on a true story, the play follows
drag queenJoan Jett Blakk (played by McCraney himself in the play's first production) in Chicago at the height of the
AIDS crisis as she announces her bid to run for President of the United States.[10]
Television
McCraney writes and is an executive producer for the original scripted TV series, David Makes Man, for Oprah Winfrey's
OWN Network.[11] As of April 2022, the show is awaiting renewal for its third season.[12]
Film
Moonlight, co-written by McCraney and director
Barry Jenkins, was based on McCraney's earlier semi-autobiographical play In 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 the
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
McCraney wrote the screenplay for the 2019 American sports drama, High Flying Bird, directed by
Steven Soderbergh and released by
Netflix. 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 at
The Public Theater, in association with the Foundry Theatre, and in London at the
Young Vic, where it was nominated for an
Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement at an Affiliated Theatre)
In The Red and Brown Water (winner of the Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition, produced at the
Alliance Theatre and the
Young Vic)
Marcus, or the Secret of Sweet
Other plays
Without/Sin
Run, Mourner, Run (adapted from Randall Kenan's short story), both of which premiered at Yale Cabaret. He directed Hamlet for the RSC's Young Shakespeare program for GableStage in Miami.
In the summer of 2006, McCraney, Catherine Filloux and Joe Sutton wrote The Breach, a play on Katrina, the Gulf, and American society, commissioned by
Southern 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 at
Seattle 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.