{"id":287,"date":"2013-12-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/playwright"},"modified":"2022-03-03T16:32:09","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T00:32:09","slug":"playwright","status":"publish","type":"films","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/playwright\/","title":{"rendered":"Playwright: From Page to Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Playwright: From Page to Stage<\/em><\/strong> is a cinema v\u00e9rit\u00e9 documentary that takes an intimate look at the development of two new plays, showing how creative teams are assembled and collaborate, detailing everything from the intense rehearsal process to achieving one of theater’s ultimate goals: the arrival on a Broadway stage in New York City.<\/p>\n

The film follows two young playwrights, Rajiv Joseph and Tarell McCraney, as they burst onto the scene, bringing real-world perspective to create theater that is fresh and new. Their success ignites tremendous interest in their work, and we follow as one of the plays, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo<\/em>, reaches Broadway, with Robin Williams in the lead role of The Tiger.<\/p>\n

Along the way, we learn about both playwrights through their individual back stories. Before deciding to write plays, Rajiv Joseph, an Indian American from Cleveland, traveled to Africa after college for a three-year stint in the Peace Corps. Raised in Miami\u2019s inner city, Tarell McCraney also has an unlikely background for a career in theater: as we start our journey, he\u2019s under 30, grew up below the poverty line, and is black and gay.<\/p>\n

Through extraordinary backstage access, Playwright<\/em> shows how these works, depicting compelling diversity and gender themes, have the power to influence and impact both mainstream and underserved audiences of all ages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fascinating process of creating new work for the stage is the focus of this documentary that follows two outstanding young playwrights from diverse backgrounds who are striving to get their plays seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":10072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"topic":[1216,1251],"class_list":["post-287","films","type-films","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topic-arts-and-culture","topic-theater"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlaywright: From Page to Stage | Emerging Dramatists | Independent Lens | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Playwright: From Page to Stage chronicles the process of creating new work for the stage in this documentary that follows two outstanding young writers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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