male announcer: "Theatre Corner" is brought to you by The Harold K. Brown Economic Development & Education Foundation, Harold and LaVerne Brown, Rachel Malveaux, Tania Adami, and viewers like you, thank you.

Michael Taylor: Welcome to "Theatre Corner," I'm your host, Michael Taylor.

As a lifelong theater enthusiast and a former board member of one of the nation's top theaters, I've witnessed firsthand the transformative power of embracing a multitude of perspectives on stage and in the audience.

This interview series was born from my passion for theater and aims to amplify the rich tapestry of voices that make up the theater world.

Join us as we engage with leading professionals in the entertainment industry, delving into their artistic process, careers, offering inspiration for aspiring creatives, and exploring ways to make theater resonate with a broader audience.

Michael: Ladies and gentlemen, today I have the privilege of presenting an in-depth conversation with Tarell Alvin McCraney, the acclaimed playwright and screenwriter whose work includes the Academy Award winning film "Moonlight" and the powerful play "Choir Boy."

In this interview, Tarell shares insights into his journey from Liberty City, Florida to becoming the artistic director of the Geffen Playhouse, discussing his creative process and the themes that inspire his storytelling.

Join us as we explore the mind of a visionary artist who continues to shape the landscape of American theater and film.

Michael: Tarell Alvin McCraney, welcome to "Theatre Corner," brother.

Very nice to have you here and I appreciate you coming in and gracing the show.

Tarell Alvin McCraney: Thank you so much for having me, I really appreciate being here.

Michael: And I wanna start off by saying congratulations on your new role here at the Geffen Playhouse as artistic director, that's huge.

Tarell: Thank you, that's really kind of you, thank you.

Michael: And well deserved, actually.

[laughing] Absolutely, and so here at the Geffen, this is actually where the West Coast premiere of your "Choir Boy" piece was actually done here.

Tarell: Yeah, my introduction to the Geffen came in a very intimate way.

I was at first invited into the building by a theater called Lower Depths.

They wanted to do a reading of my "Brother/Sister Plays" here and the Geffen graciously allowed us to do it, and then not a few years later I was being invited to bring this big kind of play with music into the space, and I was a little nervous, you know.

Our main house, The Cates, seats about 512, 517 people, and we had been in a more intimate space before that.

And they had all the faith that this play would really do well, and it did, it really did, it allowed me to work with the actors and the director who I've been working with for years on the play, and really gave me the impetus to take it to Broadway soon after.

Michael: In your new role, I heard you mention something about the--[laughing] Tarell: What did I say?

Michael: You alluded to something about with the theater, because we're right here by UCLA.

Tarell: Yeah, right across the street.

Well, we believe we're doing life-affirming work here on the stage.

We think that we feel like our theater and the work that we do is a part of making sure that the neighborhood feels like it's got the imaginative space, the spiritual space to think outside of ourselves, to think of other folks, to engage in performance in a way that helps the heart grow, and we think that's the healthy balance to any education.

I chose to be here at the Geffen because of its specific relationship to the industry of Hollywood, the film and television industry.

There are so many artists and actors who have a deep foundation in the theater and who are in television and film and don't get a chance to engage on stage anymore, and they miss it, and we miss them.

We wanna see Debbie Allen back on stage.

We wanna see, you know, those those folks who cut their teeth in the art and then have been having a successful career elsewhere.

And then the other portion of that is what the Geffen can do.

I mean, we're your friendly neighborhood playhouse.

We're an intimate setting, even with our larger space, and we wanna make sure that we can both educate and inform successfully, meaning do it well, sustainably, but also grow our community, make sure that we're bringing in the most exciting audience for the most exciting work on the stage.

And that's been my approach, I keep telling--my poor staff, they're like, please stop this man from talking over and over again, but I'm like, look, we need to be able to do it well, we need to be able to do it sustainably, and we need to be able to grow our community, and if we can't do all three with it then we're not doing it.

Michael: So, you had incredible success as a playwright and screenwriter, but your foundation is actually the stage itself as an actor.

Tarell: Well, writing and acting all started at the same time.

So, I was blessed to have an incredible arts education starting at this place called the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in Miami, led by a man named Marshall Davis, who is still there actually, and he made it possible for kids in my community, in Liberty City, in Liberty Square, where "Moonlight" takes place and is shot.

In fact, some of the classroom scenes that you see in "Moonlight" actually take place at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, and those classrooms were places where I learned that from the black arts movement, most black artists needed to be multi-hyphenate.

They needed to do everything, and so they made sure that we had music classes, visual art classes, writing classes, acting and dance, and that is if you have seen any of my work, where I'm usually coming from, I'm coming from a place where I put as much power in the hands of the actual performer than anybody else, because at the end of the day, that's who we're there to see.

We're there for them to transport us somewhere else, and if we're relying too much on the lighting design or relying too much on the direction or just the writing, then it's not an inclusive experience.

But when an actor gets on stage and says, "Hello, I'm looking at you," and they look and you have to look into them say that, then all of a sudden something else happens.

You're reminded that you are in the space with that person, not somewhere else, not at your house, you can't get up and get some Cheetos, although Cheetos are great, right?

But you right then have to be there, and so the journey that they're gonna go on is together, and it can only happen in that moment, it can only--that is never going to happen again.

That minute that just went by while we were talking, that doesn't happen again.

We've experienced that together right now, and we hold that piece of us forever, or until we expire, and that's the beauty that we wanna create every time you come into the theater and that's informed the way in which my tenure as leader is unfolding.

Michael: You write a screenplay and a stage play, for example, a lot of times it's rewritten or modified.

Tarell: Well, plays are very collaborative things.

As I say to people all the time, "Moonlight" sat in a drawer for a very long time and I didn't let--I mean, there were many opportunities for folks to engage it, to direct it, and to make it into something, but it wasn't until Barry Jenkins came along that I knew that I had the right collaborator, the collaborator who I could trust who might say the words that I wrote and might not, but had the best interest of the story at heart, in heart.

To Barry's credit, he left a lot of what I wrote on the page, you know, some beautiful things.

I was like, oh, no, I wrote that, and it was very--it was one of those moments where, again, you just were rewarded for waiting on the right one.

Michael: How has your upbringing in Liberty City and your time at DePaul and the Yale School of Drama, how does that shape your perspective as a playwright?

Tarell: I've been a lifelong student, and I continue to this day, even after--even when I teach, I feel like it is a learning environment.

I try to make sure my classrooms are labs for us to explore.

I often walk out telling my students I feel bad because y'all taught me today, right?

I learned something new, or by trying to help them figure out something I learned something valuable, and so that's--going to those institutions made me always remember that the best thing we can be in life is curious.

Michael: Speaking about the students, what's the importance of a mentorship?

Tarell: The importance of mentorship is getting out of the way while also providing support.

So, you know, there are moments that folks will go, "I don't know what I'm doing out here," it's like, that's okay, keep going.

I didn't at the same time you didn't, like, at that moment in my life I didn't know what I was doing either, and to be given the room to not know is actually much more important than to be told exactly how to do the thing.

And I've had some pretty incredible mentors in my life who always just--their main mandate or their main contract about the payment of that engagement was give it back.

August Wilson, for example, was one of my mentors and he literally gave me my first iPod full of music, and he was like, you know, you always have to give music, you always have to give music, you always have to have music with you, and if that's the best thing we can do is give each other songs, and we can pass down this legacy of music to each other, we've done a thing.

Michael: You attended Yale School of Drama.

There's some, you know, amazing talents that have come out of that school, Angela Bassett, Lupita, Courtney Vance.

You know, you're up there with giants.

Tarell: I was chair of Yale before I came to the Geffen, absolutely.

Michael: What was that experienced there as the chair?

Tarell: It was thrilling.

It was really thrilling to engage young writers right out of their, you know, right in the middle of their career sometimes or at the early stages of their career, sometimes right out of undergrad.

It was thrilling to be the chair of playwriting for the time that I was there.

It was also pressing me right up into the, what's the word?

The kind of schism that was happening in the industry.

I had a lot of students who couldn't figure out whether or not they wanted to come to a playwriting program or screenwriting program or if playwriting meant the same thing anymore, and those existential questions made me really want to get back into the field proper and provide a space for them.

Michael: How do you go about with all this incredible success, Academy Award, all of these things, how do you stay grounded?

Tarell: That's interesting, I don't know that there is an--I mean, I walk outside of this theater knowing that I have a really amazing job that I get to do every day, and I step across folks who are scrambling to survive.

And because at some point in my life I recognized that that absolutely was me or my mother or my siblings, I thank God that I have the things that I have, but also know that I must do more until that is not the case, and that is always with me.

That is always with me.

I'm always--I feel deeply connected to folks in that way.

It might be the reason why I'm a little shy, because I get nervous that I might, you know, be blocking someone else's ability to do anything else, and if I can humble myself enough to, you know, help someone else shine, then that's what I would rather do.

That's what I wanna do.

Michael: What's your thing for maintaining wellbeing?

Tarell: Oh, yeah, well, the past is behind me, isn't it?

And so, if I can stop re-litigating that and be present, I might enjoy a nice conversation with you, right?

And so, trying to ever be present.

I mean, of course the things of the past come creep up on our memory, of course our agony about trying to figure out the future jumps into the forefront of our mind, but if I can just sit here and breathe with you for a second and practice that daily, then it gives me more time and more space and more heart to go forward.

Michael: Brother Tarell, thank you so much for coming to visit a brother here on "Theatre Corner."

I really appreciate you, you know, and I wanna say we see you, and that's--by we I mean I see you and ancestors see you.

Tarell: Oh, thank you.

Michael: And you're really representing this well, and keep doing what you're doing.

Tarell: That's very kind of you, thank you, that touched me.

Michael: And thank you, viewers, for tuning into another episode of "Theatre Corner," and we'll see you next time.

Michael: Next, we sit down with director Tiffany Nichole Greene.

Tiffany shares insights into her journey from acting to directing, her approach to storytelling, and her experiences working on productions like "Black Cypress Bayou" and "Skeleton Crew."

Join us as we explore her philosophy on theater and the importance of truth and vulnerability in her work.

Michael: Tiffany Nichole Greene, welcome to "Theatre Corner."

Tiffany Nichole Greene: Thank you.

Michael: So, so happy to have you here.

It's so great to be here at the Geffen Theater where you're directing?

Tiffany: "Black Cypress Bayou" by Kristen Adele Calhoun, yes.

Michael: Very nice, tell me a little bit about this play.

Tiffany: Oh, okay, without giving too much away, in a very, very small town in Texas, very, very small, the richest man in town who happens to be white has gone missing, and these three women have made plans to meet at the bayou because they have some secrets of their own and some problems to solve.

And it's funny, it's a dark comedy for a good portion, and then it sort of slams head on into something of a different tone and sort of smashes right into issues of ancestry and culture and reparations and oppression and survival.

You know, these three black women have--and their ancestors have been thriving, surviving, finding, creating, experiencing joy, and there's something that comes along to give them a little boost, give them a little help on that journey.

Michael: We all need a little bit of help, really.

Other than a stream running across the stage, what other unique challenges does this particular play present for you as a director?

Tiffany: Yeah, you know, every new play has their challenges, and this play for me is so character driven.

The words are so rich, the relationships are so rich, the comedy is so sharp, and so it really requires the cast, and not just each individual, but the ways in which they react to each other, they bring--these actors bring so much to these characters, so we really are getting to know the characters in a completely different way in the room.

And then also our set has been--it's beautiful, we love it, and it's very hard to imagine on a flat stage, I mean on a flat surface, so we're rehearsing in a studio and we've taped out the floor like we do, but you know, all we can do is say, okay, and at this level you will be 4 feet off the ground, and then at this level you'll be 3 feet off the ground, because essentially it's just terrain, right?

It's land by the bayou, and so we've been finding creative ways to replicate that in that space, but we are very excited to get on stage for sure.

Michael: So, I understand to reach that point of authenticity for an actor, it helps to get the actor out of the way, because the character doesn't know he's in a play, but how do you as a director help those actors get themselves out of the way?

Tiffany: You know, I go about it in two different ways.

Sometimes it works to talk with the actor about how, you know, we are welcoming you to be in this piece.

We are welcoming who you are and to bring pieces of who you are to this character so that you and this character are one and the same.

And there's a lot of freedom in that because the audience will just see the character even though you are actually performing this very vulnerable task of bringing your full self.

And then for other--in other situations where I see that actors are bringing things that are not helpful to character, you know, and we all have fear, we all have nerves, we all second guess our choices, and so I invite them, I say to them, actually, if you find yourself having conversations with yourself inside of a run, a rehearsal run, there is absolutely no way you're listening to your scene partner, you're having a conversation with yourself.

And I said, and I understand that, that is exactly where you need to be.

Every time we get up to do this together, you will have to speak to that voice and say, I need you to be quiet.

I need you to be quiet.

You're there, I know you're there, hello, I need you to be quiet.

We can talk after.

And so, yeah, it kind of goes in both directions.

Sometimes it's a very helpful thing, and at other times it's helpful to just allow yourself to get lost in character and then check in with yourself after, yeah.

Michael: So, I love--the very first time I ever opened up your website, there are these four words on there that just got me.

Explorer, excavator, sculptor, and bone collector, could you help me understand?

Tiffany: For me, it really all comes down to the truth.

I'm interested in the truth.

I'm interested in the ways in which we are broken and fragile and human and have fears and have to practice bravery.

That we just don't wake up brave, you know, we have to choose to be brave, we have to practice that bravery.

We are our most fearful selves when we are our most exposed selves, and that oftentimes is taken out on the people closest to us.

You know, there are a lot--I think that we spend a lot of time, especially today, trying to be perfect or convey this image of perfection with social media and all of that, and we're sort of losing a sense of what it is to be human, and we're losing the ability to--the embracing of other people's humanities, which is essentially a collection of imperfections, you know.

Michael: So, you've directed Dominique Morisseau's piece, "Skeleton Crew," and what was it like to take Dominique's words and put them into the actor's mouths?

Tiffany: Yeah, I think with Dominique's work in particular, what I was drawn to is the poetry.

There's so much rich poetry in her work, and so for that play in particular, but I think it's true for a lot of her plays, I tell actors she's done that work, she's put it into poetry, and you have to actually sort of strip it and make it raw and keep it human, and make sure that the lines feel like they are coming out of your mouth as they are being thought of, right, and not prepared, and find these sweet spots where these words can come out of in an impulsive way, the way that we speak impulsively.

Michael: Speaking of great playwrights, like the pieces like Dominique's, how do you as a director, you take the playwright's vision, and also how do you balance also infusing your own creative insights?

Tiffany: Yeah, I think for me it's mostly about building the world and point of view.

That's sort of where I'm able to really articulate my vision and my thoughts about the subject matter as well.

Michael: So, you were the original director for "Hamilton."

Tiffany: Yes, well, yeah, that's a bit of a longer story.

So, I was the Philip Tour.

They actually had another resident director for a short period of time, and then I jumped in.

So, I was the main director for that tour, yes.

Michael: Nonetheless, I feel like I need to bow down right here at this moment when I say that.

No, it's a really amazing, you know, feat.

I mean, that's an incredible role to play in such an iconic piece.

So, what was, like, what was your approach to bringing that iconic piece to life?

Tiffany: That experience for me was invaluable.

It was an incredible experience and something quite new for me to be able to exercise muscles of storytelling inside of a container that someone else created.

You know, the original director of the Broadway show created this, and then when it goes on tour, it wants to maintain shape, but I was very fortunate in that they gave me a lot of autonomy when it came to working with actors on the moment-to-moment things and making slightly different choices as long as it was inside of the container.

Michael: How did you make your way into theater?

Tiffany: Oh, into theater.

Into theater, I think I started when I was little.

It started with show choir, you know?

I got kicked out of the band, I played the clarinet, I got kicked out, I played the violin, I got kicked out.

I went to an enrichment elementary school, and so all that was left was choir, so I went to choir and they said, oh, you're really good, and I auditioned for the show choir and I got in, so I sort of found my thing there.

And that with that came choreography and telling story through song and dance, and so then I got into musicals and then I started to fall in love with story and I got into, you know, doing straight plays.

And so, I was an actor for a while.

I actually went to grad school for acting, yeah.

Michael: Other than those long steps at Brown University, those long steps to Toma.

Tiffany: Yes, the Toma, you know the Toma, [laughing], yeah.

Michael: What other things did you--could you name something that you picked up at Brown that really sticks to you to this day?

Tiffany: Well, it happened in the Toma.

Physicality, yeah, I became very observant of human behavior and human physicality in my exploration of story, and I think that's really changed the way that I direct because I'm actually in collaboration with the actors able to write that script.

Michael: Wow, very nice, so what type of advice would you give to young artists who are perhaps eyeballing something like becoming a director?

Tiffany: I would say keep working.

Keep working, my work ethic does not change according to the dollar amount on the contract, you know, and it's great if you can come right out and land that big opportunity, but also there's a lot of experience, education to be gained from doing the workshop, from doing the smaller project, from taking the $500 stipend and doing--because that's also your opportunity to hone in and perfect your craft and continue to learn and build and take risk.

It's easier to take risk on that show, you know, and try out some things that you might be afraid to try with a huge contract.

Michael: So, thank you so much for visiting a brother here on "Theatre Corner," and I'm really impressed with what you do and just keep representing us well.

And we see you, and what I mean by that is that I see you and the ancestors see you as well so-- Tiffany: Thank you so much, that means everything, thank you.

Thank you for those words.

Michael: And thank you, viewers, for tuning into another episode of "Theatre Corner," and we'll see you next time.

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