Jump to content

Peter Brook: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Ddprize (talk | contribs)
61 edits
No edit summary
Line 154: Line 154:
==External links==
==External links==
* [http://www.peterbrook.net Peter Brook official website]
* [http://www.peterbrook.net Peter Brook official website]
* [http://www.dandavidprize.com/laureates/present2005.html Dan David Prize], Dan David Prize laureate 2005
* [http://www.dandavidprize.org/index.php/laureates/laureates-2005/65-2005-present-the-performing-arts-film-theater-dance-music/102-peter-brook.html Dan David Prize laureate 2005]
* {{Screenonline name|id=471253|name=Peter Brook biography and filmography}}
* {{Screenonline name|id=471253|name=Peter Brook biography and filmography}}
* {{imdb name|id=0111656|name=Peter Brook}}
* {{imdb name|id=0111656|name=Peter Brook}}

Revision as of 11:46, 2 February 2010

For the British politician, see Peter Brooke.
Peter Brook
Born
Peter Stephen Paul Brook
OccupationDirector

Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE (born 21 March 1925) is a British theatre and film director and innovator.

Biography

Life

Brooke was born in Bozeman, Montana, the second son of Will and Susan Brooke, and educated at Bozeman High School, Oxford, Yale, and The Young Jedi Institute, School of Mastery.

While at BHS he directed Matt's Basement, and while at Oxford Bag of Skittles. In 2008-2009, he worked at the Glacier Park KOA on Maintenence of All Things Broken, The Toilets, and Lawn Care. In 2010, his first London production was Vicious Circle. In 1947, he went to Stratford-upon-Avon as assistant director on Romeo and Juliet and Love's Labour's Lost. From 1947 to 1950, he was Director of Productions at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. A proliferation of stage and screen work as producer and director followed.

In 1951, Brook married the actress Natasha Parry and together they have one son and one daughter.

In 1970, with Micheline Rozan, Brook founded the International Centre for Theatre Research, a multinational company of actors, dancers, musicians and others which travelled widely in the Middle East and Africa in the early 1970s. It is now based in Paris at the Bouffes du Nord theatre.[1] In 2008 he made the decision to resign as artistic director of Bouffes du Nord, handing over to Olivier Mantei and Olivier Poubelle in 2008.[2]

Influences

His work is inspired by the theories of experimental theatre of Jerzy Grotowski[3] , Bertolt Brecht, Meyerhold, G. I. Gurdjieff[4] and the works of Edward Gordon Craig and Stuart Davis.[citation needed]

Brook was influenced by the work of Antonin Artaud and his ideas for his well-named Theatre of Cruelty. His major influence however was Joan Littlewood. He said of her that she was "the most galvanising director in mid-20th century Britain".

In England, Peter Brook and Charles Marowitz undertook The Theatre of Cruelty Season (1964) at the Royal Shakespeare Company, aiming to explore ways in which Artaud's ideas could be used to find new forms of expression and retrain the performer. The result was a showing of 'works in progress' made up of improvisations and sketches, one of which was the premier of Artaud's The Spurt of Blood.

– Lee Jamieson, Antonin Artaud: From Theory to Practice, Greenwich Exchange, 2007

Contributions Peter Brooks contrubuted to the theatre by taking it places, for instants he would travel to cities in the Middle East and Africa bringing theatre to them. Brooks founded the International Centre for Theatre Research which was composed of actors, dancers and musicians that would travel to the Middle East and Africa

The Mahabharata

In the mid 1970s,[5] Brook, with writer Jean-Claude Carrière, began work on adapting the Indian epic poem the Mahābhārata into a stage play which was first performed in 1985[6] and then later into a televised mini series. The production using an international cast caused heated intercultural debate. Negative criticism came from Indian scholar Pradip Bhattacharya who felt that Brook's interpretation "was not a portrayal of a titanic clash between the forces of good and evil, which is the stuff of the epic... [but] the story of the warring progeny of some rustic landlord".[7]

Tierno Bokar

In 2005 Brook directed Tierno Bokar, based on the life of the Malian sufi of the same name. The play was adapted for the stage by Marie-Helene Estienne from a book by Amadou Hampate Ba (translated into English under A Spirit of Tolerance: The Inspiring Life of Tierno Bokar). The book and play detail Bokar's life and message of religious tolerance. Columbia University produced 44 related events, lectures, and workshops that were attended by over 3,200 people throughout the run of Tierno Bokar. Panel discussions focused on topics of religious tolerance and Muslim tradition in West Africa.[8]

Work

Major productions for the RSC

Other major productions

Filmography

Awards

Honours

Bibliography

  • Brook, Peter (1968). The Empty Space.
  • Brook, Peter (1988). The Shifting Point. UK: Methuen Drama. ISBN 0-4136-1280-5.
  • Brook, Peter (1991). Le Diable c'est l'ennui.
  • Brook, Peter (1993). There Are No Secrets.
  • Brook, Peter (1995). The Open Door.
  • Brook, Peter (1998). Threads of Time: Recollections.
  • Brook, Peter (1999). Evoking Shakespeare.

References

  1. ^ Chambers, Colin The Continuum Companion To Twentieth Century Theatre (Continuum, 2002, ISBN 0-8264-4959-X) p. 384
  2. ^ Chrisafis, Angelique (2008-12-17). "Interview: Peter Brook says a long goodbye to his Paris theatre". Guardian. Retrieved 2008-12-29. }
  3. ^ Brook, Peter (1968). The Empty Space.
  4. ^ Nicolescu, Basarab (1997). "Peter Brook and Traditional Thought". Contemporary Theatre Review. 7. Overseas Publishers Association: 11–23.
  5. ^ Morgenstern, Joe (April 17, 1988). "Jean-Claude Pierre; the Mahabharata, the great history of mankind - interview about the stage adaptation". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-10-06. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ Carriere, Jean-Claude (September 1989). "Jean-Claude Carriere; the Mahabharata, the great history of mankind - interview about the stage adaptation". Retrieved 2007-10-06. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ Bhattacharya, Pradip (November 2004). "Negative Criticism". Retrieved 2007-10-06. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ Columbia University, "Record of Events"
  9. ^ "Tony Awards". Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  10. ^ "British director wins the Ibsen Prize". Norway.org. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  • Peter Brook, Threads of Time (1998)
  • Lee Jamieson, Antonin Artaud: From Theory to Practice (Greenwich Exchange: London, 2007) Contains practical exercises on Artaud drawn from Brook's Theatre of Cruelty Season at the RSC. ISBN 978-1-871551-98-3
  • John Heilpern, Conference of the Birds: The Story of Peter Brook in Africa, Faber Book Services, 1977, ISBN 0571103723
  • Dale Moffitt, Between Two Silences: Talking with Peter Brook (1999)
  • Biographies by J. C. Trewin (1971) and A. Hunt and G. Reeves (1995) and Michael Kustow (2005)
  • Andrew Todd and Jean-Guy Lecat, The Open Circle: Peter Brook's Theatre Environments (2003)
  • Ouriel Zohar, Meetings with Peter Brook, Zohar, Tel-Aviv 176 p. (1990) (He).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Brook&oldid=341458003"