PETER BROOK

'Peter Stephen Paul Brook' (born 21 March 1925) is a British theatre and film director and innovator, and considered one of the most influential and revered theatre practitioners.

Contents

Life

Influences

Major productions for the RSC

Other major productions

Films

Awards

Honours

Books

References

External links

Life

Born in Chiswick, west London, in 1925, the second son of Simon and Ida Brook, Peter Brook was educated at Westminster School, Gresham's School, Holt, and Magdalen College, Oxford.
While at Gresham's he took part in The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, and while at Oxford The Infernal Machine. In 1945–1946, he worked at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre on productions of Man and Superman, King John, and The Lady from the Sea. In 1946, 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 they have one son and one daughter.

Influences

His work is inspired by the theories of experimental theatre of Jerzy Grotowski, Bertolt Brecht, Meyerhold, G. I. Gurdjieff and the works of Edward Gordon Craig and Stuart Davis
Brook was influenced by the work of Antonin Artaud and his ideas for a Theatre of Cruelty.

In England, at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Peter Brook and Charles Marowitz undertook The Theatre of Cruelty Season in 1964, 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''

Major productions for the RSC

★ 1950 ''Measure for Measure'' with John Gielgud (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre)

★ 1952 ''The Winter's Tale'' with John Gielgud (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre)

★ 1958 ''Titus Andronicus'' with Laurence Olivier (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre)

★ 1962 ''King Lear'' with Paul Scofield

★ 1964 ''Marat/Sade''

★ 1966 ''US'' an anti-Vietnam protest play with the The Royal Shakespeare Company, documented in the film ''Benefit of the Doubt''

★ 1971 ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' with Ben Kingsley and Patrick Stewart

Other major productions

★ ''Hamlet'' with Paul Scofield

★ ''The Visit'' with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne

★ ''Marat/Sade''

★ ''Oedipus'' with John Gielgud and Irene Worth

★ ''The Conference of the Birds''

★ ''The Ik''

★ ''The Mahabharata''

Films

★ 1953, ''The Beggar's Opera''

★ 1960, ''Moderato cantabile'' (UK title ''Seven Days... Seven Nights'')

★ 1963, ''Lord of the Flies''

★ 1967, ''Ride of the Valkyrie''

★ 1967, ''Marat/Sade''

★ 1968, ''Tell Me Lies''

★ 1971, ''King Lear''

★ 1979, ''Meetings with Remarkable Men''

★ 1979, ''Mesure pour mesure''

★ 1982, ''La Cerisaie''

★ 1983, ''La Tragédie de Carmen''

★ 1989, ''The Mahabharata''

★ 2002, ''The Tragedy of Hamlet'' (TV)

Awards

★ Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for ''Marat/Sade'', 1966

★ Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', 1971

★ Freiherr von Stein Foundation Shakespeare Award, 1973

★ Grand Prix Dominique, 1975

★ Brigadier Prize, 1975, for Timon of Athens)

★ Society of West End Theatre Award, 1983

★ Emmy Award, 1984, for La tragédie Carmen)

★ Prix Italia, 1984

★ International Emmy Award, 1990, for The Mahabharata

★ Dan David prize, 2005

Honours

★ Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1965

★ Honorary DLitt, University of Birmingham, 1990

★ Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, 1991

★ Honorary DLitt, University of Strathclyde, 1990

★ Honorary DLitt, University of Oxford, 1994

★ Légion d'honneur (France), 1995.

★ Companion of Honour, 1998

Books

★ The Empty Space, , Peter, Brook, , 1968,

★ The Shifting Point, , Peter, Brook, Methuen Drama, 1988, ISBN 0-4136-1280-5

★ Le Diable c'est l'ennui, , Peter, Brook, , 1991,

★ There Are No Secrets, , Peter, Brook, , 1993,

★ The Open Door, , Peter, Brook, , 1995,

★ Threads of Time: Recollections, , Peter, Brook, , 1998,

★ Evoking Shakespeare, , Peter, Brook, , 1999,

References

★ 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)

External links

★ Dan David Prize, Dan David Prize laureate 2005

★ - Peter Brook official website

★ "meetings with remarkable men" - DVD release

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