![]() Peter’s brilliance as a writer and lecturer was twofold: He could help us consider things that we never thought of, and just as usefully could put into words things that are deeply understood but unarticulated. In The Open Door, he writes: “’Holy Theatre’ implies that there is something else in existence, below, around, and above, another zone even more invisible, even farther from the forms which we are capable of reading or recording, which contain extremely powerful sources of energy.” Every director and actor I know understands this on some level. Joseph Haj and Peter Brook at the Guthrie Theater. He helped remind us that the vagaries of the profession shouldn’t push us away from what is finally sacred about the work that we do. Having examined one idea fully, he’d shift to another, easily setting down what came before and unapologetically moving to new ground. There was something of the mystic about Peter Brook. ![]() We had next to nothing to make the play with in that prison chapel, and I found such comfort and clarity in Peter’s belief that in the end, a person can enter an empty space, someone is there to watch, and a theatre is formed. When I directed Henry V with maximum-security inmates at a men’s facility in the corner of the Mojave desert (the first full-length play I ever directed), I thought of Peter’s work continually. They taught us not only how to consider making work, but how to consider why we make work at all. They didn’t only teach us what to do they taught us who to be. Peter’s writings were crucial to so many of us because they were about far more than craft. There are plenty of books written about the art and the craft of acting and directing. And what he had to say mattered deeply to many of us. It doesn’t matter where you go: Whether performing outside with a carpet on the sand or in a producing theatre, whether doing Shakespeare or devised work, whether with seasoned artists at the top of their skills or with non-professional actors, Peter had been there before and had something to say on the matter. Objectively speaking, it is hard to think of a more crucial and significant voice in the Western theatre in the second half of the 20th century. His protean output was such that it pushed us all in new directions, whether by honoring his theses or by actively pressing against them. One would refer to him as a “cultural carpetbagger,” another as “the most important director of our time.”īut whether one loved his work and writings (as I did) or were pushing against it, the influence was astounding. Some were activated by his writing, others by his productions. I began my professional career as an actor, and many of the directors I worked with during that time were heavily influenced by Peter Brook’s work: JoAnne Akalaitas, Robert Woodruff, Anne Bogart, Peter Sellars, Sir Peter Hall. His books The Empty Space, The Open Door, and Between Two Silences are seminal texts for actors and directors. His productions of Marat/Sade, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Mahabharata are the stuff of legend. He was 97 years old when he passed away on July 2, and for over 75 of those years he was working at the very height of the profession. ![]() It is impossible to summarize the life and career of Peter Brook.
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