Dialogue with Tarell Alvin McCraney

Thursday, June 2, 2022
6:00 – 7:30 p.m. CDT

Tarell Alvin McCraney is an acclaimed writer whose script In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue was the basis for the 2017 Academy Award-winning film Moonlight. Directed by Barry Jenkins, Moonlight won three Oscars, including one for Best Adapted Screenplay by Jenkins and McCraney. McCraney also wrote the film High Flying Bird, directed by Steven Soderbergh, which premiered on Netflix in 2019. His plays include Ms. Blakk For President (co-written with Tina Landau), The Brother/Sister Plays trilogy, Head of Passes, Wig Out!, and Choir Boy, which was nominated for four Tony Awards.

McCraney is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Grant,” Whiting Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, Evening Standard Theatre Award, New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award, Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, Windham-Campbell Prize, and USA Fellowship Award.

He is chair of playwriting at Yale School of Drama, an ensemble member at Steppenwolf Theatre Chicago, and a member of Teo Castellanos D-Projects.

McCraney currently is working on an original scripted TV series, David Makes Man, for Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Network. The show is produced by Michael B. Jordan and Page Fright Productions.