Peter Brook
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Notes
Awarded the first Wexner Prize from the Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University (1992).
"British films are financed and planned and controlled in such a way that everything goes into this crippling concept of screenplay. And a breakthrough can only come about thoroughly and satisfactorily if the working conditions can be freed, so that smaller crews and lower budgets give people the opportunity to take more time, and go back on their tracks if necessary, without anyone worrying them." --Peter Brook
Biography
The provocative productions of this renowned director (once described as a "traditionalist on the cutting edge") have been critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic and include such landmark work as 1966's "Marat/Sade," a 1970 staging of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and his adaptation of "The Mahabarata" The son of a Russian Jewish immigrant, Peter Brook began his career with an amateur feature-length film, "The Sentimental Journey" in 1943 and went on to craft training films for the British Army in the last years of WWII. His first professional assignment as a screen director came with an energetic adaptation of "The Beggar's Opera" (1953), starring Laurence Olivier. He earned international acclaim with the 1963 adaptation of William Golding's "Lord of the Flies," about British schoolboys on a deserted island. Brook directed, adapted and edited this black-and-white film that played into his reputation for dealing thematically with story. He was less successful with the 1971 filming of "King Lear," starring Paul Scofield, which took two years to find a distributor. Brook wrote and directed "Meetings With Remarkable Men" (1979), based on the memoirs of G I Gurdjieff and also filmed his condensed, highly theatrical adaptation of Bizet's opera "La Tragedie de Carmen" (1983).
Whatever the reaction to his sporadic films, Brook is best known for his experimental theatrical productions wherein he has explored the relationship between the audience and the stage performance, through the conveyance of realism and the inner truth of the piece. Early in his career, Brook was director of productions for the Royal Opera House, and from 1962, co-director of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. In 1970, he moved to France and co-founded the International Center for Theatre Research, an entity dedicated to experiment with the medium. Among his many memorable productions were "Faust," for NYC's Metropolitan Opera Company in 1953; a 1955 "Hamlet" staged in Moscow; the musical "Irma La Douce" produced both in London and New York; "Marat/Sade" (1964), and "The Cherry Orchard" in Paris (1981) and New York (1988). More recently, he co-adapted and staged an acclaimed version of "The Mahabarata" (1989) which was released theatrically and later shown on PBS.
Brook is also a well-received author, penning a seminal study of theater, "The Empty Space," in 1968 and two memoirs, "The Shifting Point" (1988) and "Threads of Time" (1997).
Filmography
Director (Feature Film)
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Editing (Feature Film)
Production Companies (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Life Events
1943
Made amateur feature-length film "A Sentimental Journey"
1943
Stage directing debut with "Dr. Faustus" at the Torch Theatre in London
1944
Made instructional shorts for the British Army
1949
Wrote first teleplay, "Box for One" (BBC)
1953
Feature directing debut, "The Beggar's Opera"
1955
Composed stage score for "Titus Andronicus"
1962
Became director of the Royal Shakespeare Company
1963
Directed, wrote and edited heralded version of "Lord of the Flies"
1966
Filmed his acclaimed stage version of "Marat/Sade"
1967
Made short film, "Ride of the Valkyrie"
1968
Wrote "The Empty Space", a history of theater
1970
Founded International Center of Theater Research in Paris, France
1971
Directed screen version of "King Lear" starring Paul Scofield
1979
Wrote and directed "Meetings With Remarkable Men"
1983
Filmed acclaimed stage production, "La Tragedie de Carmen"
1984
Scripted "Swann in Love", adapted from Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu"
1988
Published first autobiography, "The Shifting Point"
1989
Adapted and directed "The Mahabharta"; later filmed
1996
Appeared in Al Pacino's documentary "Looking for Richard"
1997
Published second memoir, "Threads of Time: Recollections"
2001
Staged "The Tragedy of Hamlet", starring Adrian Lester
Videos
Movie Clip
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
Awarded the first Wexner Prize from the Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University (1992).
"British films are financed and planned and controlled in such a way that everything goes into this crippling concept of screenplay. And a breakthrough can only come about thoroughly and satisfactorily if the working conditions can be freed, so that smaller crews and lower budgets give people the opportunity to take more time, and go back on their tracks if necessary, without anyone worrying them." --Peter Brook
"I am ready to disclaim my opinion, even of yesterday, even of 10 minutes ago, because all opinions are relative. One lives in a field of influences, one is influenced by everyone one meets, everything is an exchange of influences, all opinions are derivative. Once you deal a new deck of cards, you've got a new deck of cards." --Brook quoted in The New York Times, June 28, 1998.
