Famed director Peter Brook to give Maynard Mack Lecture Nov. 13
Peter Brook, who has directed more than 70 productions around the world, will present the 28th Maynard Mack Lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 4:30 p.m. in the University Theatre, 222 York St. The event is free and open to the public.
Brook was born in London in 1925. Throughout his career, he has distinguished himself in various genres: theater, opera, cinema, and writing. He has directed over 70 productions in London, Paris, and New York. His work with the Royal Shakespeare Company includes “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” “Measure for Measure,” “Titus Andronicus,” “King Lear,” “Marat/Sade,” “US,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and “Antony and Cleopatra.”
In 1971, he founded with MichelineRozan the International Centre for Theatre Research in Paris and, in 1974, opened its permanent base in the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. There, he directed, among many other productions, “Timon of Athens,” “The Iks,” “Ubu aux Bouffes,” “Conference of the Birds,” “L’Os,” “The Cherry Orchard,” “The Mahabharata,” and “Woza Albert!” — many of these in French and English.
In opera, he directed “LaBohème,” “Boris Godunov,” “The Olympians,” “Salomé,” “Le nozze di Figaro” (Covent Garden); “Faust,” “Eugene Onegin” (The Metropolitan Opera); “La tragédie de Carmen,” “Impressions of Pelleas” (Bouffes du Nord); and “Don Giovanni” (Aix-en-Provaence Festival). Brook’s books include his autobiography, “Threads of Time,” as well as “The Empty Space,” “The Shifting Point,” “There Are No Secrets,” “Evoking (and Forgetting) Shakespeare”, and “The Quality of Mercy.”
His films include “Moderato Cantabile,” “Lord of the Flies,” “Marat/Sade,” “Tell Me Lies,” “King Lear,” “Meetings with Remarkable Men,” “The Mahabharata,” and “The Tragedy of Hamlet.”
The U.S. premiere of “The Prisoner,” with text and stage direction by Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne, is playing at Yale Repertory Theatre through Nov. 17.
The lectureship, which brings to Yale every year a distinguished theatre practitioner to speak on a topic of his or her choice, honors the late Maynard Mack, Sterling Professor of English at Yale, chair of the department, eminent scholar and critic of Shakespeare and Pope, and member of the Elizabethan Club.
