"First there was the master conjurer adept at musicals, farces, opera and Shakespeare. Then there was the philosopher-king ... who has devoted his energies to a quest for a theatre that was simple in form and rich in meaning." - Michael Billington The theatre's greatest contemporary director tells the story of his life.Peter Brook was the modern stage's greatest inventor. For over 50 years he held audiences spellbound with his critically acclaimed productions. This is his account of his life. Born in 1925 in London, at 21 Brook became the enfant terrible of British theatre, directing major post-war productions of Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon, opera at Covent Garden and new plays in London's West End. He even made films. In 1964 he produced Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade for the RSC and his whole approach to theatre became radicalised. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Brook began exploring the roots of non-Western theatre which once again changed his view of what theatre could be for actors and audiences. His journey took him to Paris where he founded a company at the Bouffes du Nord theatre. Brook's biography charts all the stages of his aesthetic and spiritual journey, and touches on all parts of a career that has been widely reported but never previously talked about from his personal perspective.

From King Lear to the Tragedy of Carmen," "from Marat/Sade to the epic Mahabharata, Peter Brook has reinvented modern theatre, not once but again and again. In The Open Door the visionary director and theorist offers a lucid, comprehensive exposition of the philosophy that underlies his work. It is a philosophy of paradoxes: We come to the theatre to find life, but that life must be different from the life we find outside. Actors have to prepare painstakingly yet be willing to sacrifice the results of their preparation. The director's most reliable tool may be his capacity to be bored. Brook illustrates these principles with anecdotes that span his entire career and that demonstrate his familiarity with Shakespeare, Chekhov, and the indigenous theatres of India and Iran. The result is an unparalleled look at what happens both onstage and behind the scenes, fresh in its insights and elegant in its prose. "From the Trade Paperback edition."

From director and cofounder of the Royal Shakespeare Company Peter Brook, The Empty Space is a timeless analysis of theatre from the most influential stage director of the twentieth century. As relevant as when it was first published in 1968, groundbreaking director and cofounder of the Royal Shakespeare Company Peter Brook draws on a life in love with the stage to explore the issues facing a theatrical performance--of any scale. He describes important developments in theatre from the last century, as well as smaller scale events, from productions by Stanislavsky to the rise of Method Acting, from Brecht's revolutionary alienation technique to the free form happenings of the 1960s, and from the different styles of such great Shakespearean actors as John Gielgud and Paul Scofield to a joyous impromptu performance in the burnt-out shell of the Hamburg Opera just after the war. Passionate, unconventional, and fascinating, this book shows how theatre defies rules, builds and shatters illusions, and creates lasting memories for its audiences.

In this volume Peter Brook is in dialogue with college students and faculty. Theatre professor Dale Moffitt has edited and arranged by subject twelve hours of spontaneous question and answer sessions from Brook's visit to the Southern Methodist University campus. Ranging widely over many topics, Brook talks about his innovative and award-winning production of Marat/Sade, his film and stage versions of King Lear, his nine-hour production of the Indian epic The Mahabharata. With passion and clarity he discusses acting, directing, auditions, film vs. the stage, his responses to the work of other theatre figures like Grotowski and Artaud, and the multiculturalism which characterizes his most recent work.

Director Peter Brook reveals the myriad sources driving his lifelong passion for finding the most expressive way to tell a story. Over the years we watch his metamorphosis from traditionalist to radical innovator, witnessing his expanding field of vision and sense of dramatic possibility. For fifty years, Peter Brook’s opera, stage, and film productions have held audiences spellbound. His visionary directing has created some of the most influential productions in contemporary theater. Now at the pinnacle of his career, Brook has given us his memoir, a luminous, inspiring work in which he reflects on his artistic fortunes, his idols and teachers, his philosophical path and personal journey. In this autobiography, the man The New York Times has called “the English-speaking world’s most eminent director” and The London Times has named “theater’s living legend” reveals the myriad sources behind his lifelong passion to find the most expressive way of telling a story. Whether in India’s epic “Mahabharata” or a stage adaptation of Oliver Sak’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, South Africa’s ”Woza Albert” or “The Cherry Orchard,” Brook’s unique blend of practicality and vision creates unforgettable experiences for audiences worldwide.

"Peter Brook is not only one of the truly outstanding directors of our time, he is also, undoubtedly, the only one whose skill as a writer equals his genius as a practitioner of the theatre." - Martin Esslin A new work from Peter Brook - the contemporary theatre's greatest inventor.Whatever the social and national barriers, we all have a brain and we think we know it. But, the moment we go inside, we find we are on another planet. Using Oliver Sacks' neurological study The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat as its inspiration, The Man Who offers a series of fascinating Doctor/Patient scenarios that examine our attempts to understand the workings of the brain. In turn, these case studies become Brook's starting point in his search for a new theatre form.

This play offers a series of fascinating Doctor/Patient scenarios that examine our attempts to understand the workings of the brain.

"Peter Brook is recognized throughout the world as one of the most original and creative directors of the contemporary theatre. In this brilliant book he explores the length of his career, starting in Stratford in the 1940s to The Mahabharata now. It includes explorations of avant-garde and classic theatre, essays on opera and film, and a series of essays on Shakespeare that shed new light, as have his productions. But perhaps most of all, it is a book of profound insights on the theatre and the people who make the theatre" -- Provided by publisher.

Brook's meditation on performing Shakespeare today.

One of the world's most revered theatre directors reflects on a fascinating variety of Shakespearean topics.