Back in Blakk
TARELL ALVIN McCRANEY IS trying not to overthink performing onstage again. “It probably makes more sense to repeat ‘You wrote this down and you’re saying it in front of some folks, calm down,’” the playwright says over coffee at Steppenwolf Theatre’s Front Bar. “Because otherwise I’ll just be like” — and here he adopts a mock-ponderous tone—“‘What does it mean to be an actor again?’ instead of listening and paying attention.”
McCraney, of course, is much better known for his writing. The 38-year-old received a 2013 MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant for his body of stage work and, most notably, shared an Oscar for the adapted screenplay of 2016’s , which won best picture. And though he has an acting degree from DePaul, he hasn’t put it to much use in, oh, the last decade and a half. His last stage gig was in 2004, a Steppenwolf Garage production called , just before he headed off to Yale to pursue a master’s in playwriting.
