Peter Brook is a titan in the world of theater. Now aged 89, the director staged his first work, Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus," in 1942. After a groundbreaking stint at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1960s, in 1970 the London-born director co-founded the International Centre for Theatre Research and toured widely with it in the Middle East and Africa. Then, in 1974, Brook took over the old and storied Theatre Bouffes du Nord in Paris as the base for that multinational troupe, remaining as artistic director there until 2008.
Besides his astonishing body of work spanning theater, opera and films, Brook is also an acclaimed author. In particular, his 1968 book "The Empty Space" is commonly termed "timeless" and "definitive" for its amazing analysis of the nature and purpose of theater — issues that may seem simple, but can actually awaken in audiences entirely new awarenesses of the human condition.
Although the director's rehearsal space is famously off-limits to the public as he believes the mere presence of outsiders would influence what happens, in 2012 his son Simon released "Peter Brook: The Tightrope," a documentary he directed that captures the firmament where his father's art takes form in his unending drive to make theater "real."