Out100: Tarell Alvin McCraney

Photography by Danielle Levitt

"I don't know if people of gay, lesbian, or queer status are more active dreamers than others," McCraney says, "but when you are sort of pressed to have an inner world to yourself, you populate it with some fantastic people and things."

Even before he was named a MacArthur "Genius Grant" recipient, the extraordinarily gifted writer was having a pretty great year with all those stories he'd been crafting for the stage. McCraney's latest play, Head of Passes, had its world premiere at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, where he's an ensemble member; Choir Boy had critically acclaimed productions in both London and New York City; and he received Yale's prestigious Windham-Campbell Literature Prize.

McCraney, who writes primarily about the Southern African-American experience, says he has always "been scripting my life the way I wanted it to be in my mind, rather than the way it was happening."

Photographed at the 13th Street Repertory Company in New York City on July 2, 2013

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