LOS ANGELES — The walls of the Geffen Playhouse are lined with posters from productions gone by, representing their nearly 30-year history of theatre-making. Walking down a narrow hallway flanked by frames three rows high, Tarrell Alvin McCraney points out some of the shows he's seen and the names he's admired.

"It just feels like being connected to a legacy of great storytelling," he said.

McCraney was already a part of that legacy, even before he was named the theatre's new artistic director. 

As a young playwright fresh out of Yale School of Drama, he was invited to read some of his work here, and in 2014, the theatre mounted the West Coast premiere of his play "Choir Boy," which would later go on to Broadway and receive a Tony nomination for Best Play.

McCraney remembers marveling at the opening night audience.

"There are all these people who I'd seen on television and artists whose music I listened to filling out…this 500-seat theater to see my play," he recalled, "and it was one of the first times that I realized that there was an ecosystem of entertainment here that I really loved and enjoyed being a part of."

Now, he gets to be a significant part of it in a way he never imagined as he settles into his new office and role. He's had a hand in programming theatre since he was a teenager but never expected to be given the keys to a building, let alone the Geffen, which he describes as "your friendly neighborhood playhouse."

That neighborhood is in Westwood, which places the institution in UCLA's backyard. McCraney sees this as an opportunity to connect budding audience members with budding artists – allowing them to grow up together.

"That means artists can have their first play be seen by audiences that are seeing their first play their first theatrical experience," he said. "And when that happens…they get invested in each other."

It's an idea he wants to lean into in a big and innovative way.

"My goal is to find a way that the subscription model for our students is built into their tuition," he said. "Now, don't tell anybody I said that. But it is a dream of mine, so that everybody has a subscription to this theater, as part of their education, as part of their…learning of the human condition."

Executive director Gil Cates, Jr. said it's this type of thinking that is already electrifying the building. They've never had a playwright in the role of artistic director and he says fresh eyes may be just what's needed during a time when theatres have been having trouble rebounding from the pandemic.

"He, you know, walked into the theater and was like, 'Have you ever done a play in this room?' And 'what about this?'" Cates recalled. "All of a sudden, I was like, Oh, my God, yes. Outside the box!"

"Having people that are running a theater that are just producorial minded, or, you know, director minded, I think we know what that looks like," he continued. "And I think this is a time to see well, what else? How else do we develop?"

The 2020 coronavirus pandemic also saw the nation and the theatre industry experience a racial reckoning where many predominantly white institutions were called out and called on to do better. 

McCraney is part of a new generation of leaders of color across the theatre landscape, including his former classmate Snehal Desai at Center Theatre Group, Hana Sharif at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and Stevie Walker-Webb at Baltimore Center Stage – all of whom he said are in close conversation about the ways they want to move the artform forward.

"The exciting thing is, when we all get together, we almost run over with all the ideas and the wonderful ways in which we want to engage the theater," McCraney said. "I think there is a kind of outside folks looking in going, 'Well, what does that mean?' Change is hard, right? Yes, change is hard. But it also provides opportunities for growth, for direction shift for newness, and for freedom. And freedom does not come easy, as we all know. And so this is a very exciting moment to be in conversation with artists who have a lifelong love of something who want to innovate."

A true multihyphenate, relocating to Los Angeles also places the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Moonlight in a position to write more for screens big and small. 

Still, the stage will be McCraney's focus as he starts planning the 2024-2025 season, his first.

He wants to welcome audiences with an open hand, he said, a "love ethic, rather than a kind of capitalist model that can isolate and can silo," with the ultimate goal of throwing open the doors of the friendly neighborhood playhouse a little wider.