BRINGING IT HOME

The place McCraney wants his light to shine brightest is Miami. His sprawling dream is to come home, start a free theater program for kids in an old Overtown recreation center, present free outdoor Shakespeare with great actors in a place like Bayfront Park in the winter, develop ''homegrown plays in the summer'' by creating something like the Sundance Institute Playwrights Lab. He could see a restaurant/performance space like the Public Theater's Joe's Pub in Coconut Grove, the place he'd like to settle and raise a family.

He could, of course, continue becoming an ever-more-famous playwright. But he says simply, ``If I'm thinking these things, I ought to be doing them.''

He is learning how to run a theater company by working at some of the world's best. Onstage and off, he is bringing his dreams to fruition. His vision for his hometown is just another dream, albeit an ambitious one.

Landau, for one, believes in McCraney's passion for connection.

``Tarell cares about, loves, nurtures and reaches out to audiences. . . . He talks, he shares, he is a true citizen of the world. His generosity is immense. . . . The only thing that seems to be affecting Tarell with all the acclaim is his awareness of the opportunity it brings. He is able to think more radically about how he might serve the communities he wants to. To dream bigger or newer or riskier projects.''

Creating a major new theater in Miami, McCraney says, is his dream.

''I really care about my community. There's got to be somebody in there working on the side of young people who are dying. Miami includes Liberty City and Overtown. They aren't inconsequential. I get very passionate about that,'' he says. ``I don't mind devoting my 30s and 40s to working on that.''

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