fiction.wikisort.org - Screenwriter

Adam Rapp (born June 15, 1968) is an American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, musician and film director.[1] His play Red Light Winter was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2006.[2]

Adam Rapp
Born	(1968-06-15) June 15, 1968 (age 54) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Playwright novelist director screenwriter
Education	Clarke University (BA) Juilliard School (GrDip)
Notable awards	2012 PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award 2010 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book Award for Punkzilla 2007 Benjamin H. Danks Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters 2006 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama for Red Light Winter 2006 Princess Grace Statue Award
Relatives	Anthony Rapp (brother)

Early life

The son of Mary Lee (née Baird; died 1997) and Douglas Rapp, Adam Rapp was born in Chicago and spent most of his youth in Joliet, Illinois.[3]^{[citation needed]}

He is a graduate of St. John's Military Academy (Delafield, Wisconsin) and Clarke College (Dubuque, Iowa).[3] At Clarke, he captained the varsity basketball team.[4]

After college he moved to New York City's East Village, where he landed a day job in book publishing and wrote fiction and plays at night. He later completed a two-year playwriting fellowship at Juilliard School.[3][4] His younger brother is actor-singer Anthony Rapp.

Career

Plays

Rapp attended the O'Neill Playwrights Conference in 1996.[5] His play Finer Noble Gases was staged by the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in 2000, by Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2001, by Carolina Actors Studio Theatre in Charlotte in 2003, and by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in New York City in 2004.[6] In 2001, Nocturne was premiered by the New York Theatre Workshop.[6] It has also been staged at by American Repertory Theater and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.[6] His play Stone Cold Dead Serious was produced in 2002 by the American Repertory Theater.[6]

His play Red Light Winter received the Joseph Jefferson Award (Best New Work) in 2005 for its production at Steppenwolf Theatre Company.[7] The play ran Off-Broadway at the Barrow Street Theatre from January 20, 2006 to June 25, 2006, directed by Rapp. The play was nominated for the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Play, and Rapp received the 2006 Obie Award, Special Citation.[8] The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2006.[2]

Rapp directed a production of Los Angeles, by Julian Sheppard, in 2007 at the Flea Theatre. In 2011, Rapp's The Metal Children was given its regional debut by Swine Palace on Louisiana State University's campus.[9]

He has said that the Edge Theater Company in New York City is his "artistic home": "Edge Theater changed my life back in 2003. They are my family."[10]

He made his Broadway debut with his play The Sound Inside, which began playing at Studio 54 starting on September 14, 2019 (opening officially on October 17, 2019) starring Mary-Louise Parker.[11] The play premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2018.[12] The play was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play at the 74th Tony Awards.

Teaching

He has taught at the Yale School of Drama.[13]

Style

The majority of Rapp's plays feature small casts and are set in small spaces.[1] Many characters in the plays are working class Americans.[14] His plays often combine stories of Midwestern longing with the idea of finding escape in New York. He combines humor with gloom, preferring dark themes[13]

In a conversation with fellow playwright Gina Gionfriddo published in The Brooklyn Rail, Rapp says: "When you see something powerfully acted on stage, it hits a nerve in the way music hits a nerve … Watching someone twelve feet from you falling in love or being abused … There’s something raw about that experience that you don’t get from film or TV."[15]

Novels

Rapp's first young adult novel, Missing the Piano, was published in 1994. After writing his second book, The Buffalo Tree, which was published in 1997, Rapp was invited to be the first author in residence at Ridgewood High School.[16] The Buffalo Tree was censored by the Muhlenberg School Board in Reading, Pennsylvania due to its themes, graphic language and sexual content.[17] His 2003 novel 33 Snowfish was one of Young Adult Library Services Association's Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults.[18] He released Under the Wolf, Under the Dog in 2004.

His first adult novel, The Year of Endless Sorrows, was released in 2006.[19] Rapp made his graphic novel debut with the release of Ball Peen Hammer in September 2009.[20][21] His second graphic novel, Decelerate Blue was published in February 2017.

Film, television and music

Rapp directed his first film, Winter Passing with Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell (2005),[22] and was a creative consultant for the television show The L Word.[23]

While working on The L Word, Rapp left in the middle of the season to attend the Edinburgh Festival, where he directed his play, Finer Noble Gases, which won the Fringe First Award.[5] He wrote for the 2010 season of HBO's In Treatment.[24]

He was a member of the band Bottomside, which released the independent CD The Element Man in September 2004.[25] He is a member of "Less the Band", which released the album Bear in April 2006.[26]

List of works

Awards

Source: Gale[1]

Year	Nominated work(s)/Awards	Category	Result
1995	Missing the Piano	Best Books for Young Adults, American Library Association	Won
1995	Missing the Piano	Best Books for Reluctant Readers citations, American Library Association	Won
1997	Trueblinka	Herbert & Patricia Brodkin Scholarship, National Playwright's Conference	Won
1999	Playwriting award[27]	Princess Grace Fellowship	Won
2000	Roger L. Stevens Award	Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays	Won
2001	Nocturne	Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights	Won
2004	Under the Wolf, Under the Dog	Los Angeles Times Book Award nomination	Won
2006	Red Light Winter	Pulitzer Prize for Drama (finalist)	Nominated
2006	Red Light Winter	Obie Award	Won
2006	Under the Wolf, Under the Dog	Schneider Family Book Award, teen category	Won
2012	PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award		Won
2020	The Sound Inside (play)	Tony Award for Best Play	Nominated

References

External links

• Adam Rapp at IMDb
• Adam Rapp at the Internet Broadway Database
• Adam Rapp at The Playwrights Database (doollee.com) (subscription required)
• "The Playwright" panel discussion, Working in the Theatre, CUNY-TV/American Theatre Wing (December 2006 audio-video)
• Email interview by ALAN, The ALAN Review 28.1 (Fall 2000)
• Adam Rapp at Library of Congress Authorities, with 17 catalog records

---