Adam Rapp

Adam Rapp
Adam Rappis an American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, musician and film director. His play, Red Light Winter, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2006...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth15 June 1968
CountryUnited States of America
jobs hate thinking
I think auditioning can be very reductive and I just hate how actors work really hard and most of them aren't going to get the job, and I hate putting them through that.
lying actors bigs
I find auditioning to be a very illusive process, where actors come in with this really big result with no process, so it's a lie already at work.
consist few greatest modern people room work works
Some of the greatest works of theater, from Chekov's work to modern playwrights', consist of just a few people in a room with no one leaving.
characters darker deal entertain
I have to be entertained by what I'm writing, so a lot of my stuff has a goofiness or scatological quality. If these characters can entertain me, then I feel like I can deal with the darker or more serious stuff.
academy behind came five high kids talking women
When I came to New York, I was really awkward. I went to military academy for high school, so I didn't have the socialization that most kids do. When I got here, I was five years behind everybody. Talking to women was weird for me.
almost breaking experience religious work
When I work in the theater, you know you'll get this almost devotional, religious experience where you're breaking bread with everyone every day.
academy born high illinois military minutes school small spent thirty
I was born in Chicago, then I spent most of my youth in Joliet, Illinois which is about thirty minutes south, and I went to a military academy for high school in Wisconsin. Then I went to college, on a basketball scholarship to a small school in Iowa, so I'm like Mr. Midwest.
time uncertain
I like to write about teenagers because it's such an uncertain and dramatic time.
fit hang jock nerd sort
I was a jock in college and high school, but I didn't hang out with the jocks. I was sort of a nerd who didn't look like a nerd. I never really fit into any social set.
edges fan love musical musicals noble per plays straight structure
I love plays that have musical moments. I'm not a big fan of musicals per se, but I love straight plays that have musical edges to them. I don't know if I will ever be able to structure a musical, but 'Finer Noble Gases' is as close as I've gotten.
became brother degrees experience john saw theatrical york
I saw 'Six Degrees of Separation' because my brother was in it. It was a watershed experience. It was theatrical and scary, and New York functioned like a character. John Guare became a hero for me.
anarchy dominated drove hairy life lines physical towel younger
There was a kind of physical anarchy that dominated most of my younger life. I was always too skinny, not hairy enough, my voice jumped around. It was a thing that drove me away from towel lines in gym class.
hear heard interests kid musicality obsessed park playing rhythm spend third time word written
I have never successfully written in the third person. If there's a rhythm or a musicality that interests me, I become obsessed with the character, and I just have this need to spend time with him or her. Sometimes I'll be in the park playing ball, and I'll hear a kid say something that I've never heard before. Sometimes one word can set me off.
drafts eat period tend time until
I'm pretty obsessive-compulsive, and I'm very fast. I tend to not write for a long period of time until I can't not write, and then I write first drafts in gallops. I won't eat right. I forget to do my laundry.