American Sligo: The Playright

Adam Rapp
The son of Mary Lee (née Baird) and Douglas Rapp, he was born and raised in Joliet, Illinois, with his brother, actor Anthony Rapp, and sister, Anne. His parents divorced when Rapp was five, and he and his siblings were raised by their mother, who died in
1997 from cancer.

He graduated from St. John's Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin and Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, where he played varsity basketball. He had dreams of becoming a professional basketball player until he took a poetry writing class in college,
where he discovered he had a talent for creating stories. He also completed a two-year playwriting fellowship at The Juilliard School.

Rapp attended the O'Neill Playwrights Conference in 1996. 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 Theatre
in New York City in 2004. In 2001, Nocturne was premiered by the New York Theatre Workshop. It has also been staged at by American Repertory Theater and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. His play Stone Cold Dead Serious was produced in 2002 by the
American Repertory Theater.

Rapp's Red Light Winter received the Joseph Jefferson Award in 2005 for its production at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. The play was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2006. Rapp directed a production of Los Angeles, by Julian Sheppard, in 2007 at the Flea Theatre. As of 2007, Rapp was the resident playwright at the Edge Theatre Company in New York City. He teaches at the Yale School of Drama. In 2011, Rapp's The Metal Children was given its regional debut by Swine Palace on Louisiana State University's campus.

The majority of Rapp's plays feature small casts and are set in small spaces. Many characters in the plays are lower-class Americans. 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.

Rapp's first young adult novel, Missing the Piano, was published in 1996. After writing his second book, The Buffalo Tree, in 1999, Rapp was invited to be the first author in residence at Ridgewood High School. The Buffalo Tree was censored by the Muhlenberg School Board in Reading, Pennsylvania due to its themes, graphic language and sexual content. His 2003 novel 33 Snowfish was one of Young Adult
Library Services Association's top ten best books for young adults. He released Under the Wolf, Under the Dog in 2004. His first adult novel, The Year of Endless Sorrows, was released in 2006. Rapp made his graphic novel debut with the release of Ball Pen
Hammer in September 2009.

Rapp has said that his ideas for characters and stories come to him most often while playing basketball or walking the streets of New York. He is interested in the rhythm and language that he hears while listening to conversations and voices.

Rapp directed his first film, Winter Passing with Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell (2005), and was a creative consultant for the television show The L Word. While working on The L Word, Rapp left in the middle of the season to attend the Edinburgh Festival. He wrote for the 2010 season of HBO's In Treatment. He was a member of the band Bottomside, which released the independent CD The Element Man in September 2004. He is a member of "Less the Band", which released the album Bear in April 2006.