Princess Grace Statue Award, 2006

Princess Grace Award
Playwriting Fellowship, 1999
New Dramatists

Adam Rapp is a novelist, filmmaker, and an OBIE Award-winning playwright and director. He has been the recipient of the Herbert & Patricia Brodkin Scholarship, two Lincoln Center le Compte de Nuoy Awards, a fellowship to the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, the 1999 Princess Grace Award for Playwriting, a 2000 Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, a 2000 Suite Residency with Mabou Mines, the 2001 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, Boston’s Elliot Norton Award, was short-listed for the 2003 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, named a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize, and was most recently honored with the 2006 Princess Grace Statue as well as a Lucille Lortel Playwriting Fellowship.

His plays include NOCTURNE (A.R.T., Off-Broadway at NYTW), GHOSTS IN THE COTTONWOODS (Victory Gardens; The Arcola, London), ANIMALS AND PLANTS (A.R.T.), BLACKBIRD (The Bush, London; Pittsburgh City Theatre; Off-Broadway with Edge Theater), STONE COLD DEAD SERIOUS (A.R.T., Off-Broadway with Edge Theater), FINER NOBLE GASES (26th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, Off-Broadway at Rattlestick, 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival), FASTER (Off-Broadway at Rattlestick), TRUEBLINKA (Off-Broadway at the Maverick Theater), DREAMS OF THE SALTHORSE (Encore, S.F.), GOMPERS (Pittsburgh City Theatre; The Arcola, London), and RED LIGHT WINTER (Steppenwolf, Off-Broadway with Scott Rudin Productions at The Barrow Street Theater).

As a director, his production of BLACKBIRD (Edge Theater) received two Drama Desk Nominations. His production of RED LIGHT WINTER was the first play to completely sell-out Steppenwolf’s Garage Theater and won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work. It then transferred to the Barrow Street Theatre for a six-month Off-Broadway commercial run, where it received a Citation from the American Theatre Critics Association, a Lucille Lortel Nomination for Best New Play, and two OBIE Awards. His recent production of FINER NOBLE GASES at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival received a Fringe First Award, A Best Actor Award from the London Stage, and the List Magazine/Writers’ Guild of Great Britain’s Best Newcomer Prize.

His first anthology of plays, PLAYS BY ADAM RAPP, is published by Broadway Play Publishing, which also publishes editions of BLACKBIRD, ANIMALS & PLANTS, FINER NOBLE GASES, and GOMPERS. RED LIGHT WINTER, NOCTURNE, STONE COLD DEAD SERIOUS AND OTHER PLAYS, and ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE are all available in trade editions from Faber & Faber.

His first feature film, WINTER PASSING, starring Ed Harris, Will Ferrell, and Zooey Deschanel, received its world premiere as an Official Selection of the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in February. He is currently in post-production with his second feature, BLACKBIRD, which he adapted from his play.

He is the author of the young adult novels MISSING THE PIANO (Viking/HarperCollins), THE BUFFALO TREE (Front Street/HarperColllins), THE COPPER ELEPHANT (Front Street/HarperCollins), LITTLE CHICAGO (Front Street Press), 33 SNOWFISH (Candlewick Press), and UNDER THE WOLF, UNDER THE DOG (Candlewick Press), which was short-listed for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and received the Schneider Book Award from the American Library Association.

Upcoming projects include the graphic novels BALL-PEEN HAMMER and DECELERATE BLUE for the new imprint First Second, the adult novel THE YEAR OF ENDLESS SORROWS, which will be published by Farrar Strauss & Giroux in January ’07, and a pilot for HBO.

A graduate of Clarke College in Dubuque, IA, where he majored in Fiction Writing and Psychology, Mr. Rapp also completed a two-year playwriting fellowship at Juilliard. He was born in Chicago, IL, and makes his home in New York City.

***Credit: Edge Theater Company
***Photo credit: Steve Freeman