The Inspiration to Create

Playwright, Director, and Novelist Adam Rapp '91 reflects on his career and what it’s like to create during a global pandemic

If you had asked 18-year-old Adam Rapp what he wanted to do after college; he probably would have said he’d be a high school basketball coach. At the time, he was playing for Loras College and while he enjoyed his studies, he didn’t feel a particular calling off the court. But when an injury left him red-shirted and needing to adjust his course schedule, a chance encounter changed everything.

“I was on my way to the Registrar's Office and happened upon this creative writing class,” Rapp said. “The desks were all in a circle with students and this stack of yellow legal pads. There was a boombox in the center with sitar music playing. A Loras English Department faculty member and poet named Bill Pauly was teaching the class, and he kind of waved at me like, ‘come in’ – it was almost like a mystical experience.”

After pouring his thoughts out for the rest of the period, Rapp reached the Registrar’s Office and filled his schedule with writing classes. At the same time, he worked on a return to basketball by playing pick-up games in parks around town, eventually connecting with some Clarke players who convinced him to transfer.

While the 6’3" leading rebounder enjoyed success on the court at Clarke, he also dove into writing with new intensity. Rapp fondly remembers classes on Shakespeare with Professor Emerita of Drama Carol Blitgen, BVM, ’58 and learning the intricacies of storytelling, as well as English classes with Professor Emerita of English Pat Nolan, BVM, who encouraged his early short stories. Perhaps the most impactful course though, was his existential philosophy class with Professor of Philosophy Kent Anderson. Reading works like the "Book of Job" and "The Stranger" pushed Rapp to consider the meaning of his life and his own mortality. It created a sense of urgency in Rapp that fueled his early career.

“In that class, it shook me. I just thought, I better get to work,” Rapp said. “I didn’t know I was going to direct, I didn’t know I was going to be in theatre – I knew I wanted to write fiction, but I didn’t know it was going to be my life’s mission. I think I had a lightning bolt moment.”

Striving for Success

After graduation, Rapp drove to New York with Jason Oates '92, where Oates pursued acting and Rapp started his writing career in earnest. The two stayed with Rapp’s brother Anthony, who was establishing himself as an actor.

In time, Rapp found success with plays such as "Nocturne," "Finer Nobel Gases", and "Red Light Winter," which earned a nomination for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

His recent work, "The Sound Inside," explores the relationship between an Ivy League creative writing professor and her talented student. While it may seem easy to assume where the relationship might go, Rapp strives in this and all his work to surprise the audience - and even himself.

A scene from "Red Light Winter," a play which earned Rapp a Pulitzer Prize nomination.

“There’s always a play or an idea kind of percolating in my head, and I knew I wanted to write about a teacher-student relationship,” Rapp said. “I knew kind of the currents in the play but didn’t know where it was going to go. I never do. I always set a few signposts along the way and either try to defy those expectations for myself or land on them in a surprising way.”

After premiering at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and opening on Broadway at Studio 54, "The Sound Inside" earned nominations for six Tony Awards in 2020, including Best Play. The play was set for a major international rollout - just as a global pandemic broke out.

Performing in a Pandemic

With the 2020 Tony Awards postponed and productions closed indefinitely, Rapp and the theatre community worldwide were left wondering what came next. COVID-19 impacted everything from the most prestigious theatres on Broadway to the local venues that bring communities like Dubuque together. While it created many barriers, it also pushed for an evolution in performance that Rapp and Joe Klinebriel, Clarke University Professor of Drama and Chair of Visual & Performing Arts, agree is a central tenet of theatre.

“How do we continue to tell stories and reach audiences? That’s really what’s at the heart of this,” said Klinebriel. “But that’s something I think we’ve always dealt with in theatre. How do we keep reinventing it in a way that does that? Suddenly the pandemic forced us and everyone to figure out how we do that.”

At Clarke, this led to the development and production of "Otherworld," an adaptation of a classic Greek myth written by Clarke alumna Heather Meyer ’03. Over the course of the year, virtual live readings allowed students, faculty and community members to bring the play to life. That live reading experience is one that Rapp notes as critical to the development process, especially in a time where the audience interaction is limited.

“As a young writer, when you’re not getting produced, that’s all you have are these actors sitting in chairs in front of you reading your work,” Rapp said. “That sustains you early in your career. Even if it’s the smallest audience, you get to feel their response to the work and where the work is living and dying. With the pandemic and looking back on my early career, I’m so grateful that I had that.”

A scene from Rapp's play, "Stone Cold Dead Serious."

For Rapp’s part, "The Sound Inside" has taken on a new life with regional theatre productions, including performances that were streamed live by the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, May 13-26. While virtual performances can reach international audiences, others seek unique in-person alternatives. For example, Rapp said that one of his earlier works, "Nocturne," was recently performed “drive-in style” in Philadelphia.

“People would come, park their cars and tune into an FM radio station and listen, but the final scene is really intimate between a father and son... so they invited the audience to come and sit in bleachers,” Rapp said. “I found that to be really moving. We haven’t sat together for so long, and I felt like, ‘wow, what a beautiful moment.’ But it also made me wonder as we move forward, how will it be different, and will it be different?”

“Will” and “how” are questions that many performers and creators are asking, including Nicholas Halder, former Theatre Director in Residence at Clarke University. He worked with Klinebriel and the cast and crew of

"Otherworld" and is also deeply connected with arts and cultural organizations throughout Dubuque. Like Rapp and Klinebriel, Halder acknowledges that while innovative things have been done; there is something special about a traditional theatre experience.

“There have been some great things that we’ve had to do that we might take with us in the future, but with that being said, nothing is like sitting in a theatre and watching a show,” Halder said. “It is ephemeral, it’s an energy exchange. That’s why I go to the theatre, to have that experience.”

“There is a molecular shift between the performers and the audience and what they share,” Rapp added. “You have to wonder, is it ever going to be what it was?"

Looking to the Future

Whatever a return to the theatre may look like, COVID-19 is not the only thing affecting the art we create and the stories we tell. Recent years have seen huge cultural shifts with the Black Lives Matter movement. These themes are evident in some of Rapp’s current work, such as "The Cube," a play he is writing for Audible, which explores the complex dynamic between a white woman and a multiracial woman over an intense shared experience. Rapp said because of recent events, he sought out women and people of color to read the piece and is giving many of his other creative decisions equally careful consideration.

“Because I’m a straight, white, middle-aged man, I better have something important to say to keep my place at the table. I have to earn the right to that,” Rapp said. “I’m not going to insist I direct my own work as much – I want to make that space for other people. And I want to make sure that as a showrunner, I am hiring a good amount of people who can have different voices and points of view... I hope I can remain a part of that conversation and be a part of that cultural shift from now on.”

Rapp is also working on a new series for Showtime, "American Rust," is finishing a new play, and is adapting James Slater’s "Light Years," as well as a musical version of S.E. Hinton’s "The Outsiders." Much of this work is done in the same apartment building where he crashed with his brother over 30 years ago, weeks after graduating from Clarke - though he did move one floor up.

Reflecting on his career path, Rapp is forever grateful for his transfer to Clarke and that lightning bolt from Kent Anderson. He hopes today’s Clarke students will be open to opportunities; however they might come.

“Making stuff is really important. Thinking about kids who are 18-22 who don’t quite know what they’re doing, or thinking they want to be something, and they don’t know they could be something else – the thought of creating something for the world is an incredible, miraculous vocation,” Rapp said. "There is a lot we can do to be inspiring and be inspired by creating stuff. Clarke was very encouraging of that creativity, and I really appreciated that.”

Adam Rapp '91 still does much of his writing in the same apartment building he moved to 30 years ago after graduating from Clarke.