David Rabe

David Rabe
Born	David William Rabe (1940-03-10)March 10, 1940 Dubuque, Iowa,U.S.
Education	Villanova University, M.A., 1968
Notable awards	Tony Awardfor Best Play, 1972 (Sticks and Bones) Obie Awardfor distinguished playwriting, 1973 (The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel) National Institute and American Academy Award in Literature,1976 Guggenheim Fellowship,1976 PEN/Laura Pels AwardMaster American Dramatist, 2014
Spouse	Elizabeth Pan (m. 1969; div.1974) Jill Clayburgh ​ ​ (m.1979; died 2010)​
Children	3, includingLily Rabe

David William Rabe(born March 10, 1940)is an American playwright and screenwriter. He won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1972 (Sticks and Bones) and also received Tony Award nominations for Best Play in 1974 (In the Boom Boom Room), 1977 (Streamers) and 1985 (Hurlyburly).

Early life

Rabe was born on March 10, 1940, inDubuque, Iowa,of German and Irish descent, the son of Ruth (néeMcCormick), a department store worker, and William Rabe, a teacher and meat packer. He was raised in a devout Catholic family.

Career

Rabe wasdraftedinto theU.S. Armyin 1965 and served in a medical unit during theVietnam War.After leaving the Army in 1967, Rabe returned toVillanova University,studying writing and earning an M.A. in 1968.

During this time, he began work on the playSticks and Bones,in which the family represents the ugly underbelly of the seemingly stereotypical Nelson family (whose names matchthe main characters of the sunny 1950s television series—Ozzie, Harriet, David and Ricky) when they are faced with their embittered and hopeless son David returning home from Vietnam as a blinded vet.

Rabe is known for his loose trilogy of plays drawing on his experiences as an Army draftee inVietnam,Sticks and Bones(1969), theTony Award-winningThe Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel(1971), andStreamers(1976).

He has also writtenHurlyburly(both the play and the screenplay for the film version), and the screenplays for the Vietnam War dramaCasualties of War(1989) and thefilm adaptationofJohn Grisham'sThe Firm(1993). Rabe also wrote a screenplay forFirst Bloodfor producerMartin BregmanwithMike Nicholsinterested in directing and the role ofJohn Rambowritten forAl Pacino,but it was not filmed because Pacino found it "too extreme" and declined to appear in it.

A collection of Rabe's manuscripts is housed in the Mugar Memorial Library, atBoston University.

Awards and honors

• 1967Rockefeller FoundationGrant
• 1970Associated PressAward, for a series onDaytopaddict rehabilitation program
• 1971Obie Awardfor distinguished playwriting forThe Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
• 1971Drama Desk AwardforThe Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
• 1971Elizabeth Hull/Kate Warriner AwardfromDramatists GuildforThe Basic Training of Pavlo HummelandStreamers
• 1972New York Drama Critics Circlecitation
• 1972Outer Critics Circle Awardfor Best Play in 1972 forSticks and Bones
• 1972Tony Awardfor Best Play in 1972 forSticks and Bones
• 1974 Tony Award nominee for Best Play forIn the Boom Boom Room
• 1976National Institute and American Academy Award in Literature
• 1976Guggenheim Fellowship
• 1977 Tony Award nominee for Best Play forStreamers
• 1977New York Drama Critics Circle Awardfor Best American Play forStreamers
• 1985 Tony Award nominee for Best Play forHurlyburly
• 2014PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater AwardMaster American Dramatist

Works

Plays

• Chameleon(1959)
• The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel(1971)
• Sticks and Bones(1971)
• The Orphan(1972)
• In the Boom Boom Room(1973)
• Burning(1974)
• The Crossing(1975)
• Streamers(1976)
• Goose and Tomtom(1982)
• Hurlyburly(1984)
• Those the River Keeps(1991)
• A Question of Mercy: Based upon the Journal by Richard Selzer(1997)
• The Dog Problem(2001)
• The Black Monk(2004)
• An Early History of Fire(2012)
• Good for Otto(2015)
• Visiting Edna(2016)

Screenplays

• I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can(1982)
• Streamers(1983)
• Casualties of War(1989)
• State of Grace(with Dennis McIntyre, 1990)
• The Firm(with Robert Towne and David Rayfiel, 1993)
• Hurlyburly(1998)
• In the Boom Boom Room(adapted from his play, 1999)

Fiction

• Recital of the Dog(1993)
• The Crossing Guard(novelization of the screenplay by Sean Penn, 1995)
• A Primitive Heart(2005)
• Dinosaurs on the Roof(2008)
• Mr. Wellington(children's book, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker, 2009)
• Girl by the Road at Night: A Novel of Vietnam(2010)

External links

• David Rabeat theInternet Broadway Database
• David RabeatIMDb
• Hollywood.com
• Answers.com
• FilmographyatThe New York Times
• Encyclopædia Britannica
• David RabeonCharlie Rose
• David Rabecollected news and commentary atThe New York Times

Further reading

• Lahr, John (24 November 2008)."The Critics: Life and Letters: Land of Lost Souls".The New Yorker.Vol. 84, no. 38. pp. 114–120.Retrieved16 April2009."David Rabe's America"
• Radavich, David. "Collapsing Male Myths: Rabe's TragicomicHurlyburly."American Drama3:1 (Fall 1993): 1–16.
• Radavich, David. "Rabe, Mamet, Shepard, and Wilson: Mid-American Male Dramatists of the 1970s and '80s."The Midwest QuarterlyXLVIII: 3 (Spring 2007): 342–58.