By Michael Buckley
20 Feb 2006

What led to his movie directorial debut with “Winter Passing”? Recalls Rapp, “It was originally going to be a play, but I never wrote a stitch of dialogue. I was encouraged to apply for a grant through AT&T. The application process required a really meticulous synopsis, which I never do when I write a play. I kind of know the characters and follow them around; they sort of lead me.

“I said that I wasn't very good grant material; I'm just a big straight white guy. I wound up not getting the grant, but with this half-gestated idea that I liked. My west coast agent encouraged me to back the story up a bit. I tried it, about 50 pages, and fell in love with the characters. When it was a project with producers behind it, they asked who I wanted to direct it. I said, 'I do. Just, please, give me a great crew.' Thank God for [cinematographer] Terry Stacey, who shot it. He sort of took me through film school.”

Ed Harris, Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel star in the picture. “I had met Ed. He played my brother's father in a Broadway play called Precious Sons in 1986. But I didn't know him. I wrote him a letter and sent a script. I cited [the play] and tried to use it as a bit of a calling card. I don't know if it helped. He responded in three days, and said that he was very interested.

“I didn't know Will or Zooey; I met them in L.A., when I was casting. At the time, Will and I were sharing an agency, and it was generally known that he was interested in doing a dramatic role. He plays a 35-year-old virgin who's been kicked out of a Christian rock band. He's repressed, and terrified about practically everything. Still, he's very funny in it; sort of like a seventh-grade boy. I'm happy he came through; it got some financing, and helped get a green light [for production].”

Basically, the plot involves “an actress [Deschanel], the daughter of two famous novelists, who's offered a hundred-thousand dollars by a book editor [Amy Madigan] if she can get letters that her father [Harris], a recluse, wrote to her mother, who has committed suicide before the film starts, while they were courting. When she gets to her father's house, she finds two strangers [Ferrell and Amelia Warner]. It's about how the four of them form a strange little family.” Also in the cast are “all sorts of New York theatre actors - Dallas Roberts, Dede [Deirdre] O'Connell, Darrell Larson, my little brother. I wanted to be sure to get as many friends as I could into the film.”

Did his first movie lead to the second? “No. A private individual approached me,” recounts Rapp. “He knew the play [Blackbird] very well. He thought I would just shoot the play, but cinematically that wouldn't be very interesting. You'd be stuck in a room with these two characters for two hours. [Set in a Canal Street loft, the action concerns Baylis, a Desert Storm vet, and Froggy, a heroin-addicted teen. The Off-Broadway production featured Paul Sparks and Mandy Siegfried.]

“I thought we could tell a better story by backing it up and opening it up. We figured out how to do it on a really tight budget. I had a great DP [Director of Photography], Richard Rutkowski, who was the camera operator on 'Winter Passing.' We had to rehearse relentlessly for a month before we started, and got incredible stuff in 18 days [of shooting]. It was no easy task, but we pulled it off. I'm thrilled with it!

“Paul Sparks, who got a Drama Desk nomination [for the play], has the lead role, opposite Gillian Jacobs. We have so many theatre people. Gary Wilmes has a nice part, and Annie Parisse, from 'Law & Order,' plays a stripper, one of the principal roles. There are Danny Hoch, Guy Wood, Dede O'Connell, Dallas Roberts. . . . My brother plays a drag queen. He has a really nice scene at the end of the film, and I'm surprised he looks as good as he does in drag.”

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Rapp is adamant that young audiences need to be cultivated. “The theatre needs to create content that will attract them. In London, you see young people going to the theatre; here, a few companies make it possible - the Edge, LABrynith, National Theatre of the United States. I wish more of the established theatres - Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club - would try to do some really gritty stuff. I'm kind of shocked that Red Light Winter is having a commercial run Off-Broadway, and that a lot of the audience are under 40. I love the older audience, too, but the theatre is too important to be left only to people who can afford it. I want to do whatever I can to get kids into the theatre.”

Since he's seemingly a workaholic, what does Rapp do to relax? “The band relaxes me. I play basketball a couple of times a week. Some people wonder if I ever sleep, but actually I sleep a lot. I have to.” He's been quoted that he sometimes needs “to force myself to take a day off - to not think about what I'm working on, to get back with people.” He confirms the remark. “Yeah, that's true. Sometimes, I just take a day and stay in the apartment and read - drinking coffee and vegging out. In fact, right now, I'm craving that.”

“The Year of Endless Sorrow,” believes Rapp, “is probably the longest thing I've ever written. At one point, it was upwards of 1,000 pages. Now, it's about 600. It's a chronicle of failure, and also a bit of a caper. It's kind of sad, and hopefully pretty funny, too. It's about a wannabe writer living in the East Village in the early nineties and working in publishing. He falls in love with a Polish immigrant and loses his job. He has a younger brother who's sort of a well-known actor.”

His sort of well-known, younger actor-brother just had a book published, “Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent.” Observes Adam, “Anthony's book is really moving; I read an early draft. It's doing very well. I'm real proud of him. I always thought that Anthony was incredibly talented. In fact, he was writing before I was. He's also a very talented director.”

Writing books, states Adam Rapp, “can become very lonely. That's one of the reasons I keep coming back to the theatre. If I write a good enough play, I can be around people. That's a nice social atmosphere for me.”

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Michael Buckley also writes for TheaterMania.com.