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David Rabe
Playwright (Suffocation Theory)

David Rabe is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist whose work has had a powerful influence on American theater and is known for its use of dark humor, satire, and surreal fantasy. Rabe has won almost every important award in the American theater including a Tony award for his play Sticks and Bones as well as three other Tony nominations for Hurly Burly, Streamers and In the Boom Boom Room, an Obie Award for The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, multiple New York Drama Critics’ Circle awards, a PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for his body of work and most recently the Legend of Off Broadway Award presented by the Off Broadway Alliance. David Rabe was educated at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa and completed his graduate studies in theater at Villanova University in Pennsylvania after serving in the army as a draftee assigned to a hospital-support unit in Vietnam, where his experiences provided a key influence on his early career as a playwright. Rabe’s numerous other plays include Goose and Tomtom (1983) a surreal gangster-themed play steeped in gnostic mysticism which was a groundbreaking production for Undermain Theatre, Hurlyburly (1985; film 1998) and Those the River Keeps (1991), A Question of Mercy (1998); The Dog Problem (2002), The Black Monk (2004) based on a Chekhov short story and An Early History of Fire (first performed 2012). Good for Otto was developed by the Gift Theater in Chicago and premiered by The New Group in New York in 2018. In addition to screenplays for his plays he has written screenplays for the films such as I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can (1983), Casualties of War (1989), John Grisham’s The Firm (1993) and the upcoming film We’re Just Married, starring his daughter, actress Lily Rabe. His novels include Recital of the Dog (1993), Dinosaurs on the Roof (2008), and Girl by the Side of the Road (2010).

David Rabe
Playwright (Suffocation Theory)

David Rabe is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist whose work has had a powerful influence on American theater and is known for its use of dark humor, satire, and surreal fantasy. Rabe has won almost every important award in the American theater including a Tony award for his play Sticks and Bones as well as three other Tony nominations for Hurly Burly, Streamers and In the Boom Boom Room, an Obie Award for The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, multiple New York Drama Critics’ Circle awards, a PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for his body of work and most recently the Legend of Off Broadway Award presented by the Off Broadway Alliance. David Rabe was educated at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa and completed his graduate studies in theater at Villanova University in Pennsylvania after serving in the army as a draftee assigned to a hospital-support unit in Vietnam, where his experiences provided a key influence on his early career as a playwright. Rabe’s numerous other plays include Goose and Tomtom (1983) a surreal gangster-themed play steeped in gnostic mysticism which was a groundbreaking production for Undermain Theatre, Hurlyburly (1985; film 1998) and Those the River Keeps (1991), A Question of Mercy (1998); The Dog Problem (2002), The Black Monk (2004) based on a Chekhov short story and An Early History of Fire (first performed 2012). Good for Otto was developed by the Gift Theater in Chicago and premiered by The New Group in New York in 2018. In addition to screenplays for his plays he has written screenplays for the films such as I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can (1983), Casualties of War (1989), John Grisham’s The Firm (1993) and the upcoming film We’re Just Married, starring his daughter, actress Lily Rabe. His novels include Recital of the Dog (1993), Dinosaurs on the Roof (2008), and Girl by the Side of the Road (2010).