SOURCE: Rabe, David, and Philip C. Kolin. “An Interview with David Rabe.” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 3, no. 2 (spring 1989): 135-56.

In the following interview, conducted on February 10, 1998, Rabe discusses his creative process, his use of symbolism, and aspects of individual plays.

Coming from America's heartland (Dubuque, Iowa), David Rabe was drafted in 1965 at the age of 25 and completed a tour of duty in the literal Vietnam that he would later project symbolically on the American stage. Defining that event for himself, Rabe became one of the most promising playwrights of the post-1970 theatre. After his discharge from the Army, Rabe finished an M.A. in theatre at Villanova University and worked on the early drafts of what critics have labeled his Vietnam Trilogy—The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, Sticks and Bones, and Streamers. He then put in an 18-month stint as a feature writer for the...