Biography
JAMES LAPINE was born in 1949 in Mansfield, Ohio and lived there until his early teens when his family moved to Stamford, Connecticut. He attended public schools before entering Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he majored in History. He went on to get an MFA in Design from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California.
After graduate school, he moved to New York City where he worked part-time as a waiter; a page and tour guide at NBC; a free-lance photographer and graphic designer; and an architectural preservationist for the Architectural League of NY. One of his free-lance jobs was designing the magazine of the Yale School of Drama,Yale/Theater, then edited by Rocco Landesman and Robert Marx. The dean of the School of Drama, Robert Brustein offered Lapine a full-time job designing all of the printed materials for the School of Drama and the Yale Repertory Theatre as well as a faculty position teaching a course in advertising design.
While at Yale, his students urged him to direct a play during the annual January period when both faculty and students undertook a project outside of their areas of study or expertise. At their suggestion Lapine directed a Gertrude Stein play, PHOTOGRAPH. The play was five acts, and just three pages in length. Assembling students and friends, the play was presented in New Haven and came to the attention of director Lee Breuer, who helped arrange for a small performance space in Soho to present the work for three weeks. The production was enthusiastically received and won Lapine an Obie award.
Lapine was approached by Lyn Austin and Mary Silverman to create a new piece for the Music-Theatre Group. He wrote and produced a workshop version of TWELVE DREAMS which was later presented at the Public Theatre and revived by Lincoln Center Theatre. Lapine eventually left the visual arts for a career in theatre where he has also written and directed the plays TABLE SETTINGS, LUCK, PLUCK and VIRTUE, THE MOMENT WHEN, FRAN’S BED and MRS. MILLER DOES HER THING. He has written the book for and directed Stephen Sondheim’s SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, INTO THE WOODS, PASSION and the recent multi-media revue SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM. And with William Finn he has collaborated on MARCH OF THE FALSETTOS and FALSETTOLAND, later presented on Broadway as FALSETTOS, A NEW BRAIN, MUSCLE and the soon to be produced, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. On Broadway he has also directed GOLDEN CHILD, THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, AMOUR, and THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE. He has directed several other productions off- Broadway as well as three films.
Lapine is a member of the Dramatist Guild Council and for the last nine years has been a mentor for TDF's Open Doors Program. He is also on the board of Ars Nova Theater. He currently lives in New York City.