biography

For the second and final child born to Katherine and Charles Adams of Hartford, Connecticut, little Rielly Adams would be entering the world with a lot of expectations. An affluent neighborhood drew a certain crowd to settle there, and the Adams family was no different. A family from old money and higher education, Rielly would be the definition of a child born into the "silver spoon" dynamic. From the time she was born, she was dressed in dresses far too expensive for a little toddler, kept out of the backyard when all she wanted to do was play in the mud, and plopped down on a piano bench by the time she was five. She would learn to sit up straight, to say please and thank you, to speak with a polite kind of tone that was both respectful and elegant. Rielly was any cliche saying under the sun; the apple of her parents' eyes, her mother's little darling, her father's pride and joy. All of it was put on her from such a young age, that she never knew anything different. She loved the attention, thrived under the tutors hired to give her excellent education, and followed her older brother around as much as he'd allow. To Rielly, she was the princess living inside of a fairy tale. The problem became as she grew older, and she increasingly realized that the "princess" didn't get to have any fun.

Her mother was insistent that Rielly would be a proper lady, and ideally carry on the family's legacy in a way they could all be proud of. She learned proper etiquette and how to master the piano, complete with a cotillion where the entire town seemed to be in attendance. As soon as she was old enough, her mother thrust her into the Daughters of the American Revolution, where she learned a deep appreciation for her country, even if she was bored to death half the time. Rielly had learned from a very young age to just bide her time and keep her mouth shut ... but learning to do that and actually keeping that up became increasingly difficult, the older she got. Sure, it was a lot easier to rebel quietly than risk an argument with her parents that, as stubborn as she was, she'd never win, but that wasn't the kind of personality that would settle in her. For their part, the older she got, the more her parents encouraged her opinions -- so long as they were presented in a respectful manner. Rielly never felt silenced or stifled, and for that, she was very grateful.

By the time high school rolled around, it was just time for yet another private school, full of snobby girls and matching uniforms. Entering high school after a summer spent abroad with her family, Rielly decided that she wanted to try out something: Being unabashedly herself. Oddly enough, she found the years of middle school more of a battlefield than high school. She allowed herself to stretch out a bit, to explore different avenues and much to her parents' dismay, that meant her own little rebellious nature was coming out. Grounded for smoking, hiking her skirt up at school, cutting class -- these things were just the "new normal", throughout her first year in high school. Rielly didn't like being stifled by so much on her plate -- but it was more than that. She was beginning to really come to terms with her own sexuality, and what it meant to be so "different" from any realm of expectation her parents had whatsoever. She was terrified, but she had to be authentic to herself. Things actually only started to get a lot better when she was able to confide in her friend -- and said friend turned out to be her first girlfriend. Having only really experimented with girls at summer camp, and barely so, it was such a relief to feel so true to herself for the first time. Coming out to her parents was something that took about a year, and as it was, she felt more terrified than she ever had been in her life. For their part, they were supportive ... a little cautiously so. There's only so many times you can hear "we support you, but..." before she couldn't hear it anymore. She realized that she had to let them come to terms with it just as she had, and hey -- she had her brother and her girlfriend to get her through the rougher moments.

It took a couple of years for Rielly's parents to really accept everything about who their daughter was, but in the end -- unconditional love won out. They stopped trying to rule the way she was, but instead encouraged her in the way that they could. Yes, they still argued and frustrated the hell out of each other, but at the end of the day, family was what mattered most to them. Not so much propriety or appearances. That would become something Rielly would look back on as something that she truly loved and appreciated about her family. Now, of course they still wanted her to make something really important out of her career choices, but they were going to be set up for some disappointment there, too. It was simply not in the creative-minded young woman to become a lawyer or a dentist -- she honestly couldn't think of anything worse. From the time she was young, she had always been drawing, always fascinated with what clothes she could wear when she wasn't outside of her damn school uniform. When the time came to graduate school, she was already headed for NYU, but at the time an undecided major. She was most concerned with moving out of Hartford and off to the brave new city with her girlfriend, ready to see what the world had to offer them. As an elective, she took a design class and fell madly in love with it. Within her first year at NYU, she had gone through the proper channels to move her trajectory into their design school, where she would eventually graduate with a degree in costume design.

In the years since graduating high school, there have been loves lost and confidence gained, where she's been able to work her way up living in the city that has given her so much. Internships eventually led to her working for one of the top costume designers on Broadway -- which was such a huge thing to even say out loud. She worked her way up within the costuming world, garnering bigger projects and eventually - branching off on her own. In the market of New York theatre, she felt uniquely positioned to strive for any and all career goals. As focused as she was on her career, New York gifted her with the greatest love of her life - her girlfriend who would eventually become her wife. She married Eveline Strummer on September 23, 2017 - which she maintains in a very out-of-character-mushy part of herself - was and is her favorite day. The pair moved to Boston for a time while Rielly worked on the conservatory for Moulin Rouge, but ultimately moved back to Brooklyn as soon as they were able.