Paula Vogel

Paula Vogel (born November 16, 1951) is an American playwright and university professor. She received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play How I Learned to Drive. Vogel was Chair of the playwriting department at the Yale School of Drama.

Biography

Early years

Vogel was born in Washington, D.C. to Donald Stephen Vogel, an advertising executive, and Phyllis Rita Bremerman, a secretary for United States Postal Service Training and Development Center. She is a graduate of The Catholic University of America (1974, B.A.) and Cornell University (1976, M.A.). Vogel also attended Bryn Mawr College from 1969 to 1970 and 1971 to 1972.

Career

A productive playwright since the late 1970s, Vogel first came to national prominence with her AIDS-related seriocomedy The Baltimore Waltz, which won the Obie Award for Best Play in 1992. She is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive (1997), which examines the impact and echoes of child sexual abuse and incest. Other notable plays include Desdemona, A Play About A Handkerchief (1979), The Oldest Profession (1981), And Baby Makes Seven (1984), Hot 'N Throbbing (1994), and The Mineola Twins (1996).

The Garden

The Garden may refer to:

Places

Publications

Paula

Paula or PAULA may refer to:

See also

Dramatists Guild Fund

The Dramatists Guild Fund (DGF) is a public charity. According to its website, its mission is "to aid and nurture writers for the theater; to fund non-profit theaters producing contemporary American works; and to heighten awareness, appreciation, and support of theater across the country."

Overview

DGF supports the production new works across the United States by giving grants to non-profit theatrical organizations that produce works by American writers. They also support writers directly; emergency grants are given to writers in extreme financial need.

From time to time, DGF hosts a benefit gala. The 2009 gala honored Rosie O'Donnell and Rosie's Broadway Kids. The 2012 gala honors John Kander.

DGF recently partnered with other NY theaters to produce the Shinsai: Theaters for Japan initiative.

Programs

The Legacy Project is a set of filmed interviews between an experienced dramatist and an emerging one. Volume I was released in 2011. The videos are a resource for students, theater-lovers, and the general public. Producers include Nancy Ford, Carol Hall, Peter Ratray and Jonathan Reynolds. The interviews are filmed and directed by Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest of Transient Pictures.

How I Learned to Drive

How I Learned to Drive is a play written by the American playwright Paula Vogel. The play was premiered on March 16, 1997, off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre. Vogel received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work. It was written and developed at the Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska, with Molly Smith as artistic director.

The story follows the strained, sexual relationship between Li'l Bit and her aunt's husband, Uncle Peck, from her adolescence through her teenage years into college and beyond. Using the metaphor of driving and the issues of pedophilia, incest, and misogyny, the play explores the ideas of control and manipulation.

Plot synopsis

Li'l Bit grows up in rural Maryland during the 1960s with a large extended family: her mother, who became pregnant at a young age; her grandmother, a God-fearing former child-bride; her ignorant, sexist grandfather; her Uncle Peck, who has been affected by experiences in combat and is a recovering alcoholic; and Aunt Mary, who is in denial of her husband's behavior.