INDECENT's Paula Vogel to Offer Playwriting Boot Camp at Vineyard Theatre

The Tony-nominated playwright Paula Vogel (INDECENT) - a Pulitzer Prize winning dramatist and one of the nation's preeminent teachers of playwriting -- will offer one of her trademark sessions on playwriting, which she calls BOOT CAMPS, on Monday, May 22nd at the Vineyard Theatre (108 E. 15 St.) starting at 10 a.m., it has been announced by Vineyard's artistic directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern.

The BOOT CAMP will be open to 30 members from the general public, who can register on a first-come, first-served basis starting Tuesday, May 16 at noon (sharp) by sending an email RSVP to indecentbootcamp@gmail.com. Applicants will be notified by return email that they have been confirmed to attend.

The BOOT CAMP will begin at 10 a.m. and conclude at 2:30 (with a 30-minute lunch break at noon). Participants must bring their own writing supplies - pen, paper, laptop.

During the morning and afternoon sessions, Ms. Vogel will lead a discussion and writing exercises that result in each participant having written a 'short play' by the end of the BOOT CAMP. Her advice covers a range of topics from the challenges of facing a blank page to the frequently expressed fear, "But I'm not a writer."

Ms. Vogel began her BOOT CAMPS in 1984, and has provided them for veterans (of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq), women in maximum security prisons, subscribers at not-for-profit theatres, board members, high school students and teachers, playwrights, designers and graphic artists - in the U.S. and abroad, including in Brazil, St. Petersburg, Russia, Prague and London. She once conducted a BOOT CAMP for three dozen drama critics in Washington, DC.

In addition to Indecent -- nominated for 3 Tony Awards including Best Play and Best Director, now on Broadway -- Vogel's many plays include HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE at the Cort Theatre, Paula (Pulitzer Prize), BALTIMORE WALTZ, THE LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE HOME, MINEOLA TWINS and CIVIL WAR CHRISTMAS. During her 30 year tenure teaching playwriting at Brown and Yale Universities, she has taught several of the younger generation of playwrights including Pulitzer Prize winners Lynn Nottage, Ayad Akhtar, Nilo Cruz and Quiara Alegria Hudes, along with Stephen Karam, Steven Levenson, Sarah DeLappe, Sara Ruhl and Adam Bock.

Each year the Vineyard Theatre presents a Paula Vogel Playwriting Award to a young writer of promise; recipients have included Tarell Alvin McCraney, Rajiv Joseph, Kara Lee Corthron, Branden Jacob-Jenkins, Clare Barron, Erika Sheffer and this season's recipient Kate Tarker.

A new play by Paula Vogel, created by Ms. Vogel and Rebecca Taichman, and directed by Ms. Taichman, Indecent is about the love and passion to create theatre, even in the most difficult of circumstances. The play follows a troupe of actors, the cast of Sholem Asch's God of Vengeance, who risked their lives and careers against enormous challenges to perform a work in which they deeply believed, at a time when art, freedom and truth were on trial. It is a story told with compassion, honesty, but also with great theatricality, and joyous songs and dances.

In addition to the Tony Award nominations, Indecent has been nominated for Best Play by the Drama Desk and Drama League, and has received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Director of a Play (Rebecca Taichman) and the Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography (David Dorfman). Paula Vogel is being honored with a Special Citation as playwright and mentor from the New York Drama Critics Circle, and will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Obie Awards.

INDECENT debuted in NYC at the Vineyard Theatre last spring.

Dedicated to the creation and production of daring new plays and musicals, The Vineyard has consistently premiered provocative, groundbreaking works, including Nicky Silver's THE LYONS; Marx, Lopez and Whitty's Tony Award-winning musical AVENUE Q; Kander and Ebb's THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS; Bell and Bowen's [title of show]; Paula Vogel's HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE (1998 Pulitzer Prize); Edward Albee's THREE TALL WOMEN (1994 Pulitzer Prize); Tarell Alvin McCraney's WIG OUT!; Becky Mode's FULLY COMMITTED; Jenny Schwartz' GOD'S EAR; Will Eno's MIDDLETOWN; Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' GLORIA; and many more. The Vineyard's productions have been honored with two Pulitzer Prizes, three Tony Awards, and numerous Drama Desk, OBIES, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards.

Visit www.vineyardtheatre.org for more.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride