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Paula Vogel

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BIO

Paula Vogel is Playwright in Residence at Yale Repertory Theatre. Indecent was commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival's American Revolutions and Yale Repertory Theatre in close collaboration with director Rebecca Taichman, and co-produced by La Jolla Playhouse. Indecent was developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab in 2013 and has been produced at Yale Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse and the Vineyard Theatre. Her play How I Learned To Drive received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Lortel Prize, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and New York Drama Critics Awards for Best Play, as well as her second Obie Award. Other plays include Don Juan Comes Home From Iraq, The Long Christmas Ride Home, The Mineola Twins, The Baltimore Waltz, Hot 'N' Throbbing, Desdemona, And Baby Makes Seven, The Oldest Profession, and A Civil War Christmas. In 2004-05, she was the playwright in residence at New York's Signature Theatre. TCG has published four books of her work: "The Mammary Plays," "The Baltimore Waltz and Other Plays," "The Long Christmas Ride Home," and "A Civil War Christmas." Most recent awards include the Theatre Hall of Fame, Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dramatists Guild, and the 2015 Thornton Wilder Award. She is honored to have two awards to emerging playwrights named after her: the Paula Vogel Award, created by the American College Theatre Festival in 2003, and the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, given annually by the Vineyard Theatre since 2007. Ms. Vogel won the 2004 Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Obie for Best Play in 1992, the Rhode Island Pell Award in the Arts, the Hull-Warriner Award, The Laura Pels Award, the Pew Charitable Trust Senior Award, a Guggenheim, an AT&T New Plays Award, the Fund for New American Plays, the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center Fellowship, several National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, the McKnight Fellowship, and the Bunting Fellowship from Radcliffe College. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was recently awarded a Thirtini from 13P in New York. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, the Double UCross Colony, as well as Yaddo. She has taught for 24 years at Brown University and for five years at Yale School of Drama where she was the Eugene O'Neill Professor of Playwriting. She is honored by Philadelphia Young Playwrights and Quiara Hudes, who is curating the Paula Vogel Mentors Project.

Photos

Productions

 
[Broadway, 2022]
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Writing

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Awards and Nominations

Drama Desk Awards - 2024 - Outstanding Play

Paula Vogel, Mother Play

Outer Critics Circle Awards - 2024 - Outstanding New Broadway Play

Paula Vogel, Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions

Tony Awards - 2024 - Best Play

Paula Vogel, Mother Play


winner
- 2017 - Legend of Off-Broadway Honorees

Paula Vogel

Drama Desk Awards - 2017 - Outstanding Play

Paula Vogel, Indecent


winner
New York Drama Critics Circle Awards - 2017 - Special Citation

Paula Vogel


winner
Obie Awards - 2017 - Lifetime Achievement

Paula Vogel

The Lortels - 2017 - Outstanding Play

Paula Vogel, Indecent

Tony Awards - 2017 - Best Play

Paula Vogel, Indecent


winner
The Pulitzer Prize - 1998 - The Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Paula Vogel, How I Learned to Drive


winner
Drama Desk Awards - 1997 - Outstanding New Play

Paula Vogel, How I Learned to Drive


winner
New York Drama Critics Circle Awards - 1997 - Best Play

Paula Vogel, How I Learned to Drive

Videos

News


Patrick Hoffman, NYPL's Curator and Director of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, To Retire

Patrick Hoffman, The New York Public Library’s Curator and Director of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive in the Billy Rose Theatre Division, is retiring after a career of more than three decades at NYPL.
New Mexico Actors Lab Announces 2025 Season

New Mexico Actors Lab 2025 Season features five engaging and compelling plays by award-winning playwrights: Bike America by Mike Lew (May 1-18), the premiere of local playwright Dale Dunn's A Subtle Kind of Murder (June 5-22), Cowboy Mouth by Sam Shepard and Patti Smith (September 11 - 28), Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning How I Learned to Drive (October 16 - November 2), and The Half Life of Marie Curie by Lauren Gunderson (November 20 - December 7).
Vineyard Theatre Reveals Winners of the Emerging Artists Awards

Vineyard Theatre has revealed the recipients of the 2024-2025 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and Colman Domingo Award. Learn more about the award and the recipients!
Page 73 Announces Semifinalists For Playwrighting Fellowship

Page 73 has announced 13 semifinalists for the 2025 Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship. Now in its 22nd year, the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship is the company's most prestigious award.
Broadway on Bluesky: A Guide to the Growing Social Media Platform

As social media users flock to Bluesky for a Twitter/X alternative, find out more about how you can create a perfectly Broadway-themed algorithm. Find out how to create an account, which Broadway stars to follow on Bluesky, and more!
Submissions Now Open for Cycle 3 of the Terrence McNally New Works Incubator

Submissions are now open for Cycle 3 of the Terrence McNally New Works Incubator. The New Works Incubator is designed to support early-career playwrights by giving them time and space to develop their work. Learn how to apply.
LITTLE WOMEN Announced At EastLine Theatre

EastLine Theatre will close their 2024 season at the BACCA Arts Center in Lindenhurst with the family classic Little Women in an adaptation by Kate Hamill, one of America's most-produced playwrights.
Feature: BEYOND CASTING: THE PLAY IS THE THING

While casting practices have evolved to enhance diversity (albeit, too slowly and not enough), the selection of plays remains strikingly homogeneous. We need to focus on what is produced as much as who is cast.
IAMA Theatre Company’s 7TH ANNUAL NEW WORKS FESTIVAL to Feature 8 New Plays

IAMA Theatre Company will host its 7th Annual New Works Festival this December, featuring eight new plays presented as staged readings. See the full lineup and learn how to purchase tickets.
Previews: DESDEMON , a play about a handkerchief at TheatreFor

Set during the War of Cyprus, the play highlights the restricted roles of women in Venetian society, where they were either property or sex workers with limited agency. 'Today, women are, in theory, as free as men to do what they will, but in practice in American society, their lives are often circumscribed as their Venetian forbears. Many are still entirely dependent on a patriarchal structure, and despite the progress of the past 150 years, true agency is still a dream for many. It is sad but inescapable: In many ways, old white men still run the show....'
Interview: Derek Charles Livingston, The Newest Artistic Director At STAGES Houston

Derek Charles Livingston has taken over this year as artistic director for STAGES HOUSTON. He was preceded by Kenn Mclaughlin, who stepped down after 25 seasons. Most recently, Derek was the director of new play development at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Derek also previously served as the managing artistic director of the Celebration Theatre!
Concord Theatricals Acquires Licensing Rights For James Graham Titles

Concord Theatricals announced the acquisition of licensing rights for several plays by James Graham, including INK, THIS HOUSE, LABOUR OF LOVE, A HISTORY OF FALLING THINGS, and QUIZ.
John Patrick Shanley To Be Honored at The William Inge Center For The Performing Arts

The William Inge Center for the Arts at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas, announces John Patrick Shanley as the Honoree for the 42nd William Inge Theatre Festival, which takes place April 17-19, 2025. Shanley will be presented with the William Inge Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre Award. The Festival will include the 8th New Play Lab, a partnership with the Kansas Arts Commission and Independence Community College, performances, workshops, panel discussions and social events.
Plays by Kate Douglas & Lauren Gunderson Join Dramatists Play Service Catalog

Dramatists Play Service has revealed additions to its catalog, featuring works by Kate Douglas and Lauren Gunderson. Learn more about the plays and about Dramatists Play Service.
INDECENT Comes to Endangered Species Theatre Project

Endangered Species theatre Project will present Paula Vogel’s Award-winning play Indecent.
MOTHER PLAY Now Available at the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at NYPL

Paula Vogel's Mother Play is now available to watch at the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts! Learn more about the production and see how to watch the film!
Anna Deavere Smith and Dr. Khalilah Brown-Dean To Headline Long Wharf Theatre's Artistic Congress

Long Wharf Theatre, in partnership with Yale Schwarzman Center, has announced that Anna Deavere Smith and Dr. Khalilah Brown-Dean will be the keynote speakers at the Artistic Congress, a three-day convening focused on fostering collaboration and conversations on the future of theater and its vital importance to expression, equity and democracy.
How Common Are Autobiographical Plays and Musicals?

This time, the reader question was: With Yellow Face on Broadway, have there been other semi-autobiographical shows on Broadway where the writer made themself a character?
Page 73 to Present New Play Readings Featuring Work by Jake Brasch, Elinor T Vanderburg & More

Discover new play readings by PAGE 73, featuring works by Jake Brasch, Elinor T Vanderburg, and 2024 Playwriting Fellow jose sebastian alberdi, with post-reading conversations and receptions. Learn how to attend.
Temple Theaters to Present IF PRETTY HURTS UGLY MUST BE A MUHf**kA

IF PRETTY HURTS UGLY MUST BE A MUHf**kA, a contemporary riff on a West African fable, comes to Temple University with live music and dance in October. Learn more about the production and see how to purchase tickets.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How many shows has Paula Vogel written?

Paula Vogel has written 11 shows including The Baltimore Waltz (Playwright), And Baby Makes Seven (Playwright), Desdemona (Playwright), How I Learned to Drive (Playwright), The Mineola Twins (Playwright), The Long Christmas Ride Home (Playwright), The Oldest Profession (Playwright), Hot 'n' Throbbing (Playwright), Indecent (Author), Pride Plays (Author), Mother Play (Playwright).

What awards has Paula Vogel been nominated for?

Outstanding Play (Drama Desk Awards) for Mother Play, Outstanding New Broadway Play (Outer Critics Circle Awards) for Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions, Best Play (Tony Awards) for Mother Play, Legend of Off-Broadway Honorees (), Outstanding Play (Drama Desk Awards) for Indecent, Special Citation (New York Drama Critics Circle Awards) for , Lifetime Achievement (Obie Awards), Outstanding Play (The Lortels) for Indecent, Best Play (Tony Awards) for Indecent, The Pulitzer Prize for Drama (The Pulitzer Prize) for How I Learned to Drive, Outstanding New Play (Drama Desk Awards) for How I Learned to Drive and Best Play (New York Drama Critics Circle Awards) for How I Learned to Drive.

What awards has Paula Vogel won?

- Legend of Off-Broadway Honorees - Special Citation (New York Drama Critics Circle Awards) - Lifetime Achievement (Obie Awards) - The Pulitzer Prize for Drama for How I Learned to Drive - Outstanding New Play (Drama Desk Awards) for How I Learned to Drive - Best Play (New York Drama Critics Circle Awards) for How I Learned to Drive

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