Paula Vogel

Paula Vogel (born November 16 1951, in Washington, D.C.) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and university professor.

Writing life

Vogel is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play "How I Learned To Drive", which deals with child sexual abuse and incest. "The Baltimore Waltz", won the Obie award for Best Play in 1992. Other plays include Hot 'N Throbbing, "Desdemona", "And Baby Makes Seven", "The Mineola Twins", and "The Oldest Profession". According to Paula Vogel, "My writing isn't actually guided by issues. I know it seems that way, but I don't sit down and think, Oh, there's this issue I'm bothered about. I only write about things that directly impact my life. When I write, there's a pain that I have to reach, and a release I have to work toward for myself. So it's really a question of the particular emotional circumstance that I want to express, a character that appears, a moment in time, and then I write the play backwards." Vogel's family, especially her brother Carl Vogel, serves as an influence to her writings. Carl's likeness appears in such plays as "The Long Christmas Ride Home," "The Baltimore Waltz," and "And Baby Makes Seven." Although not known for having one specific theme throughout her plays she deals largely with issues that are traditionally upsetting. Theatre Critic Jill Dolan comments that “Vogel tends to select sensitive, difficult, fraught issues to theatricalize, and to spin them with a dramaturgy that’s at once creative, highly imaginative, and brutally honest."

Teaching and education

A renowned teacher of playwriting, Vogel counts among her former students Bridget Carpenter, Adam Bock, MacArthur Fellow Sarah Ruhl, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Nilo Cruz [ [http://www.mtc-nyc.org/offstage_online/f07_adam_bock.htm Manhattan Theatre Club ] ] [ [http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/5219 Paula Vogel: The Signature Season: A talk with the playwright whose work is being celebrated by the Signature Theatre Company.Feature on TheaterMania.com ] ] . As of July 1, 2008, she will be an adjunct professor and the chairwoman of the playwriting department at Yale School of Drama in a five-year appointment. ["New York Times", "Paula Vogel Goes to Yale", Campbell Robertson, January 18, 2008] She will also be the Playwright-in-Residence at Yale Repertory Theatre [http://www.playbill.com/news/article/117774.html] . She has been the Adele Kellenberg Seaver Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University since 2003. She previously was an instructor at Cornell University, Theatre Arts and Women's Studies. At Brown University: from 1985-1999, she was a Professor (Assistant-Associate-Full), from 1999-2003, Professor at Large.

Vogel is an alumna of The Catholic University of America (1974, B.A.) and Cornell University (1974-1977, M.A.). She also attended Bryn Mawr College 1969-70, 1971-72.

Legacy

She received the 2004 Award for Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 2003, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts instituted "The Paula Vogel Award in Playwrighting." According to the regulations of the competition the "this award is offered to the best student-written play that celebrates diversity and encourages tolerance while exploring issues of dis-empowered voices not traditionally considered mainstream." The award was inspired by her superior work as an undergraduate student at Cornell University. The first place prize is a $2500 fellowship to attend at New Play Development Laboratory. Second prize is $1000 and a grant of $250 to the supporting department of the play. [ [http://www.kennedy-center.org/education/actf/actf_vogel.html Kennedy Center: ACTF - Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting ] ]

Personal

Her father, the late Donald S. Vogel, was Jewish and mother, the late Phyllis R. Vogel, was Christian. Her father was the founder of the Carl Vogel Center in Washington, DC, a service provider for people with HIV and AIDS, created as a memorial to Vogel's brother. Her mother worked at the Postal Service Training and Development Center.

On September 26, 2004, Vogel and Anne Fausto-Sterling, a Brown professor, were married in Truro, Massachusetts. cite web |title=Paula Vogel, Anne Fausto-Sterling |work=The New York Times |date=2004-09-26 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/26/fashion/weddings/26VOGE.html?ex=1185163200&en=74206651722ac22b&ei=5070|accessdate=2007-07-21]

Works

*"Swan Song of Sir Henry" (1974)
*"Meg" (1977) -- not to be confused with the film of the same name
*"Apple-Brown Betty" (1979)
*"Desdemona, A Play about a Handkerchief" (1979)
*"Bertha in Blue" (1981)
*"The Oldest Profession" (1981)
*"And Baby Makes Seven" (1986)
*"The Baltimore Waltz" (1992)
*"Hot 'N Throbbing" (1994)
*"The Mineola Twins" (1996)
*"How I Learned To Drive" (1997)
*"The Long Christmas Ride Home" (2004)

References

External links

* [http://www.americantheatrewing.org/downstagecenter/detail/paula_vogel Paula Vogel] - "Downstage Center" interview at American Theatre Wing.org
* [http://research.brown.edu/research/profile.php?id=10201 Brown University information]
* [http://www.enotes.com/drama-criticism/vogel-paula Biographical information on enotes.com]
* [http://www.innewsweekly.com/innews/?class_code=Ar&article_code=3688 Profile in innewsweekly.com, March 29, 2007]