LGBTQ+ Playwright Feature: Paula Vogel

    Paula Vogel is an esteemed Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose plays, including Mother Play, Indecent, and How I Learned to Drive, have been Tony-nominated. Since earning a Master’s degree from Cornell University in 1976, Vogel has become an outspoken critic of the marginalization of gay women through the telling of her own story in the industry. Her play Indecent follows the love story between two women and reflects the Jewish legacy Vogel identifies with by revolving around the 1903 conception of a landmark work by the infamous Yiddish playwright, Sholem Asch. The play, called God of Vengeance, was a turning point in Yiddish Theater, but with its novel and controversial themes came a cultural debate and obscenity trial in 1923. Vogel’s play, diving into this history, also served as a source of resistance, being introduced to Broadway in 2017, right after the Trump Administration had made more targeted efforts to censor the arts by cutting funds to the National Endowment for the Arts. 

    She made another impactful stand with her play The Baltimore Waltz, which received an Obie Award for Best Play in 1993. The play took place at the height of the AIDS crisis and follows a young woman who was diagnosed with AIDS and her brother, who were forced to flee to Europe. The play follows Vogel’s real-life experiences.

    Vogel was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2013 and has received endless awards for her work including the Lily Award, the Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Thirtini Award. She has even been honored by awards in her name: the Paula Vogel Award given to playwrights by the American College Theatre Festival. 

    In 2019, Vogel was the inaugural UCLA Playwright-in-Residence. She has taught at the Sewanee, Shanghai Theatre Academy, and Nanjing University. She also ran a playwriting program at Brown University and was the O’Neill Chair at Yale. She is currently writing a memoir to be published by Penguin Press. 

    Vogel has lived an extraordinary life that defies the boundaries set around her gender, sexuality, and heritage. Her achievements are all the more breathtaking for it and awe-inspiring for anyone who can witness her works.