Paula Vogel

Paula Vogel was born in Washington, D.C. in 1951, the daughter of an advertising executive and postal secretary. She studied at Bryn Mar, Catholic University, and Cornell. Her first play, Meg, was produced in 1977, while she was still at college. In 1988, Vogel’s brother died from AIDS; out of tribute, Vogel sends him “a message” in each of her plays. In 1992, Vogel had her major breakthrough with The Baltimore Waltz, a play based on her real-life experiences with her brother which deals with the AIDS pandemic. How I Learned to Drive, first produced in 1997, made an even bigger splash, tackling often taboo issues such as incest, pedophilia, and sexual abuse. The play was critically lauded and won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize (making her the first openly gay woman to win the award). For many years Vogel has worked in academic positions at universities, the most recent of these being Yale. Since 2008, The Vineyard theater in New York has granted the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award annually to a gifted early-career playwright to write and develop new work.