Vogel, Paula (1951-…), an American playwright, won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for drama for How I Learned to Drive (1997). The play explores a middle-aged man’s sexual obsession for his wife’s young niece. Critics praised the drama for its sensitive, compassionate handling of a potentially sordid and sensationalistic subject.
None of Vogel’s plays have been Broadway hits, but her work has been popular off Broadway and in regional theaters across the United States. Her early plays include Meg (1977), Desdemona (1980), and The Oldest Profession (1981). Her first work to gain national attention was The Baltimore Waltz (1992). The play mixes realism with fantasy in dealing with the death of Vogel’s brother from AIDS. Her other plays include And Baby Makes Seven (1992), The Mineola Twins (1999), The Long Christmas Ride Home (2004), Civil War Christmas (2008), and Indecent (2015).
Paula Anne Vogel was born on Nov. 16, 1951, in Washington, D.C. She earned a B. A. degree from the Catholic University of America in 1974 and an M. A. degree from Cornell University in 1976. Vogel decided to make theater her career. She first tried acting and then directing before turning to playwriting. Vogel was head of the graduate playwriting department at Brown University from 1985 to 2008, when she joined the faculty of the Yale School of Drama.
