Paula Vogel Honored with Schwarzman Legacy Award 4/17

The Stephen and Christine Schwarzman Legacy Award for Excellence in Theater will be presented to Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel on Friday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Terrace Theater during the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), April 14 - 18, 2009. Each year, this award recognizes a distinguished artist for lifetime achievement in theater and unparalleled commitment to the future of the art form through teaching. A $10,000 scholarship in her name to the student of her choice accompanies the award which enables her to continue her commitment to emerging theater practitioners.

A dedicated practitioner, teacher and a D.C. native, Ms. Vogel has had a prolonged impact on the field of theater and the careers of leading playwrights. She is currently Playwright-in-Residence at Yale Repertory Theatre and adjunct Eugene O'Neill Professor of Playwriting and Chair of Playwriting at Yale School of Drama. During her two decades leading the graduate playwriting program and new play festival at Brown University, Ms. Vogel helped to develop a nationally-recognized center for educational theater, culminating in the creation of the Brown/Trinity Repertory Theatre Consortium. She has written many notable plays, winning her critical acclaim and numerous awards including an Obie Award for Best Play (1992), Pulitzer Prize in Drama (1998), and the Award for Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters (2005). She was the winner of the 1977 KCACTF National Student Playwriting Award for Meg.

Paula Vogel will award the scholarship of $10,000 to Christina Anderson, MFA student at Yale School of Drama. Anderson is a two-time winner of the KCACTF Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award. Her play Inked Baby opened in March 2009 at Playwrights Horizons.

Previous recipients of the Stephen and Christine Schwarzman Legacy Award for Excellence in Theater are Ming Cho Lee, Lloyd Richards, Michael Kahn and Zelda Fichandler.

Developed by Roger L. Stevens, Kennedy Center Founding Chairman, the KCACTF is dedicated to encouraging, recognizing and celebrating the finest and most diverse work produced in college and university theater programs. Selected participants from eight regional festivals held in January and February at colleges and universities across the country have been invited to showcase their talents at the National Festival at the Kennedy Center, to be considered for scholarships and awards and to participate in master classes with some of the best artists in their field. Since its establishment in 1969, the KCACTF has reached more than 17.5 million theatergoers, students and teachers nationwide.

For over 35 years, the Kennedy Center Education Department has provided quality arts experiences through performances, residencies, workshops, conferences, career development programs, symposia, and on-line and print resources. In the past year, the Center's education programs have directly impacted more than 11 million people across the nation. The mission of the Education Department is to foster understanding of and participation in the performing arts through exemplary programs and performances for diverse populations of all ages that represent the unique cultural life and heritage of the United States. For more information, visit the Center's web site at www.kennedy-center.org/education.

Theater at the Kennedy Center and the Stephen and Christine Schwarzman Legacy Award for Excellence in Theater are presented with the generous support of Stephen and Christine Schwarzman.

The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival is sponsored by The U.S. Department of Education; Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; The Kennedy Center Corporate Fund; and The National Committee for the Performing Arts.

For more information about KCACTF, please visit www.kcactf.org

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.