The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University is pleased to announce that it has acquired the literary archive of dramatist Paula Vogel, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a celebrated teacher who has mentored a generation of playwrights. Vogel is the first American female playwright to have her archive included in the Yale Collection of American Literature, where she joins such luminaries as Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, A. R. Gurney, and John Guare.
"It is difficult for a playwright to think of her script in the chaos of production as anything but ephemeral," Vogel says. "It is a significant honor for my work to be preserved in the remarkable company of Beinecke writers and artists." Vogel has authored more than a dozen plays, including the 1992 Obie Award-winning Baltimore Waltz; How I Learned to Drive (1997), which won her second Obie, the Pulitzer Prize, the Lortel Prize, the Drama Desk Award, and the Outer Critics Circle Award; Desdemona, A Play About a Handkerchief(1979); The Mineola Twins (1996); and The Long Christmas Ride Home(2003). The Paula Vogel Papers include drafts of most of Vogel's plays, teaching files, and drafts of work by students from her many years teaching; also included are about 200 computer disks and five computers. These digital files include photographs, documents, and email correspondence with theater critics and practitioners, including Sarah Ruhl, Bert States, David Savran, and Amy Bloom, as well as numerous theater companies who have produced Vogel's works. Researchers will be able to access Vogel's papers beginning in the spring.Videos