Paula Vogel’s A CIVIL WAR CHRISTMAS Available Now in Paperback

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) today announced the publication of Paula Vogel's pageant play for all seasons, A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration. This volume features a conversation between the author and noted historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, commentary on the music of the Civil War and its singing soldiers and excerpts from historical journals such as that of Walt Whitman. A Civil War Christmas, declared "The Best Play of the Year" by the Hartford Courant, premiered in 2008 at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT under the direction of Tina Landau.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of How I Learned to Drive, Paula Vogel, has crafted what The New York Times has declared "an ambitious, richly detailed and beautiful new seasonal offering." Set on a chilly Christmas Eve during the latter days of the Civil War, A Civil War Christmas weaves a tapestry of fictional and historical characters, such as President and Mrs. Lincoln - together with holiday music, marches, hymns and spirituals of the period-to tell a story of companionship and communal hope arising from one of our nation's darkest hours.

Paula Vogel's plays include How I Learned to Drive (winner of the Pultizer Prize, OBIE, Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics Circle awards), The Long Christmas Ride Home, The Mineola Twins, The Baltimore Waltz, Hot 'N' Throbbing and Desdemona. She has also had a distinguished career as a teacher and mentor to younger playwrights, first at Brown University and most recently at the Yale School of Drama.

For 50 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, has existed to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. TCG's constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to nearly 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 12,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through conferences, events, research and communications; awards grants, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and serves as the U.S. Center of the InterNational Theatre Institute, connecting its constituents to the global theatre community. TCG is North America's largest independent publisher of dramatic literature, with 11 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning AMERICAN THEATRE magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre. www.tcg.org.

A Civil War Christmas
By Paula Vogel
Paperback 192 pages
$15.95 978-1-55936-378-5
March 2012

Also by Paula Vogel, available from TCG Books:

The Baltimore Waltz and Other Plays
$18.95 978-1-55936-109-5

The Long Christmas Ride Home
$12.95 978-1-55936-249-8

The Mammary Plays
$16.95 978-1-55936-144-6

TCG books are exclusively distributed to the book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution. Orders: 800-283-3572. SAN number: 63170X. Individuals may call 212-609-5900 or visit our online bookstore at www.tcg.org. For postage and handling, please add $5.00 for the first book and $.50 for each additional copy.