Playwright Paula Vogel to Receive Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement

Paula Vogel, the Pulitzer-winning playwright who recently made her Broadway debut with the play “Indecent,” will be given the lifetime achievement at the 2017 Obie Awards, the annual honors for Off Broadway work.

Vogel, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “How I Learned to Drive” in 1998, has long been an Off Broadway stalwart, with shows including “The Mineola Twins,” “The Baltimore Waltz,” “Hot ‘n’ Throbbing,” “The Long Christmas Ride Home” and “A Civil War Christmas.” In New York, “Indecent,” Vogel and co-creator Rebecca Taichman’s look at the story behind the controversial Yiddish theater play “The God of Vengeance,” premiered at Off Broadway’s Vineyard Theater before its Broadway transfer.

Vogel has also been influential as a mentor to younger playwrights, founding the playwriting program at Brown University in 1984 and running it until 2008. From 2008 to 2012, she held a position at the Yale School of Drama.

The Obies are given out annually by the American Theater Wing — which co-presents the Tony Awards every year — and by The Village Voice. Vogel will take home her prize at the 62nd Annual Obie Awards ceremony set for May 22 at Webster Hall in downtown Manhattan.

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