In separate interviews, the four collaborators spoke recently about the history of how i learned to drive, evolving awareness of sexual trauma and, for vogels part, why she used to say. Vogels how i learned to drive deals with some really tough topics, including incest, with equal parts humor and sensitivity. Jan 15, 2020 according to a pbs interview, playwright paula vogel felt dissatisfied looking at the movieoftheweek approach, and decided to create how i learned to drive as an homage to nabokovs lolita, focusing on the female perspective instead of the male pointofview. Paula vogels groundbreaking and controversial play how i learned to drive tells the story of a young girl who grows up in a complex and sexually abusive relationship with her uncle in 1960s maryland. Pulitzer prize for drama, the lortel prize, obie award, drama desk award, outer critics circle and new york drama critics awards for best play, the long christmas ride home, the mineola twins, the baltimore waltz. Paula vogels road home how i learned to drive has propelled the marylandbred playwright into prominence and given her license to take on projects and issues close to her heart the baltimore sun, may 3, 1998. Paula vogels how i learned to drive is a lolitalike tale of female sexual awakening under the watchful eye and hands of a largely sympathetic uncle.
Paula vogel born november 16, 1951 is an american playwright who received the 1998 pulitzer prize for drama for her play how i learned to drive. Paula vogels groundbreaking and controversial play how i learned to drive tells the story of a young girl who grows up in a complex and sexually. How i learned to drive is the story of a woman who learns the rules of the road and life from behind the wheel. Paula vogels 1998 pulitzer prizewinning play, how i learned to drive. On project, playwright paula vogel speaks to the power of art in this moment and reads a monologue from her play how i learned to drive. The countercultural social revolution of the 1960s, which emphasized liberalization from the repressive attitudes of the preceding decades, brought a significant shift in the way society thought and talked about sex. A thrilling broadway premiere of paula vogels pulitzer prizewinning masterpiece how i learned to drive reunites the two original stars with. Vogel received the 1998 pulitzer prize for drama for the work. He describes the pompano as a very shy, mercurial fish, and advises that catching. Paula vogels plays have been performed at theatres such as the lortel theatre and circle repertory in new york, the american repertory theatre, the goodman, the magic theatre, center stage and alley theatre as well as throughout canada, england, brazil and spain. The result is a play that depicts a pedophile as a very flawed, yet very human character.
Paula vogel is an american playwright and university professor. Paula vogels new play is a wildly funny, surprising and devastating tale of survival, a sexual coming of age through the 60s, 70s and 80s as seen through the provocative lens of a troubling relationship between a young girl and an older man. How i learned to drive, with norbert leo butz the new. Midway through paula vogels how i learned to drive, a man gives fishing lessons to an unseen child. Paula vogels how i learned to drive won the 1998 pulitzer prize april, and is scheduled to close offbroadway april 19 before productions begin across the. The broadway premiere of paula vogels masterpiece reunites its two original stars for a. Paula vogel dedicated the play how i learned to drive to peter franklin. Another broadway production has nixed plans for this season. Dramatists play service, 1997 dlc 98128331 ocolc38157122. The play how i learned to drive by paula vogel free essay.
Theatre introduced a production of paula vogels shocking stage play. How i learned to drive acting edition acting edition for. The play works in a nonlinear way, using flashbacks, monologues and a heightened sense of the surreal to show how lil bit relates to her memory and trauma. How i learned to drive is a memory play that deals with issues of victimization, sexual abuse, incest, and alcoholism. Paula vogel chronicles the relationship between lil bit and uncle peck through a series of flashbacks as it progresses from friendship to something darker during a series of driving lessons. How i learned to drive is a play written by the american playwright paula vogel. An officialsounding voice announces, safety first you and driver education. This paper critically analyzes the play how i learned to drive about the development of the characters and the degree of the stereotypes.
Pulitzer prize winner paula vogel on the alaskan summer that inspired how i learned to drive, february 21, 2012. She received the 1998 pulitzer prize for drama for her play, how i learned to drive. How i learned to drive is a story of a woman who learns the rules of the road and life from behind the wheel. Litcharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in how i learned to drive, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. How i learned to drive investigates issues of family, abuse, incest, and pedophilia. Pdf how i learned to drive download full pdf book download. A wildly funny, surprising and devastating tale of survival as seen through the lens of a troubling relationship between a young girl and an older man.
Paula vogels how i learned to drive to hit broadway the. How i learned to drive study guide from litcharts the. Paula vogels newest work traces the trajectory of the shows success through its tour in europe to its abrupt and explosive demise on broadway in 1923including the arrest of the entire productions cast and crew. Paula vogels how i learned to drive to hit broadway. The how i learned to drive community note includes chapterbychapter. One of the major themes in how i learned to drive, the pulitzerwinning play by paula vogel, is sexual abuse of adolescent girls, particularly by family members or friends. A longtime teacher, vogel spent the bulk of her academic career from 1984 to 2008 at brown university, where she served as adele kellenberg seaver professor in creative writing, oversaw its playwriting program, and helped found the browntrinity rep consortium. How i learned to drive acting edition acting edition for theater productions.
As a native marylander, vogel s insertion of placenamesincluding that of my junior high school go fsk raiders. It was written and developed at the perseverance theatre in juneau, alaska, with molly smith as artistic director. Get all the key plot points of paula vogels how i learned to drive on one page. Paula vogel is a pulitzer prizewinning playwright whose plays include indecent tony award for best play, how i learned to drive broadway production set for spring 2020. And director lee sunday evans has found it to be down right inspiration for her vision of how i. The manhattan theater clubs anticipated staging of paula vogels pulitzer prize. Paula vogels how i learned to drive will debut on broadway in 2020, with marylouise parker and david morse reprising roles they originated. She received the 1998 pulitzer prize for drama for her play how i learned to drive and the award for literature from the american academy of arts and letters in 2004. The play premiered on march 16, 1997, offbroadway at the vineyard theatre. How i learned to drive by paula vogel plot summary litcharts. According to a pbs interview, playwright paula vogel felt dissatisfied looking at the movieoftheweek approach, and decided to create how i learned to drive as an homage to nabokovs lolita, focusing on the female perspective instead of the male pointofview. A conversation with playwright paula vogel and actor david morse about their play, how i learned to drive. An adult lil bit tells the audience how she learned to drive.
While how i learned to drive won the pulitzer prize in 1998, it is still as relevant as ever. Paula vogels how i learned to drive provides a case study in trauma and in the ways one might work through trauma to achieve postvictim status. The play how i learned to drive by paula vogel free. The writer paula vogel, the director mark brokaw, and the actors marylouise parker and david morse on returning to a wrenching play two. How i learned to drive, a play written by paula vogel, premiered offbroadway in 1997 and won the pulitzer prize for drama in 1998. A longtime teacher, vogel spent the bulk of her academic career from 1984 to 2008 at brown university, where she served as adele kellenberg seaver professor in creative writing, oversaw its. How i learned to drive acting edition acting edition. Tony award winner marylouise parker proof and tony nominee david morse the iceman cometh head the cast of this remarkably timely and moving. A thrilling broadway premiere of paula vogel s pulitzer prizewinning masterpiece how i learned to drive reunites the two original stars with their awardwinning director for a new production. Paula vogel gives some valuable driving lessons playbill. How i learned to drive paula vogel online script pdf. Publication date 1997 topics academic literacy, reading leveladult publisher new york. Development of the characters in the play and their degree of stereotypes.
Paula vogel s how i learned to drive provides a case study in trauma and in the ways one might work through trauma to achieve postvictim status. Paula vogels comingofage tale showcases the funny, surprising, and sometimes devastating things young women might have experienced growing up in the 20th century. Paula vogels how i learned to drive at playmakers repertory company explores problems in how women are valued by nicole noel triangle arts and entertainment april 9, 2019. Accordingly, vogel describes the writing of how i learned to drive as akin to the sensation of being in love. Apr 07, 2020 another broadway production has nixed plans for this season. Feb 25, 2020 in separate interviews, the four collaborators spoke recently about the history of how i learned to drive, evolving awareness of sexual trauma and, for vogels part, why she used to say. How i learned to drive standalone tcg edition kindle. How i learned to drive by paula vogel, paperback barnes. How i learned to drive was at one point the most produced play in the u. Paula vogels new play is a wildly funny, surprising and devastating tale of survival, a sexual coming of age through the 60s, 70.
Paula vogel is the author of such plays as the 1998 pulitzer prizewinning how i learned to drive,which deals with incest and sexual abuseand the baltimore waltz. Paula vogel s plays have been performed at theatres such as the lortel theatre and circle repertory in new york. Alyssa wilmoth keegan lil bit and peter oconnor uncle peck in paula vogels how i learned to drive at round house theatre. How i learned to drive summary from litcharts the creators of.
Pulitzer prize for drama, the lortel prize, obie award, drama desk award, outer critics circle and new york drama critics awards for best play, the long christmas ride home, the mineola twins, the baltimore waltz, hotn. How i learned to drive playmakers repertory company. Looking to finish my year with a round number of books read, i selected paula vogels pulitzer winning drama how i learned to drive, a play with a double. The play works in a nonlinear way, using flashbacks, monologues and a heightened sense of the surreal to show how lil bit relates to her memory. The play mostly consists of lil bits flashbacks, most of which are in the 1960s. In a revival of paula vogels how i learned to drive, norbert leo butz stars in one of the most discomfiting love stories to emerge from the american theater. How i learned to drive is the story of a woman who learns the rules of the road and l. It addresses pedophilia, victim blaming, and misogyny, as well as the complexities of love and family.
Paula vogels how i learned to drive won the 1998 pulitzer prize april, and is scheduled to close offbroadway april 19 before productions begin. How i learned to drive, by paula vogel the pulitzer prizes. The manhattan theater clubs anticipated staging of paula vogel s pulitzer prizewinning how i learned to drive, with marylouise. Lil bit, a wellendowed woman of around thirtyfive years of age, comes on stage.
Set in the 1960s and 70s, the play tells the story of a young woman, lil bit, portrayed from ages 11 to 30, who is given driving lessons by her 40something uncle by marriage. Through nonchronological flashbacks, lil bit, now in her forties, uses learning to drive as a metaphor for. Paula vogel s how i learned to drive will debut on broadway in 2020, with marylouise parker and david morse reprising roles they originated. How i learned to drive is a tremendous achievement, genuine and genuinely disturbingthis is, quite simply, the sweetest and most forgiving play ever written about child abusevogels delicate tactic makes sense not only as a way to redouble the dramatic effect, but as a representation of reality, a perfect case of the form fitting the. The play was written in a short burst of intense activity over two weeks. The play follows the young girl, lil bit, from her adolescence through college years and ends with her as a thirtysomething adult. How i learned to drive by paula vogel pdf download ebook. How i learned to drive paula vogel online script pdfadds. A thrilling broadway premiere of paula vogels pulitzer prizewinning masterpiece how i learned to drive reunites the two original stars with their awardwinning director for a new production. Vogels acclaimed new play, how i learned to drive, now at offbroadways century theatre after a soldout run at the vineyard theatre, takes. How i learned to drive how i learned to drive, which won paula vogel the pulitzer prize in 1998 and hasnt been seen in new york since, is one of those plays you dont forget in a hurry. How i learned to drive, by paula vogel nick hern books. The result is a play that depicts a pedophile as a very flawed, yet very human. Paula vogels how i learned to drive is one of the most important plays of the last 50 years and takes on the patriarchy in a unique and unflinching manner.
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