Author: Paula Vogel

Theatre Communications Group

ISBN:  978-1-55936-547-5

Paula Vogel, author/playwright for Indecent, has written numerous other plays (How I Learned to Drive, The Long Christmas Ride Home, Don Juan Comes Home From Iraq, The Mineola Twins, The Baltimore Waltz, Hot N’ Throbbing, Desdemona, And Baby Makes Seven, The Oldest Profession, and A Civil War Christmas). (2017, inside back cover) Vogel is a graduate of Cornell University (Masters of fine Art). She taught at Brown University for thirty years and also the Yale School of Drama. Vogel has won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and an Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Lifetime Achievement Award in American Theatre, the New York Drama Critics Circle’s Award. She has been recipient of the Theatre Hall of Fame for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as, a Lily Award.

Obviously Vogel is woman worthy of notice on many fronts. I have endeavored to learn the art and craft of play-writing and must applaud this timely work from Paula Vogel. Indecent is taken from the 1923 work of Sholem Asch titled The God of Vengeance. She conducted a good bit of research before embarking on this journey.

This play depicts two women who are acting in the same play who are in love with one another and for the first time will celebrate this love on the stage in front of the world. The play has been welcomed in Germany and also to their Yiddish audiences. Finally performing it in English and on Broadway has been a little prickly. While they both find this a bit on the delicate side and scary, they also are so ready to see this to fruition. Will this play be a success? Will it be met with opposition?

I admit there were points where I felt the discomfort that the characters were feeling as I read this script. I enjoyed the Yiddish portions immensely. I recommend anyone interested in insight into the LGBT scenario and the Broadway scene to read this.