Frequent collaborators Paula Vogel and Daryl Roth are teaming up yet again — this time to support established playwrights. The respective Pulitzer Prize-winning “How I Learned To Drive” scribe and multi-Tony-winning producer have set up the Roth-Vogel New Play Commission at The Vineyard Theatre. The venue has staged many of the duo’s productions over the past 20 years.
According to a press release, “the Roth-Vogel Commission will be awarded annually to a mid- or late-career playwright, to provide time, support, and inspiration to a playwright for a new play they have wished but not yet dared to write. The award seeks to recognize artists whose voices are important to hear in our changing world, and who will be able to attempt something with the award that they may not have otherwise.”
The Roth-Vogel Commission will be dedicated to Roth’s mother, Sylvia Connie Atkins. The inaugural recipient will be announced this summer.
“We both have a deep loving relationship with The Vineyard that began with ‘How I Learned To Drive’ and was book-ended twenty years later with ‘Indecent,’ and continues to this day,” Roth and Vogel said in a joint statement.
The launch of the Roth-Vogel Commission coincides with what would have been the theater’s 20th Annual Gala, which has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis.
“We are grateful that our friends at The Vineyard chose to honor us at the 2020 Gala, and for the generous contributions made thus far to the event. Since the Gala is unable to happen, in its place we wanted to create something lasting and meaningful in appreciation of that recognition,” Roth and Vogel explained. “We are proud to initiate the Roth-Vogel New Play Commission, to be given annually through Vineyard Theatre. We hope this will encourage and inspire work to emerge from these difficult times… Art matters.”
Vineyard Theatre Artistic Directors Sarah Stern and Douglas Aibel added, “We have looked forward to honoring the extraordinary accomplishments of our collaborators and friends Paula Vogel and Daryl Roth at The Vineyard’s Gala, which would have taken place tonight. When it became clear the event could not proceed, Daryl and Paula proposed the possibility of something new and generative emerging in its place. We were moved and inspired by their vision, and are thrilled to partner with them to launch the Roth-Vogel New Play Commission at The Vineyard.” They continued, “With this new annual commission, we hope to recognize and invest in writers whose voices need more prominence in our changing world, and to support them with the time, space, and attention to create the new work that they’ve hoped but not yet dared to write. Our relationship with Paula and Daryl — from our first collaboration on ‘How I Learned to Drive’ to our most recent with ‘Indecent’ — has been integral to The Vineyard, and we look forward with great anticipation to this next chapter and to the work that will emerge.”
Vogel has won the Lortel Prize, an OBIE Award, a Drama Desk Award, and many other accolades for her work. Her plays include “The Long Christmas Ride Home,” “The Mineola Twins,” and “The Baltimore Waltz.”
Roth has received 12 Tony Awards and an Olivier Award, and has over 120 productions to her name. “Kinky Boots,” “The Normal Heart,” “Love, Loss, and What I Wore,” and “Gloria: A Life” are among her numerous notable credits.
