Thanks to a generous donor, University Life Arts Initiatives is proud to present the Platt House Theatre Fellows program.
The Platt House Theatre Fellows Program will expose the Penn community to the best and brightest of the professional theatre world. Fellows will spend up to two days on campus connecting in a variety of ways with the Penn community including but not limited to: Guest lecturing in relevant classes, public presentation, private lunch with selected students, and public master classes.
We are pleased to announce that Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Paula Vogel will be the 2012 Platt House Theatre Fellow. Ms. Vogel will be on campus February 23 and 24. She will present The Impossible Game of Theatre - a public Q&A on Thursday, February 23 at 6 pm in the Harold Prince Theater of the Annenberg Center. Tickets are $5 or free with student ID, but you must have a ticket to get in.
This year's program is co-sponsored by the Theatre Initiative, The Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, The LGBT Center, The Kelly Writers House, The Penn Women's Center and SPEC Connaisance.
Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and New York Drama Critics Awards for Best Play, and an Obie Award. Her screenplay adaptation has been in development for HBO. Paula Vogel's other plays include The Long Christmas Ride Home, The Mineola Twins, The Baltimore Waltz, Hot N Throbbing, Desdemona, And Baby Makes Seven and The Oldest Profession. Paula Vogel has received the Rhode Island Pell Award in the Arts, the Hull-Warriner Award, the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, the Pew Charitable Trust Senior Award, a Guggenheim, an AT&T New Plays Award, the Fund for New American Plays, the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center Fellowship, several National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, the McKnight Fellowship, MacDowell Colony residencies, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Prize in Literature. In addition, she is the Adele Kellenberg Seaver Professor of Creative Writing at Brown University, directing the MFA Playwriting program.
The Inaugural (2010) Platt House Theatre Fellow was Mois�s Kaufman, who presented a public talk "Theater for a New Millenum" on Wednesday, October 13 at 6 pm in the Harold Prince Theatre of the Annenberg Center. Mr. Kaufman also visited the Theatre Arts Programs directing class on Thursday, October 14 at 10:30 am. Co-Sponsors of Mr. Kaufman's visit are the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and the Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transgender Center at Penn.
Mois�s Kaufman is a Tony and Emmy nominated director and playwright. His most recent play, 33 Variations, starring Jane Fonda, was nominated for 5 Tony awards (including one for Ms. Fonda). Previous to that, Mr. Kaufman directed the Pulitzer and Tony award-winning play I Am My Own Wife, earning him an Obie award for his direction as well as Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel nominations. His plays Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde and The Laramie Project have been among the most performed plays in America over the last decade.
Mr. Kaufman also directed the film adaptation of The Laramie Project for HBO, which was the opening night selection at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and won the National Board of Review Award, the Humanitas Prize and a Special Mention for Best First Film at the Berlin Film Festival. The film also earned Mr. Kaufman two Emmy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Writer. He is the Artistic Director of Tectonic Theater Project and a Guggenheim Fellow in Playwriting.
Other recent credits include Bengal Tiger at the Bagdad Zoo (Mark Taper Forum); Macbeth with Liev Schreiber (Public Theater); This Is How It Goes (Donmar Warehouse); One Arm by Tennessee Williams (Steppenwolf Theater Company); Master Class with Rita Moreno (Berkeley Repertory Theater); and Lady Windermere's Fan (Williamstown Theater Festival).