Doug Wright Joins Yale School of Drama Fall 2010

YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA (James Bundy, Dean; Victoria Nolan, Deputy Dean) announces that Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright will join the Yale School of Drama faculty as a Lecturer in Playwriting for the fall 2010 semester. His primary responsibilities for the semester will be to lead the weekly Playwriting Workshop and to mentor students in the program.

Paula Vogel, the Eugene O'Neill Chair of the Playwriting Department, will take a one-semester leave of absence in the fall to work on a new play commissioned by Yale Rep through the Yale Center for New Theatre. Associate Chair of the department, Kenneth Prestininzi, will serve as Acting Chair during her leave.

"I am thrilled to welcome Doug Wright, one of the most honored and distinguished American writers working today, back to Yale, where he received his undergraduate degree, and to the School of Drama community, in particular, to share his remarkable gifts with our students," said Dean James Bundy about Mr. Wright's appointment.

He continued, "Paula Vogel graciously postponed a leave of absence to work on her own projects when she was appointed Chair of Playwriting in 2008, until she had put the program on secure footing. Having now done so, she will depart New Haven in August and return for the spring semester."

ABOUT Doug Wright

In 2004, Doug Wright was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award for Best Play, the Drama Desk Award, a GLAAD Media Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Drama League Award, and a Lucille Lortel Award for his play I Am My Own Wife. In 2006, he received Tony and Drama Desk nominations for his book for the Broadway musical Grey Gardens. Most recently he was represented on Broadway by Disney's The Little Mermaid.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Wright won an OBIE Award for outstanding achievement in playwriting and the Kesselring Award for Best New American Play from the National Arts Club for his play Quills. He went on to write the screenplay adaptation, making his motion picture debut. The film was named Best Picture by the National Board of Review and nominated for three Academy Awards. His screenplay was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and received the Paul Selvin Award from the Writer's Guild of America.

For director Rob Marshall, Doug penned the television special Tony Bennett: An American Classic, which received seven Emmy Awards.

His stage work has been produced in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, London, Stockholm, Bucharest, Krakow, Dublin, Budapest, Brasov, Madrid, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Berlin, Sydney, Melbourne, Stockholm, Oslo, Tokyo, Viterbo, and Zimbabwe, among other cities. Titles include The Stonewater Rapture, Interrogating the Nude, Watbanaland, Buzzsaw Berkeley, and Unwrap Your Candy.

For career achievement, Mr. Wright was recently cited with an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Tolerance Prize from the KulturForum Europa. He is a member of the Writer's Guild of America, East; the Screen Actors Guild; the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers; and the PEN American Center, which supports dissident writers all across the globe. Directing credits include Kiki and Herb: Pardon Our Appearance in Washington DC, Philadelphia and London. Acting credits include the films Little Manhattan and Two Lovers, and the television show Law & Order. Currently, Doug serves on the boards of the New York Theatre Workshop and the Dramatists Guild. He lives in New York with his partner, singer/songwriter David Clement.

www.drama.yale.edu

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