Lauren Ostrem

March
2021
 From 1950’s Washington DC
to Yale University
• Born November 16, 1951
• Parents divorced at the age of 13,
came out at 17
• Attended Bryn Mar, transferred to
Catholic University of America
graduated
• Went to Cornell for 3 years, did not
finish
• Worked for a year, came back to
Cornell to teach
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 Teaching & Writing
• Taught at Cornell: 1979 – 1982.
• Became director of the MFA
program at Brown University:
1985
• Chair of Playwright department
of Yale University: 2012

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 Plays
• Meg: Kennedy Center – 1977
• Apple Brown Betty - 1979
• Baltimore Waltz – 1992
• Hot ‘N Throbbing - 1994
• How I Learned to Drive – 1997
• The Mineola Twins - 1999
• The Long Christmas Ride Home -
2003
• Indecent - 2015
Awards
• American College Theater Festival Award;
Best New Play - Meg
• OBIE Award; Best Play – Baltimore Waltz
• Pulitzer Prize – How I Leaned to Drive
• Drama Desk Award – How I Learned to
Drive
• Outter Critics Awards – How I Learned to
Drive
• New York Drama Critics Circle Award –
How I Learned to Drive
• OBIE Award – How I Learned to Drive
• If it’s a theater playwright award, she 4
has won it.
 • Paula Vogel Awards–
Vineyard Theatre
• Paula Vogel Awards -
American College
Theatre Festival
• Paula Vogel
Mentorship Program –
Young playwrights of
Philadelphia
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 Indecent

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World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre – October 2, 2015 6

Broadway Premiere: Cort Theatre – April 18, 2017

 This play includes:
- Antisemitism
- Racism
- Sexism
- Domestic Violence
- Sex Work / Brothels

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Indecent is based on the true events of Sholem Asch’s
play, God of Vengeance, and the controversy that ensued
following its debut on Broadway.

• A Jewish brothel owner attempts to keep his daughter away

from his line of work and sets up her marriage to a
scholarly man.
• As a wedding gift, he buys them a Torah.
• Instead, his daughter falls in love with a prostitute in her
father’s brothel.
• As punishment, the father sends his daughter to the brothel
to pay back the cost of the Torah.
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 Antisemitism across Europe
• Between 1900 – 1906:
• The Kishinev progrom (Russia): 49 Jewish
people murdered
• ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’: claiming
Jewish people sought Global domination
• Limerick boycott (Ireland): Boycott against a
small Jewish community
• The Yekaterinoslav progrom (Ukraine): 66
murdered, 125 wounded and looted.
• The Kiev progrom (Russia): 100 massacred
• (Not mentioning other huge impacts such as
Martin Luther’s The Jews and Their Lies)
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 “It’s a gripping and entertaining show with laughter and tears and a real
rainstorm in which two women from the marvelous 10-member cast re-enact
what, in 1921, had been the first lesbian kiss on an American stage.” –
Newsday
"Indecent is, above all, decent, in the most complete sense of the word. It is
virtuous, sturdily assembled, informative and brimming with good faith. The
territory it covers in its one hour and 45 minutes is immense.“ – New York
Times

”it's incontrovertible that Rebecca Taichman took a lot from Joe Chaikin's
production of God of Vengeance, both generally and with regard to specifics.” –
Stephen Fife 10
 My Takeaway
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Paula Vogel writes characters in an endearing way. You are 11
sucked into a place that feels safe, and then she confronts you
with the lesson.