By DORIS RUBENSTEIN
Paula Vogel is the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Indecent, which will be presented Sept. 16 through Oct. 18 by Theater Latté Da at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis.
Vogel calls herself a Jew in the spirit of another famed playwright. She explained, “My mother is Catholic, my father is Jewish, and so I am considered neither by those two religions. I describe myself as a Lillian Hellman Jew, whose parentage was exactly the same: a Catholic mother from New Orleans and a Jewish father from New York.”
With Indecent, Vogel tackles a new approach to the intensely Jewish play, by Sholem Asch (1880-1957), God of Vengeance, written and performed in Yiddish and first staged in 1907.
“Indecent sprang from my head on a phone call with Bill Rauch, who was then at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Rebecca Taichman, director,” Vogel said. “I had read the God of Vengeance when I was 22 years old and as a result read Yiddish theater at Cornell University. Rebecca wanted me to write about the trial of Asch’s play for obscenity, but to me it resembled Moises Kaufman’s Gross Indecency.
“As we talked, I literally saw a Yiddish theater troupe in a dusty attic, in limbo. And then they slowly rose and brushed the dust off their clothing. And I immediately knew that the play would end in that attic. Ten years of research and voilà!”
Per Theater Latté Da, Indecent “is a haunting, klezmer-infused play with music that traces the turbulent journey of a troupe determined to stage a work deemed ‘indecent.’ As their story unfolds across continents and decades, so too does a powerful meditation on censorship, nationalism and the policing of queer love.
“At once tender and thunderously relevant, this breathtaking theatrical experience shines a light on the enduring struggle between artistic expression and societal control. In a moment when questions of whose stories are ‘acceptable’ feel increasingly urgent, Indecent invites us to bear witness to the courage of artists, the cost of silence and the unshakable power of theater itself.”
During its Broadway run, Indecent garnered multiple Tony Awards.
Justin Lucero, Theater Latté Da’s artistic director, wrote in a news release: “There are few plays that feel as urgently necessary today as Indecent. It is a breathtaking work about artists who refuse to let fear dictate what can be imagined, expressed, or shared. At a moment when conversations around censorship and cultural memory continue to shape our public life, this play reminds us that the freedom to create is never guaranteed … it is something every generation must actively protect.”
According to Vogel’s website, Vogel “is particularly proud of her Thirtini Award from 13P, and honored by awards in her name: the Paula Vogel Award for playwrights given by The Vineyard Theatre, and the Paula Vogel Award given by the American College Theatre Festival. Paula continues her playwriting initiatives with community organizations, students, theater companies and writers across the globe.”
Vogel was the 2019 inaugural UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Hearst Theater Lab Initiative Distinguished Visiting Playwright-in-Residence and has taught at several universities and educational centers, including the Playwrights’ Center in St. Paul. She founded and ran the playwriting program at Brown University, started a theater workshop for women in maximum security at the Adult Correctional Institute in Cranston, Rhode Island, and served as the Eugene O’Neill Professor and chair of playwriting at Yale School of Drama.
There’s another amazing, talented Jew involved in the creation of Indecent. The multitalented Lisa Gutkin co-created, with Aaron Halva, the klezmer music that accompanies the play. She is the violinist and vocalist for the Grammy Award-winning Jewish roots band The Klezmatics. She’s also the fiddler for the Celtic band Whirligig. Per her website, Gutkin “was in the house band for the Fast Folk Musical Magazine, had an on-screen cameo and compositions featured in Sex and the City, and performed in Sting’s Broadway musical The Last Ship.”
“In her ventures as soloist and band leader, Lisa might swing seamlessly from klezmer to the blues, or between traditional Irish and Appalachian sounds. She might even put the violin down altogether, pick up a tenor guitar, and sing one of her own universally resonant songs. Wherever she goes, Lisa has an uncanny way of taking the audience with her.”
Considering the talents and Jewish sensitivities of the play and its creators, Twin Cities Jews would be doing themselves a disservice to miss seeing Indecent. Since Yom Kippur happens on a Monday when the theater is dark anyway, there’s no excuse for not buying a ticket to enjoy the entertainment and this intellectually and emotionally challenging show right here in northeast Minneapolis.
***
Theater Latté Da will present Indecent Sept. 16-Oct. 18, at the Ritz Theater, 345 13th Ave. N.E., Minneapolis. For tickets, go to: latteda.org or call 612-339-3003.
(American Jewish World, September 2026)
