What do you think?
Rate this book
Hot 'n' Throbbing
Take Charlene, a suburban mother who writes erotic screenplays for women in order to support her children; add Clyde, her funny, dangerously obsessive and estranged husband; toss in hormonally overcharged teenagers; and layer it all with a screenplay on a deadline that Charlene desperately tries to write -- and you end up with Hot 'N' Throbbing.
72 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1999
1 person is currently reading
120 people want to read
About the author
Paula Vogel
40 books122 followersPaula Vogel is an American playwright and university professor. She received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, How I Learned to Drive.
Vogel was born in Washington, D.C. to Donald Stephen Vogel, an advertising executive, and Phyllis Rita Bremerman, a secretary for United States Postal Service Training and Development Center. She is a graduate of The Catholic University of America (1974, B.A.) and Cornell University (1976, M.A.). Vogel also attended Bryn Mawr College from 1969 to 1970 and 1971 to 1972.
A productive playwright since the late 1970s, Vogel first came to national prominence with her AIDS-related seriocomedy The Baltimore Waltz, which won the Obie award for Best Play in 1992. She is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned To Drive (1997), which examines the impact and echoes of child sexual abuse and incest. Other notable plays include Desdemona, A Play About A Handkerchief (1979); The Oldest Profession (1981); And Baby Makes Seven (1984); Hot 'N Throbbing (1994); and The Mineola Twins (1996).
Although no particular theme or topic dominates her work, she often examines traditionally controversial issues such as sexual abuse and prostitution. Asserting that she "writes the play backwards," moving from emotional circumstances and character to craft narrative structure, Vogel says, "My writing isn't actually guided by issues.... I only write about things that directly impact my life." Vogel adds, "If people get upset, it's because the play is working." Vogel's family, especially her late brother Carl Vogel, influences her writings. Vogel says, "In every play, there are a couple of places where I send a message to my late brother Carl. Just a little something in the atmosphere of every play to try and change the homophobia in our world." Carl's likeness appears in such plays as The Long Christmas Ride Home (2003), The Baltimore Waltz, and And Baby Makes Seven.
"Vogel tends to select sensitive, difficult, fraught issues to theatricalize," theatre theorist Jill Dolan comments, "and to spin them with a dramaturgy that’s at once creative, highly imaginative, and brutally honest."[3] Her work embraces theatrical devices from across several traditions, incorporating, in various works, direct address, bunraku puppetry, omniscient narration, and fantasy sequences. Critic David Finkel finds this breadth in Vogel's career to be reflective of a general tendency toward stylistic reinvention from work to work. "This playwright recoils at the notion of writing plays that are alike in their composition," Finkel writes. "She wants each play to be different in texture from those that have preceded it."
Vogel, a renowned teacher of playwriting, counts among her former students Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winner Bridget Carpenter, Obie Award-winner Adam Bock, MacArthur Fellow Sarah Ruhl, and Pulitzer Prize-winners Nilo Cruz and Lynn Nottage.
During her two decades leading the graduate playwriting program and new play festival at Brown University, Vogel helped developed a nationally-recognized center for educational theatre, culminating in the creation of the Brown/Trinity Repertory Company Consortium with Oskar Eustis, then Trinity's artistic director, in 2002. She left Brown in 2008 to assume her current posts as adjunct professor and the Chair of the playwriting department at Yale School of Drama, and the Playwright-in-Residence at Yale Repertory Theatre. Vogel previously served as an instructor at Cornell University during her graduate work in the mid-1970s.
Recently Second Stage Theatre announced that they would be producing How I Learned To Drive as a part of their 2011-2012 season. It will be the first New York City production of this show in 15 years.
Subsequent to her Obie Award for Best Play (1992) and Pulitzer Prize in Drama (1998), Vogel received the Award for Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2004.
She won the 1998 Susan Smith Blackburn P
Vogel was born in Washington, D.C. to Donald Stephen Vogel, an advertising executive, and Phyllis Rita Bremerman, a secretary for United States Postal Service Training and Development Center. She is a graduate of The Catholic University of America (1974, B.A.) and Cornell University (1976, M.A.). Vogel also attended Bryn Mawr College from 1969 to 1970 and 1971 to 1972.
A productive playwright since the late 1970s, Vogel first came to national prominence with her AIDS-related seriocomedy The Baltimore Waltz, which won the Obie award for Best Play in 1992. She is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned To Drive (1997), which examines the impact and echoes of child sexual abuse and incest. Other notable plays include Desdemona, A Play About A Handkerchief (1979); The Oldest Profession (1981); And Baby Makes Seven (1984); Hot 'N Throbbing (1994); and The Mineola Twins (1996).
Although no particular theme or topic dominates her work, she often examines traditionally controversial issues such as sexual abuse and prostitution. Asserting that she "writes the play backwards," moving from emotional circumstances and character to craft narrative structure, Vogel says, "My writing isn't actually guided by issues.... I only write about things that directly impact my life." Vogel adds, "If people get upset, it's because the play is working." Vogel's family, especially her late brother Carl Vogel, influences her writings. Vogel says, "In every play, there are a couple of places where I send a message to my late brother Carl. Just a little something in the atmosphere of every play to try and change the homophobia in our world." Carl's likeness appears in such plays as The Long Christmas Ride Home (2003), The Baltimore Waltz, and And Baby Makes Seven.
"Vogel tends to select sensitive, difficult, fraught issues to theatricalize," theatre theorist Jill Dolan comments, "and to spin them with a dramaturgy that’s at once creative, highly imaginative, and brutally honest."[3] Her work embraces theatrical devices from across several traditions, incorporating, in various works, direct address, bunraku puppetry, omniscient narration, and fantasy sequences. Critic David Finkel finds this breadth in Vogel's career to be reflective of a general tendency toward stylistic reinvention from work to work. "This playwright recoils at the notion of writing plays that are alike in their composition," Finkel writes. "She wants each play to be different in texture from those that have preceded it."
Vogel, a renowned teacher of playwriting, counts among her former students Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winner Bridget Carpenter, Obie Award-winner Adam Bock, MacArthur Fellow Sarah Ruhl, and Pulitzer Prize-winners Nilo Cruz and Lynn Nottage.
During her two decades leading the graduate playwriting program and new play festival at Brown University, Vogel helped developed a nationally-recognized center for educational theatre, culminating in the creation of the Brown/Trinity Repertory Company Consortium with Oskar Eustis, then Trinity's artistic director, in 2002. She left Brown in 2008 to assume her current posts as adjunct professor and the Chair of the playwriting department at Yale School of Drama, and the Playwright-in-Residence at Yale Repertory Theatre. Vogel previously served as an instructor at Cornell University during her graduate work in the mid-1970s.
Recently Second Stage Theatre announced that they would be producing How I Learned To Drive as a part of their 2011-2012 season. It will be the first New York City production of this show in 15 years.
Subsequent to her Obie Award for Best Play (1992) and Pulitzer Prize in Drama (1998), Vogel received the Award for Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2004.
She won the 1998 Susan Smith Blackburn P
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 16, 2022
Popular culture is people consuming and performing stylized sex and violence. High culture offers only a fragile control of those desires.
March 6, 2018
This is an intense play, but worth the read. The playwright's introduction in the edition I read acknowledges the difficulty of the script, citing only two productions having been mounted between the play's workshop and printing. That number has only increased by five, from what my research can tell.
But in that introduction, Vogel also challenges the notion that difficult plays should be so rarely produced. In our current cultural moment of powerful men being held to account for sexual assault and misconduct throughout the American workforce, it seems no less important for theater to draw attention to the even more insidious abuse of violence within the home. Vogel's play explores the intersection between pornography and domestic violence: the challenges faced by victims, the entanglements inherent in abusive relationships, and how these relationships can affect future generations.
This play would be a challenge for even the most dexterous director, but I agree with Vogel that those theaters who have the resources should consider the impact such work would have on their audiences and our public discourse, not just the impact it may have on their subscription base.
But in that introduction, Vogel also challenges the notion that difficult plays should be so rarely produced. In our current cultural moment of powerful men being held to account for sexual assault and misconduct throughout the American workforce, it seems no less important for theater to draw attention to the even more insidious abuse of violence within the home. Vogel's play explores the intersection between pornography and domestic violence: the challenges faced by victims, the entanglements inherent in abusive relationships, and how these relationships can affect future generations.
This play would be a challenge for even the most dexterous director, but I agree with Vogel that those theaters who have the resources should consider the impact such work would have on their audiences and our public discourse, not just the impact it may have on their subscription base.
March 26, 2025
When I first started reading I really enjoyed the humor and shameless portrayal of sexuality. As I continued on I was very moved by the raw emotion of the dialogue. As a fellow Othello lover, I was obsessed with the references. I’m so glad I decided to read this, I plan on reading more from Vogel in the future.
October 26, 2020
Wow this script is intense and disturbing in so many ways. Brave writing as usual by Paula Vogel. Very, very layered. Deserves a meticulous director and committed cast. When will rape and domestic violence be a thing of the past?
January 2, 2023
Amo a Paula.
May 12, 2023
Wow. Vogel has a terrific voice. This was unusual territory - but she handled it well. I was a little lost with the mechanics (like Driving) - but I think it would be great in performance.
September 20, 2023
paula vogel you did it again
December 27, 2023
....i feel like this would be better to see live than it was to read, but also i still didn't really enjoy much about it until the very end
July 8, 2012
A pretty good, engaging Paula Vogel play. My favorite line: Clyde (father) is on the ground being choked by Calvin (son) and in a squeezed voice says "It's getting harder to...be a...family man...these days."
June 1, 2016
Intense script. Needs amazing director. Great conceit. Over the top- maybe too much. Name helps sell what it is. Ends in tragedy... What time of year is this ok?
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews