How I Learned to Drive

How I Learned to Drive (1997), a play by Paula Vogel. [Century Theatre, 400 perf.; Pulitzer Prize, NYDCC Award.] Li'l Bit ( Mary‐Louise Parker) narrates the memory play, using sarcasm and jokes while revealing the long‐term sexual abuse she endured from her Uncle Peck ( David Morse). While he teaches her to drive, Li'l Bit sees her uncle as a man of the world; he views her as a retreat from his alcoholism and despair. By the end of the narrative it is learned that Uncle Peck's sexual fumbling with his niece began when she was only eleven years old. Encouraging notices, controversial subject matter, and strong word of mouth enabled the Vineyard Theatre to move the play from Off Off Broadway to Off Broadway, where it ran a year. Paula VOGEL (b. 1951) was born in Washington, D C., and educated at Catholic University and Cornell. She was noticed in New York with her first produced play, The Baltimore Waltz (1992), an allegory about the AIDS epidemic. Her other works include And Baby Makes Seven (1993), Desdemona—A Play about a Handkerchief (1993), The Mineola Twins (1999), and The Long Christmas Ride Home, 2003.