Paula Vogel’s BARD AT THE GATE is a startup play-reading series.

Bard at the Gate offers a simple glance at plays that are ground-breaking: plays that were too ambitious, too quirky, and too smart to be contained.

Strong scripts. Raw talent. New audiences. New Bards.

Tony Nominee Paula Vogel on ‘How I Learned to Drive’ nominations: ‘I’m just thrilled.’

"The playwright Paula Vogel found herself at home on Cape Cod last spring, thinking that the coronavirus could have her name on it. If time was short, how did she want to spend it? The answer was producing. Since June, the Pulitzer Prize winner has used her splendidly cast online reading series, Bard at the Gate, to elevate overlooked plays by Eisa Davis, Kermit Frazier and others, all dealing with race or gender. Vogel is daring the theater: Make yourself better. Stage these scripts." - The New York Times

Bard at the Gate directly responds to the lack of representation of diverse voices within the American theatrical canon. This uniquely curated virtual reading series is designed to become a widely accessible platform for powerful, overlooked plays by BIPOC, women, LGBTQ, and disabled artists.

The plays in Season 1 of Bard at the Gate were chosen by Ms. Vogel from among the hundreds and hundreds of scripts she has read and/or mentored over four decades: works that have been overlooked and never produced, along with plays that deserve a wider audience.

Bard at the Gate in Partnership with McCarter Theatre Center
Now in a new partnership with McCarter Theatre Center, Bard at the Gate will continue to curate and deliver virtual readings of powerful plays. We plan to produce and stream eight readings, filmed and editing by Jared Mezzocchi and the team at ViDCo, over the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. Play selection is curated by Paula Vogel, Nicole A. Watson and the Bard at the Gate Advisory Council, comprised of top leaders in the theater industry from across the country.