The award presentation will be made during the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, which runs April 14-18. The award, according to press notes, "recognizes a distinguished artist for lifetime achievement in theater and unparalleled commitment to the future of the art form through teaching." A $10,000 scholarship in Vogel's name to the student of her choice accompanies the award, which enables Vogel to "continue her commitment to emerging theater practitioners."

Vogel will award the scholarship to Christina Anderson, MFA student at Yale School of Drama. Anderson is a two-time winner of the KCACTF Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award. Her play Inked Baby opened in March at Playwrights Horizons.

Previous recipients of the Stephen and Christine Schwarzman Legacy Award for Excellence in Theater include Ming Cho Lee, Lloyd Richards, Michael Kahn and Zelda Fichandler.

Paul Vogel is the recipient of an Obie Award for Best Play (1992), Pulitzer Prize in Drama (1998), and the Award for Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters (2005). Her plays include The Baltimore Waltz, How I Learned to Drive, Desdemona, The Mineola Twins, The Long Christmas Ride Home and Hot 'N' Throbbing, among others.