Paula Vogel Revisits the Civil War

Playwright Paula Vogel never shies away from controversy. Her Pulitzer Prize–winning How I Learned to Drive is about a Southern teenager who is molested by her uncle, and The Baltimore Waltz is about AIDS.

But A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration is a departure. The current production of the Huntington Theatre Company is a sweeping historical epic, a holiday gift to the children in Vogel’s family.

“My nieces and nephews have asked me, ‘Aunt Paula, when do we get to see one of your plays?’” she says. “And I tell them, ‘When you’re 30, and you can talk to a therapist.’ It’s always been kind of a family joke.”

But they don’t have to wait to see A Civil War Christmas, which Vogel describes as “a healing tribute to family and community values.” Drawing inspiration from Charles Dickens and E. L. Doctorow, the play takes place on Christmas Eve 1864 and interweaves multiple storylines. The enormous cast includes President Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, and Clara Barton, as well as dozens of fictional and composite characters, such as a fugitive slave, a Union Army African-American blacksmith, and a rebel Jewish soldier.

“I’m as interested in the merchants, soldiers, and homemakers as I am in the president,” says Vogel. “At our holiday table, there are African-Americans, Native Americans, Jews, Unitarian Universalists, and agnostics. I wanted this play to reflect the diversity, not only of my own family, but of our country.”

An equally important component is the music. Growing up, Vogel took countless school trips to Civil War battlefields, and the marches, hymns, and spirituals of that era remain close to her heart: A Civil War Christmas is laden with period-appropriate holiday songs — “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “The Holly and the Ivy,” and “O Christmas Tree” — as well as lesser-known ballads.

Daryl Waters, known for his Tony- and Grammy-nominated Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk, supervised, arranged, and orchestrated the music, which is performed by a six-member youth choir.

Although the inspiration for A Civil War Christmas came to Vogel “in a blink” more than 10 years ago, she didn’t write it until after Hurricane Katrina. “It seemed that, as a nation, we were becoming more polarized and partisan,” she says. “I think we’re still fighting the Civil War, because when people say, ‘We want our country back,’ what does that mean? How far back do they want to take it? How many people do we want to dispossess, and who is the ‘our’? I want to look at the tapestry of the ‘our.’ It’s my hope that A Civil War Christmas does just that.”

A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration runs at the BU Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., through Sunday, December 13. Tickets range from $20 to $82.50 and may be purchased online, by phone at 617-266-0800, or in person at the BU Theatre box office or at the Boston Center for the Arts Calderwood Pavilion box office, 527 Tremont St., Boston. Patrons 35 and younger may purchase $25 tickets (ID required), and there is a $5 discount for seniors and military personnel. Student rush tickets are available for $15 at the box office two hours before each performance, and members of the BU community get $10 off (ID required). Members of the BU community are eligible for a special subscription rate. Call 617-266-0800 for more information.

Vicky Waltz can be reached at vwaltz@bu.edu.