María Irene Fornés (May 14, 1930 – October 30, 2018) was a Cuban-American playwright, theater director, and teacher who worked in

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

and experimental theater venues in the last four decades of the twentieth century. Her plays range widely in subject matter, but often depict characters with aspirations that belie their disadvantages. Fornés, who went by the name "Irene", received nine Obie Theatre Awards in various categories and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for 1990. ''

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'' critic

Hilton Als Hilton Als (born 1960) is an American writer and theater critic. He is a teaching professor at the University of California, Berkeley, an associate professor of writing at Columbia University and a staff writer and theater critic for ''The New Yo ...

wrote in 2010 that she had done "more than her fair share in terms of changing the face of theatre". He added: "No matter how hard Fornés's subjects can be, her work sits in the ear like luxurious reason." In a 2013 interview,

Tony Kushner Anthony Robert Kushner (born July 16, 1956) is an American author, playwright, and screenwriter. Among his stage work, he is most known for ''Angels in America'', which earned a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, as well as its subsequent acclaime ...

said: "She had terrifyingly high standards and was terribly blunt about what others did with her work. Her productions were unforgettable. She was really a magical maker of theater."

Biography

Early years

Fornés was born on May 14, 1930, in Havana, Cuba, the youngest of six children. After her father Carlos Fornés died in 1945, she immigrated to the United States at the age of 15 with her mother and one sister. She became a U.S. citizen in 1951. When she first arrived in the US, Fornés worked in the Capezio shoe factory. Dissatisfied, she took classes to learn English and became a translator. At the age of 19, she became interested in painting and began her formal education in abstract art, studying with Hans Hofmann in New York City and

Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown () is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States census, Provi ...

.Gainor, J. Ellen, Stanton B. Garnier, Jr., and Martin Punchner. "Maria Irene Fornes b. 1930", ''The Norton Anthology of Drama'', Vol. 2 – The Nineteenth Century to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon, et al., New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2009. pp. 1231–34. By 1954, Fornés had met the writer and artist's model Harriet Sohmers. They became lovers and moved to Paris where Fornés planned to study painting. There she was struck by the world premiere production of

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

's ''

Waiting for Godot ''Waiting for Godot'' ( or ) is a 1953 play by Irish writer and playwright Samuel Beckett, in which the two main characters, Vladimir (Waiting for Godot), Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters w ...

''. She later told an interviewer: "I didn't speak any French at all. But I understood the world in which it took place, I got the rhythm. And it turned my life upside down." She lived with Sohmers in Paris for three years, and after their relationship ended Fornés returned to New York City in 1957.

Early writing

Fornés's first step toward playwriting involved translating letters she brought with her from Cuba that were written to her great-grandfather from a cousin in Spain. She turned the letters into a play called ''La Viuda'' (''The Widow'', 1961). Never translated into English, it premiered in Spanish in New York. She never staged the play herself, and it is considered "a precursor" to her work as a playwright.Cummings, ''María Irene Fornés'', p. 10 In 1959, about the time she was working on ''La Viuda'', Fornés entered into a romantic relationship with the writer

Susan Sontag Susan Lee Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, critic, and public intellectual. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on "Camp", Notes on 'Ca ...

. Fornés later described how, in the spring of 1961, her career as a playwright was launched when she tried to help Sontag, who was frustrated by her inability to make progress on a novel she was writing. Fornés, by her own account, demonstrated how easy writing can be by sitting at their kitchen table and taking cues found at random in a cookbook to start a short story: "I might never have thought of writing if I hadn't pretended I was going to show Susan how easy it was." Their relationship ended in 1963.

Playwright

The play considered her first as a playwright was ''There! You Died'', first produced by San Francisco's Actor's Workshop in 1963. An absurdist two-character play, it was later renamed ''Tango Palace'' and produced in 1964 at New York City's

Actors Studio The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights located on West 44th Street in Hell's Kitchen in New York City. The studio is best known for its work refining and teaching method actin ...

. The piece is an allegorical power struggle between the two central characters: Isidore, a clown, and Leopold, a naive youth. Like much of her writing, ''Tango Palace'' stresses character rather than plot.Anne, Fliotsos, and Vierow Wendy. "Fornés, Maria Irene", ''American Women Stage Directors of the Twentieth Century'', University of Illinois Press, 2008, pp. 179–89 With it, Fornés also established her production style, which required her participation in the entire staging process. ''The Successful Life of 3'' and ''Promenade'' followed in 1965. The pair earned Fornés her first

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Starting just after th ...

in 1965. Both of the ''New York Times'' senior theater critics were enthusiastic in their reviews of ''Promenade''.

Clive Barnes Clive Alexander Barnes (13 May 1927 – 19 November 2008) was an English writer and critic. From 1965 to 1977, he was the dance and theater critic for ''The New York Times'', and, from 1978 until his death, the ''New York Post''. Barnes had sign ...

called it "a joy from start to finish" and praised the show's "dexterity, wit and compassion". Walter Kerr highlighted the collaboration of lyricist and composer along with the show's manipulation of stereotypes and Brechtian juxtapositions that left him admiring the mockery of conventions that evoked affection for those same conventions: "The tenderness is as actual as the slyness.... Inside a put-on, some old pleasures have been restored." She came close to having her work performed on Broadway in April 1966, when

Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...

directed ''The Office'' starring

Elaine May Elaine Iva May (née Berlin; born April 21, 1932) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and director. She first gained fame in the 1950s for her improvisational comedy routines with Mike Nichols before transitioning her career, regularly b ...

. But Fornes was so unhappy with how the production misrepresented her vision that she exercised her contractual right to withdraw the script. The show closed after ten previews and she never approached Broadway again. In '' Fefu and Her Friends'' (1977), Fornés begins and ends with the audience seated as a single group facing a traditional stage. But she also experimented with deconstructing the stage by setting scenes in four locations simultaneously and having the audience, divided into four groups, view each scene in turn. The scenes repeat until each group has seen all four scenes. First produced by the New York Theater Strategy at the Relativity Media Lab, the play's eight women gather to plan a fundraising presentation, real women engaged in a banal activity. The play is considered to be feminist by critics and scholars, in that it offers a woman's perspective on female characters and their thoughts, feelings, and relationships. Fornés called it "a pro-feminine play rather than a feminist play", while one critic praises its exploration of the possibilities and risks of women's friendships. In 1982, Fornés earned a special Obie for Sustained Achievement; in 1984, she received two Obies for writing and for directing three of her own plays: ''The Danube'' (1982), ''Mud'' (1983), and ''Sarita'' (1984). ''Mud'', first produced in 1983 at the Padua Hills Playwright's Festival in California, explores the impoverished lives of Mae, Lloyd and Henry, who become involved in a love triangle. Fornés contrasts the desire to seek more in life with what is actually possible under given conditions. She described ''Mud'' as "a feminist play because the central character is a woman, and the theme is one that writers usually deal with through a male character.... It has nothing to do with men and women. It has to do with poverty and isolation and a mind. This mind is in the body of a female." ''Mud'' exemplifies Fornés' familiar technique of portraying a female character's rise opposed by male characters. The piece also explores the way the mind experiences poverty and isolation. In Fornés' exploration of the world of Hispanic women in the US, the title character of ''Sarita'' begins in 1939 as a 13-year-old unwed mother in the

South Bronx The South Bronx is an area of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Bronx, Concourse, Mott Haven, Bronx, Mott Haven, Melrose, B ...

and at the end of the play enters a psychiatric hospital at the age of 21. Some dialogue is in Spanish as Sarita contends with the two men in her life, the exploitative Julio and her rescuer the Anglo Mark. Afro-Cuban religion and nostalgia for Cuba provide the drama's background. Distorted scenery in later scenes places Sarita in a context that reflects her psychological state. ''The Conduct of Life'' (1985) was another Obie winner, as was ''Abingdon Square'' (1988), both deemed Best New American Play. Fornés was also a finalist for the 1990

Pulitzer Prize for Drama The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were a ...

with her play ''And What of the Night?'' In 2000, ''Letters From Cuba'' had its premiere with the Signature Theatre Company in New York, which devoted its 1999–2000 season to her work. It was the last play she completed before health problems ended her writing career. For the first time, Fornés drew upon personal experience. She had exchanged letters with her own brother in Cuba for 30 years, and in the play a young man in Cuba reads from his letters to his sister, a dancer in New York. It lasts about an hour and is constructed of fragmentary moments, each scene just long enough to establish a mood. The heartache of separation is juxtaposed with the struggle of young artists and the ending offers an ecstatic resolution. ''Letters From Cuba'' was recognized by the Obie Awards with a special citation for Fornés.

Teaching and influence

In August 2018, as Fornes' death neared, a 12-hour marathon performance of excerpts from her works was staged at New York's Public Theater. Fornés became a recognized force in both Hispanic-American and experimental theatre in New York. Her greatest influence may have come through her legendary playwriting workshops, which she taught to aspiring writers across the globe. Locally in New York City, as the director of the INTAR Hispanic Playwrights-in-Residence Lab in the 1980s and early '90s, she mentored a generation of Latin playwrights, including Cherríe Moraga, Migdalia Cruz, Nilo Cruz, Caridad Svich, and Eduardo Machado. Pulitzer Prize-winning writers Tony Kushner,

Paula Vogel Paula Vogel (born November 16, 1951) is an American playwright. She is known for her provocative explorations of complex social and political issues. Much of her work delves into themes of psychological trauma, abuse, and the complexities of hum ...

Lanford Wilson Lanford Wilson (April 13, 1937March 24, 2011) was an American playwright. His work, as described by ''The New York Times'', was "earthy, realist, greatly admired ndwidely performed". Fox, Margalit"Lanford Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwrigh ...

Sam Shepard Samuel Shepard Rogers III (November 5, 1943 – July 27, 2017) was an American playwright, actor, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned half a century. He wrote 58 plays as well as several books of short stories, essays, ...

, and

Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), ''The Sandbox (play), The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), ''A Delicat ...

credit Fornés as an inspiration and influence. "Her work has no precedents; it isn't derived from anything," Lanford Wilson once said of her, "she's the most original of us all." Paula Vogel contends: "In the work of every American playwright at the end of the 20th century, there are only two stages: before she has read Maria Irene Fornes and after." Tony Kushner concludes: "Every time I listen to Fornes, or read or see one of her plays, I feel this: she breathes, has always breathed, a finer, purer, sharper air." At her death,

Charles McNulty Charles McNulty (born 1966) is the chief theatre critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' newspaper and a recipient of Cornell University's prestigious Nathan Award for dramatic criticism, who, himself, served as chairman of the Pulitzer Prize dra ...

, theater critic of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', called her "the most influential American dramatist whose work hasn't become a staple of the mainstream repertoire" and added: "Although she was not as well-known as fellow theater maverick Sam Shepard, her playwriting exerted a similar magnetic pull on generations of theater artists inspired by her liberating example."

Personal life

Fornés was a lesbian and included gays and lesbians in several of her plays. She said, however, that she was not focused on examining such characters: "Being gay is not like being of another species. If you're gay, you're a person. What interests me is the mental and organic life of an individual. I'm writing about how people deal with things as an individual, not as a member of a type." As Fornés' reputation grew in ''avant-garde'' circles, she became friendly with

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American writer, journalist and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least ...

and

Joseph Papp Joseph Papp (born Joseph Papirofsky; June 22, 1921 – October 31, 1991) was an American theatrical producer and director. Papp is a pioneering figure in American theater, known for creating Shakespeare in the Park, which aimed to make classi ...

and reconnected with Harriet Sohmers. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2005 and lived the rest of her life in care facilities. Fornés died at the Amsterdam Nursing Home in Manhattan on October 30, 2018.

Documentary and adaptations

A documentary feature about Fornés called ''The Rest I Make Up'' by Michelle Memran was made in collaboration with Fornés. It focuses on her creative life in the years after she stopped writing due to dementia. The film's title is a line from ''Promenade''. It premiered at Doc Fortnight 2018, the annual festival of New York's

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

composed a 30-minute chamber opera for three singers accompanied by keyboard and harp based on Fornés' play ''Drowning''.

Works

* ''La Viuda'' (The Widow) (1961) * ''There! You Died'' (1963) (produced as ''Tango Palace'' in 1964) * ''The Successful Life of 3: A Skit for Vaudeville'' (1965) * ''

Promenade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortification, fortress or city walls ...

'' (music by Al Carmines) (1965) * ''The Office'' (1966) * ''The Annunciation'' (1967) * ''A Vietnamese Wedding'' (1967) * ''Dr. Kheal'' (1968) * ''Molly's Dream'' (music by Cosmos Savage) (1968) * ''The Red Burning Light, or Mission XQ3'' (music by John Vauman) (1968) * ''Aurora'' (music by John Fitzgibbon) (1972) * ''The Curse of the Langston House'' (1972) * ''Cap-a-Pie'' (From Head to Foot), in Spanish and English, music by José Raúl Bernardo) (1975) * ''Washing'' (1976) * '' Fefu and Her Friends'' (1977) * ''Lolita in the Garden'' (1977) * ''In Service'' (1978) * ''Eyes on the Harem'' (1979) * ''Evelyn Brown (A Diary)'' (1980) * ''A Visit'' (1981) * ''The Danube'' (1982) * ''Mud'' (1983) * '' Sarita'' (music by Leon Odenz) (1984) * ''No Time'' (1984) * ''The Conduct of Life'' (1985) * ''A Matter of Faith'' (1986) * ''Lovers and Keepers'' (music by

Tito Puente Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – May 31, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, timbalero, and record producer. He composed dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz music. He was also k ...

and Fernando Rivas) (1986) * ''Drowning'' (adapted from a story by

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

) (1986) * ''Art'' (1986) * ''The Mothers'' (1986; revised as ''Nadine'' in 1989) * ''Abingdon Square'' (1987) * ''Hunger'' (1988) * ''And What of the Night?'' (four one-act plays: ''Nadine'', ''Springtime'', ''Lust'' and ''Hunger'') (1989) * ''Oscar and Bertha'' (1992) * ''Terra Incognita'' (an opera libretto with a piano score by Roberto Sierra, 90 minutes) (1992) * ''Enter the Night'' (1993) * ''Summer in Gossensass'' (1995) * ''Manual for a Desperate Crossing'' (1996) * ''Balseros'' (Rafters) (opera libretto based on ''Manual for a Desperate Crossing'', music by Robert Ashley) (1997) * ''Letters from Cuba'' (2000)

Direction, adaptation, and translation

* ''Blood Wedding'' (translated and adapted '' Bodas de Sangre'' by

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...

) (1980) * ''Life is a Dream'' (translated, adapted and directed '' La vida es sueño'' by

Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño (17 January 160025 May 1681) (, ; ) was a Spanish dramatist, poet, and writer. He is known as one of the most distinguished Spanish Baroque literature, poets and ...

) (1981) * ''Cold Air'' (translated, adapted and directed a play by Virgilio Piñera) (1985) * ''Uncle Vanya'' (revised Marian Fell's translation of the play by

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

and directed) (1987)

Awards and recognition

* 1961

John Hay Whitney John Hay Whitney (August 17, 1904 – February 8, 1982) was an American venture capitalist, sportsman, philanthropist, newspaper publisher, film producer and diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the '' New ...

Foundation fellowship * 1965 Obie Award for Distinguished Plays: ''Promenade'' and ''The Successful Life of 3'' * 1972

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

, Drama and Performance Art * 1977 Obie Award for Playwrighting: ''Fefu and Her Friends'' * 1979 Obie Award for Directing: ''Eyes on the Harem'' * 1982 Obie Award for Sustained Achievement * 1984 Obie Awards for Playwrighting: ''The Danube'', ''Sarita'', ''Mud'' * 1984 Obie Awards for Directing: ''The Danube'', ''Sarita'', ''Mud'' * 1985 Obie Award for Best New American Play: ''The Conduct of Life'' * 1985

American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqua ...

award in literature * 1986 Playwrights U.S.A. Award for translation of Virgilio Piñera's ''Cold Air'' * 1988 Obie Award for Best New American Play: ''Abingdon Square'' * 1990 New York State Governor's Arts Award * 1992 Honorary doctorate,

Bates College Bates College () is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian ...

* 2000 Obie Award Special Citation for ''Letters From Cuba'' * 2001 Robert Chesley Award, for lifetime achievement * 2002

PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award The PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award, commonly referred to as the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award, is awarded by the PEN America (formerly PEN American Center). It annually recognizes two American playwrights. A medal is given ...

for a Master American Dramatist

Notes

References

External links

María Irene Fornés official website
archived March 20, 2007.
Fornés InstituteMaría Irene Fornés
at Broadway Play Publishing Inc. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fornes, Maria Irene 1930 births 2018 deaths Cuban emigrants to the United States Hispanic and Latino American dramatists and playwrights American women dramatists and playwrights American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights Cuban LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights Cuban women dramatists and playwrights Cuban lesbian writers LGBTQ Hispanic and Latino American people American lesbian writers Lesbian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Cuban women writers 20th-century Cuban writers 21st-century American women writers