User:Kennajmoore/Maria Irene Fornes

María Irene Fornés (May 14, 1930 - ) is a Cuban-American Avant Garde playwright and artist who is credited with the establishment of the Off-Off-Broadway movement introduced in the 1960's. Fornes' style prompted the use of plot to convey her main themes of poverty and feminism. In 1965, she won her first Obie Award for Promenade and her second for The Successful Life of Three. She was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize with her play, And What of the Night?

Early Life
Fornés was born in Havana, Cuba, and emigrated to the United States at the age of 15; due to the passing of her father, Carlos Fornes in 1945. She became a naturalized citizen in 1951. When she first arrived to America Fornes did not speak anty english and had to find work at a ribbon making factory. Unsatisfied with this work, she took up classes to learn English. Later, she became a translator. At the age of 19, she formed an interest in painting and began her formal education in abstract art. During this time, she studied artist Hans Hoffman in both New York City and Provincetown, Massachusetts.

In 1954, she moved to Europe to study to become a painter. In the same year, Fornes was greatly influenced by a French production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot even though she never read the play nor did she understand French. This event would change her life and shift her creative ambitions towards playwriting.

Career
In 1957, Fornes would return to New York City and roomed with writer Susan Sontag. They encouraged each other to write. Her first production was titled, "The Widow" (1961). Her next major production was "There! You Died"(1963) which was later renamed Tango Palace" (1964). Fornés gained prominence in avant-garde circles and was a known friend of figures of 1950s, 1960s and 1970s culture in New York, including Harriet Sohmers Zwerling and the now deceased Norman Mailer, Joseph Papp and Susan Sontag, and was later championed by Performing Arts Journal (later PAJ).

She became a pivotal figure in both Hispanic-American and experimental theater, winning nine Obies in both the playwriting and directing categories. Some of her more notable works include Fefu and Her Friends (1977) and Sarita (1984). Fornés's influence in theater is vast, due not only to her unique vision as a writer but also her ongoing role as a teacher. She continues to direct plays and receive fellowships and grants from key foundations. Fornés received an honorary Litt.D. from Bates College in 1992. Playwright Nilo Cruz also studied with Fornés, who recommended him to Paula Vogel.

Major Works & Performances
"Tango Palace" (1963) - Initially produced as ''There! You Died'' with San Fransisco's Actor's Workshop at the Encore Theatre in 1963. An absurdist two-character play, There! You Died was later revised to "Tango Palace" the following year at New York City's Actors Studio. The play serves as an allegorical power struggle between the two central characters: Isidore, a clown and Leopold, a naive youth. This production would serve as the catalyst to Fornes' style of theatre production, as she was involved in the entire staging process. Like much of Fornes' writing during this time, "Tango Palace" stresses character self-absorption rather than plot.

"Fefu and Her Friends" (1977) - Uniquely deconstructs the more familiar stage setup, removing the fourth wall, in favor of acts being played out onstage and within multiple locations in the theater itself. First produced in 1977, by the New York Theater Strategy at the Relativity Media Lab. A story of eight women, who on the surface, appear to be engaging in their mishaps with men, climaxes to a scene of a murder. This is a feminist play that focuses on female characters and their thoughts, feelings and interrelationships. Fornes strategically produces a story in which all plot and characters are told from a woman's perspective. These women repeatedly discuss their conflicts with men in a confined space set only for women. Fornes sets a material atmosphere where these characters can be viewed as real women. This mark represents a shift in her play-writing as the settings, characters and situations were more realistic in nature.

"Mud" (1983) - First produced in 1983 at the Padua Hills Playwright's Festival in California. A play set in an unknown poverty-stricken environment, "Mud" explores the lives of Mae, Lloyd, and Henry who all are involved in a dysfunctional love triangle where gender roles are reversed. Fornes cleverly illustrates the differences between those who are content and those who want more in their plight throughout their lives. Fornes provides her familiar technique of the female character's rise while inserting two male characters who show complete opposition. Education plays the central role of Mae's decision making process guides her affection towards Henry. Moreover, the way the mind experiences poverty and isolation.

"Letters From Cuba" (2000) - Had its world premier with the Signatures Theater Company in February 2000. The play focuses on a young female Cuban dancer (Fran) living in New York who corresponds to her brother (Luis) in Cuba. This play serves as the first piece of work in which Fornes has formally identified as being drawn from her own personal experiences; as she based the characters and story off of herself and her brother and their nearly 30 years of letter writing between one another.

Writing Style
Fornes' writing style addresses both social and personal issues; while removing the playwright from the work itself. Her use of Avant-Garde techniques is to promote any function the audience may identify with in their experience of her work. Fornes's views writing as something that should be " something that you're curious about without the answers,...knowing the answers is fake, because the appearance of the discovery is false." Fornes' writing style is based in Avant-Garde, as she was a pioneer to the Off-Off-Broadway movement. She utilizes experimental techniques; everything from modern form to feminist perspectives incorporated with realism and allegorical elements. The spectator's identification and empathy with characters is as the core of Fornes' theatrical philosophy. Much of her commentary on these issues involves gender considerations, mostly because Fornes is responding to questions from critics and interviewers about the role of gender. The theater, she suggests, is a place in which to stage experience so that the spectator can "receive" that experience and achieve "identification."

List of Plays

 * The Widow (1961)
 * There! You Died (1963) [produced as Tango Palace in 1964, and revised in 1963)
 * The Successful life of 3: A skit for Vaudeville (1965)
 * Promenade (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 (composer)) (1972)
 * The Curse of the Langston House (1972)
 * Cap-a-Pie (music by José Raúl Bernardo) (1975)
 * Washing (1976)
 * Fefu and Her Friends (1977). Live stage performance rights licensed by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
 * Lolita in the Garden (1977)
 * In Service (1978)
 * Eyes on the Harem (1979)
 * Evelyn Brown (A Diary) (1980)
 * Blood Wedding (adapted from Bodas de Sangre by Federico García Lorca) (1980)
 * Life is a Dream (adapted from La vida es sueño by Pedro Calderón de la Barca) (1981)
 * A Visit (1981)
 * The Danube (1982) Live stage performance rights licensed by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
 * Mud (1983) Live stage performance rights licensed by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
 * Sarita (music by Leon Odenz) (1984) Live stage performance rights licensed by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
 * No Time (1984)
 * The Conduct of Life (1985) Live stage performance rights licensed by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
 * Cold Air (adapted and translated from a play by Virgilio Piñera) (1985)
 * A Matter of Faith (1986)
 * Lovers and Keepers (music by Tito Puente and Fernando Rivas) (1986)
 * Drowning (adapted from a story by Anton Chekhov) 1986. Live stage performance rights licensed by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
 * Art (1986)
 * "The Mothers" (1986; revised as Nadine in 1989)
 * Abingdon Square (1987)
 * Uncle Vanya (adapted from the play by Anton Chekhov) (1987)
 * Hunger (1988)
 * And What of the Night? (four one-act plays: Hunger, Springtime, Lust, and Nadine) (1989)
 * Oscar and Bertha (1992)
 * Terra Incognita (music by Roberto Sierra) (1992)
 * Summer in Gossensass (1995)
 * Manual for a Desperate Crossing (1996)
 * Balseros (Rafters) (opera based on Manual for a Desperate Crossing, music by Robert Ashley) (1997)
 * Letters from Cuba (2000)

Achievements and Awards

 * 1961 John Hay Whitney Foundation fellowhip
 * 1962 Centro Mexicano de Escritores fellowhip
 * 1965 Obie Award for Distinguished Playwriting: Promenade and The Successful Life of 3
 * 1967 Cintas Foundation fellowship
 * 1967 Yale University Fellowship
 * 1968 Yale University fellowship
 * 1969 Boston University Tanglewood fellowship
 * 1971 Rockefeller Foundation grant
 * 1972 Co-founded the New York Theatre Strategy (which was used for experimental productions for playwrights)
 * 1972 Guggenheim fellowship
 * 1972 Creative Artist Public Service Grant
 * 1974 National Endowment for the Arts grant
 * 1975 Creative Artist Public Service grant
 * 1977 Obie Award for Playwrighting and Directing: Fefu and Her Friends
 * 1979 Obie Award for Directing: Eyes on the Harem
 * 1982 Obie Award for Oustanding Achievement
 * 1984 Obie Award for Playwrighting and Directing: The Danube, Sarita, and Mud
 * 1984 National Endowment for the Arts grant
 * 1984 Rockefeller Foundation grant
 * 1985 Obie Award for The Conduct of Life
 * 1985 American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
 * 1986 Playwrights U.S.A. Award for translation of Cold Air
 * 1988 Obie Award for Abingdon Square
 * 1990 New York State Governor's Arts Award