María Irene Fornés facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
María Irene Fornés
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Fornés circa November 2011
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| Born | May 14, 1930 |
| Died | October 30, 2018 (aged 88) New York City, United States
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| Citizenship | American (1951) |
| Occupation | Playwright, Director, Teacher |
| Organization | Hispanic Playwrights-in-Residence Laboratory, INTAR Theater |
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Notable work
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| Awards | 9 Obie Awards, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award |
María Irene Fornés (born May 14, 1930 – died October 30, 2018) was a famous Cuban-American writer, theater director, and teacher. She worked in experimental theater in New York City for many years. Her plays explored many different topics. Often, her characters were people with big dreams, even when they faced tough challenges.
Fornés, who was known as "Irene," won nine Obie Theatre Awards. These awards celebrate great achievements in Off-Broadway theater. She was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1990. Many critics and other writers praised her work. Hilton Als said she "changed the face of theatre." Playwright Tony Kushner called her a "magical maker of theater."
Contents
Biography
Early Life and Moving to the US
María Irene Fornés was born in Havana, Cuba, on May 14, 1930. She was the youngest of six children. When she was 15, her father passed away. After this, she moved to the United States with her mother and one sister in 1945. She became a U.S. citizen in 1951.
When she first arrived, Fornés worked in a shoe factory. She wasn't happy there, so she took English classes. She then became a translator. At 19, she became interested in painting. She studied abstract art with famous teachers in New York City.
In 1954, Fornés met writer Harriet Sohmers. They moved to Paris, France, where Fornés planned to study painting. While there, she saw a play called Waiting for Godot. She later said, "I didn't speak any French at all. But I understood the world... I got the rhythm. And it turned my life upside down." This play inspired her deeply. She lived in Paris for three years. She returned to New York City in 1957.
How She Started Writing Plays
Fornés began writing plays by translating old letters. These letters were from a cousin in Spain to her great-grandfather in Cuba. She turned them into a play called La Viuda (The Widow) in 1961. This play was only performed in Spanish in New York. It was an early step in her journey as a playwright.
In 1959, Fornés met writer Susan Sontag. Fornés once helped Sontag, who was struggling to write a novel. To show how easy writing could be, Fornés started a short story using ideas from a cookbook. She said, "I might never have thought of writing if I hadn't pretended I was going to show Susan how easy it was." This moment launched her career as a playwright.
Becoming a Playwright
Her first play to be widely recognized was There! You Died in 1963. It was later renamed Tango Palace. This play was about two characters, a clown and a young man. It showed a struggle for power between them. Like many of her plays, Tango Palace focused more on the characters than on a complex story. Fornés also liked to be involved in directing her plays.
In 1965, she wrote The Successful Life of 3 and Promenade. These two plays won her first Obie Award. Critics loved Promenade, calling it "a joy from start to finish." They praised its cleverness and heart.
Fornés almost had a play on Broadway in 1966 called The Office. But she felt the production didn't show her vision correctly. She used her right to pull the script. The show closed quickly, and she never tried Broadway again.
Unique Plays and Themes
In Fefu and Her Friends (1977), Fornés tried something new. The audience would start in a traditional theater space. Then, they would divide into groups and move to different parts of the building to watch scenes. Each group saw all the scenes in different orders. The play is about eight women planning a fundraiser. It explores women's friendships and perspectives. Fornés called it a "pro-feminine play."
In 1982, Fornés won a special Obie Award for her lasting achievements. In 1984, she won two more Obies for writing and directing three plays: The Danube, Mud, and Sarita.
Mud (1983) tells the story of Mae, Lloyd, and Henry, who live in poverty. It shows how people want more from life, but are limited by their circumstances. Fornés said Mud was a "feminist play" because it focused on a woman's journey through poverty and isolation.
Sarita (1984) explores the lives of Hispanic women in the U.S. The main character, Sarita, is a 13-year-old unwed mother in the Bronx in 1939. The play follows her until she enters a hospital at age 21. Some of the dialogue is in Spanish. The play uses distorted scenery to show Sarita's inner struggles.
Other award-winning plays include The Conduct of Life (1985) and Abingdon Square (1988). Both were named Best New American Play. Fornés was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1990 for And What of the Night?.
Her last completed play was Letters From Cuba (2000). For the first time, Fornés used her own life experiences. She had exchanged letters with her brother in Cuba for 30 years. The play shows a young man in Cuba reading letters to his sister, a dancer in New York. It explores the sadness of being separated and the dreams of young artists. Letters From Cuba received a special Obie Award.
Teaching and Influence
María Irene Fornés became a very important figure in both Hispanic-American and experimental theater in New York. She was especially known for her playwriting workshops. She taught aspiring writers all over the world.
As the director of the INTAR Hispanic Playwrights-in-Residence Lab in New York, she guided many Latin playwrights. These included famous writers like Nilo Cruz and Eduardo Machado.
Many Pulitzer Prize-winning writers, such as Tony Kushner and Paula Vogel, said Fornés inspired them. Lanford Wilson said, "Her work has no precedents; it isn't derived from anything. She's the most original of us all." Paula Vogel believed that every American playwright's work could be divided into "before she has read Maria Irene Fornes and after."
Theater critic Charles McNulty called her "the most influential American dramatist whose work hasn't become a staple of the mainstream repertoire." He noted her work had a "magnetic pull" on new generations of artists.
Personal Life and Later Years
Fornés was a lesbian. She included gay and lesbian characters in some of her plays. However, she said she focused on them as individuals, not just as members of a group. She explained, "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."
As her fame grew, she became friends with well-known figures like Norman Mailer. She also reconnected with Harriet Sohmers.
In 2005, Fornés was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. She lived in care facilities for the rest of her life. María Irene Fornés passed away in Manhattan on October 30, 2018.
Documentary and Adaptations
A documentary film about Fornés, called The Rest I Make Up, was made by Michelle Memran. It shows Fornés' creative life after she stopped writing due to dementia. The film's title comes from a line in her play Promenade. It premiered at a festival in New York in 2018.
Composer Philip Glass created a short opera 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 (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 and Fernando Rivas) (1986)
- Drowning (adapted from a story by Chekhov) (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) (1980)
- Life is a Dream (translated, adapted and directed La vida es sueño by Pedro Calderón de la Barca) (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 and directed) (1987)
Awards and Recognition
- 1961 John Hay Whitney Foundation fellowship
- 1965 Obie Award for Distinguished Plays: Promenade and The Successful Life of 3
- 1972 Guggenheim Fellowship, 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 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
- 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 for a Master American Dramatist
See also
In Spanish: María Irene Fornés para niños
