Maria Irene Fornes

Maria Irene Fornes is the most influential female American dramatist of the 20th century. That is the argument of this important new study, the first to assess Fornes's complete body of work. Scott T. Cummings considers comic sketches, opera libretti and unpublished pieces, as well as her best-known plays, in order to trace the evolution of her dramaturgy from the whimsical Off-Off Broadway plays of the 1960s to the sober, meditative work of the 1990s. The book also reflects on her practice as an inspirational teacher of playwriting and the primary director of her own plays. Drawing on the latest scholarship and his own personal research and interviews with Fornes over two decades, Cummings examines Fornes's unique significance and outlines strategies for understanding her fragmentary, enigmatic, highly demanding theater.

Scott T. Cummings is Chair of the Theatre Department of Boston College, where he directs plays and teaches courses in playwriting and dramatic literature. He is the author of Remaking American Theater: Charles Mee, Anne Bogart and the SITI Company, as well as numerous performance reviews, journal articles, and essays on contemporary American theater and drama.

Overview Part I -- The 1960s "Let me be wrong. But also not know it." 1 Getting started Bohemian roots: growing up in Havana Bohemian roots: settling in Greenwich Village Tango Palace (1963) A metatheatrical conceit 2 Off-Off Broadway: The Good Scene Cino, Judson, La MaMa, and others The Open Theatre connection The Successful Life of 3 (1965) The Office (1966) Dr. Kheal (1968) A Vietnamese Wedding (1967) The Red Burning Light (1968) 3 Key play: Promenade (the apotheosis of Judson) The Judson Poets' Theatre Promenade (as a one-act in 1965) Promenade (as a full-length in 1969) Molly's Dream (1973) Part II -- The 1970s "If we're showing what life is, can be, we must do theatre." 4 Finding a way New York Theatre Strategy Aurora (1974) INTAR and the Hispanic Playwrights-in-Residence Laboratory Cap-a-Pie (1975) Eyes on the Harem (1979) 5 Key play: Fefu and Her Friends (turning over the stone) Fefu and Her Friends: The Basic Action Fefu and Her Friends: The experimental second act Fefu and Her Friends: at At the Foot of the Mountain Fefu and Her Friends: at the Yale Repertory Theatre Part III -- The 1980s "I have to learn how to lead my life." 6 Found Theater for the New City Padua Hills Fondness for the Found Evelyn Brown (A Diary) (1980) A Visit (1981) The Trial of Joan of Arc in a Matter of Faith (1986) 7 The PAJ Plays The Danube (1983) "Irene Time" Mud (1983) Sarita (1984) The "emotigraph" as unit of construction The Conduct of Life (1985) The rhetoric of space/the space of rhetoric 8 Key play: Abingdon Square (conquering the vagueness) Teaching playwriting Lovers and Keepers (1986) Abingdon Square: Genesis and production history Abingdon Square: Marion as Fornes Innocent Abingdon Square: the process of imagination "The Poetry of Space in a Box" Part IV -- The 1990s "Where are we in relation to all this?" 9 The Night Plays What of the Night? (1989) Oscar and Bertha (1992) Enter the Night (1993) Manual For a Desperate Crossing (Balseros/Rafters) (1997) Terra Incognita (1997) 10 Coming to an end The Summer at Gossensass (1998) Fornes and Hedda Gabler Letters From Cuba (2000) Legacy Drowning as paradigm "This must be made by a person."