María Irene Fornés: Legacy Work

I am committed to investigating and forwarding the legacy of long-overlooked Cuban-American queer playwright María Irene Fornés. This work extends through my creative practice, my scholarship and my pedagogy, and includes directing plays, producing film and theatrical events, academic writing, and writing for the field.

Film Producing

My Fornés Legacy work is anchored by my producing credit on Michelle Memran’s documentary The Rest I Make Up (2018). Named one of the best movies of 2018 by film critic Richard Brody of the New Yorker, the film follows the intergenerational friendship and creative collaboration between Fornés and filmmaker Memran after Fornés stopped writing due to dementia. It is a testament to Fornés’s creative spirit, a primer in her ethos and methodology, and a provocative reflection on the necessity of community in the life of a theater artist.

The Rest I Make Up premiered at the Doc Fortnight Festival at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City before winning awards at numerous film festivals including women-focused and queer-focused festivals. It has screened nationally and internationally at venues such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris and London’s Institute of Contemporary Art. The film sparked a resurgence of interest in Fornés’s work as both a playwright and a teacher and has itself become a site of community-making, serving as an impetus and anchor for Fornés-focused festivals, context for writing workshops, and as a vital locus for Fornésian scholars and scholarship.

Video Links

Film trailer: https://www.therestimakeup.com/trailer
Full film: https://vimeo.com/398378982?share=copy (Password: IRENE)

Please see my CV for a list of screenings and Fornés-related panels and talks. You can visit www.therestimakeup.com for more information about the film.

Writing

In 2021, I was awarded a faculty research fellowship through the Center for the Humanities (CHUM) at Wesleyan University to work on a collaborative book project with Director Michelle Memran. Using an “anecdotal archive” of film outtakes and Fornés’ ephemera, we sought to bring readers into an intimate relationship with Fornés in her vibrant later years of creativity.

My CHUM public lecture was called “Entering a Life: María Irene Fornés and the Stuff of Making.” The project currently lives as a chapter titled “Queer Aging: María Irene Fornés” for the forthcoming book Fornés in Context, edited by Anne Garcia-Romero and Brian Herrera, published by Cambridge University Press, Cambridge England.

Poster, Center for the Humanities Monday Night Lecture Series.
Click to view whole image.

The Fornés Marathon

In 2019, I produced The Fornés Marathon, a sold-out 12-hour marathon of readings of plays by María Irene Fornés, at the Public Theater. Working alongside Executive Producer JoAnne Akalaitis, we assembled a "pop-up" company of high-profile actors and directors from theater, film, and TV –– all volunteering their time to celebrate and honor Fornés, whose work was never produced at the Public in her lifetime. Our ensemble included Bill Camp, Michael Cerveris, Teddy Cañez, Kathleen Chalfant, Carlo Albán, Orlando Pabotoy, Karen Kandel, David Greenspan, Heidi Schreck, MaYaa Boateng, Ellen McLaughlin, and Carmelita Tropicana, among many others. (Please see my Professional Staged Readings page for my directing work in the Marathon.)

Fornés Marathon Photos:

Photo credit: Johnny Moreno

David Greenspan performs Dr. Kheal

Packed houses for the Marathon

The cast of Mud: (from L) Orlando Pabotoy, Wendy Vanden Heuvel, Bill Camp, Karen Kandel

Directing

In my directing practice, I served as Associate to JoAnne Akalaitis, director and founding member of the legendary Mabou Mines in New York City, on a diptych of Fornés plays. Mud/Drowning had music composed by Philip Glass and was produced for the Under the Radar Theater Festival at the Public Theater, NYC, Feb 2022 (canceled due to COVID). In 2017, I directed Fornés’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated What of the Night? at the La Jolla Playhouse as the Quinn Martin Guest Chair of Directing at Univ. of California, San Diego.

Directing Panel

In 2018, I was invited to join the panel “Women Directors on Fornés as Director: Celebrated directors discuss the influence of Fornés’ work on their own” as part of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Colloquium on Fornés. Chaired by Julia Jarcho with Alice Reagan, Tina Satter, Gisela Cardenas, and Elena Araoz.

Video: Watch the Directing Panel here
(section 18.50 – 33.45)