María Irene Fornés Quotes

María Irene Fornés was a Cuban-American playwright, theater director, and teacher who worked in off-Broadway 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.

New Yorker critic Hilton Als 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 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." Wikipedia  

✵ 14. May 1930 – 30. October 2018
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María Irene Fornés: 4   quotes 0   likes

Famous María Irene Fornés Quotes

“Theater is a service where the god keeps changing…Sometimes it’s the actor. Sometimes it’s the director. Sometimes it’s the stage manager. Sometimes, but almost never, it’s the playwright.”

On the fickle nature of theater in “Moment to Moment: with Maria Irene Fornes” https://brooklynrail.org/2002/10/theater/moment-to-moment-with-maria-irene-fornes in The Brooklyn Rail (Autumn 2002)

“Art is something you don’t just reproduce—what you see everyday doesn’t seem to be inspiring to them. But you do something with it so that it’s not bound by the law of reality. My work has always had that influence. I’ve never felt that it was necessary at all to write realistic plays…”

On how her work (and other Latin American artists) tend to gear towards surrealism in “María Irene Fornés by Allen Frame” https://bombmagazine.org/articles/maria-irene-fornes/ in BOMB Magazine (1984 Oct 1)

“Having a play directed by someone else is like going to a religious school when you’re a child, you listen and obey…”

On the loss of creative control if you’re not directing in “María Irene Fornés by Allen Frame” https://bombmagazine.org/articles/maria-irene-fornes/ in BOMB Magazine (1984 Oct 1)

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