María Irene Fornés

Who is María Irene Fornés?

María Irene Fornés is a Cuban-American avant garde playwright and director was a leading figure of the Off-Off-Broadway movement in the 1960s. Fornés' themes focused on poverty and feminism. Moreover, on personal and artistic levels, her lesbian identity has been central to her art.

In 1965, she won her first Distinguished Plays Obie Award for Promenade and The Successful Life of 3. She was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize with her play And What of the Night? Other notable works include Fefu and Her Friends, Mud, Letters from Cuba and Sarita. Fornés became known in both Hispanic-American and experimental theatre in New York, winning a total of nine Obie Awards.