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1990s

1991 OSCAR AND BERTHA

 

CAST

2W, 1M

 

SYNOPSIS

Oscar and Bertha are siblings leading isolated, constrained lives. They engage a maid, Eve, and hope that they now can use her sexually. Given increasing financial problems Oscar has to seek work, an improbable goal, as the play’s surreal humor increasingly becomes darker.

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Oscar, a forty-five year old wheelchair user, sits close to Eva, a forty-year old newly arrived servant. Oscar asks for Eve’s name and where she comes from. Once she briefly answers he makes sexual comments about young girls and pinches her breasts. When she moves away he pursues her and puts his head under her dress. She again moves away hitting him with a newspaper as he pursues her. They are joined by Bertha, Oscar’s sister, aged forty-three. Brother and sister quarrel as Bertha defends Eva, but after initially denying it Bertha confirms that she watched Oscar’s assaults through the keyhole.

Oscar asserts that Eve enjoys his attentions. Disputing this, Bertha’s own sexual approach to Eve is also rejected and Eve exits . The bickering of brother and sister continues. Eva rejoins them now paler and with dark circles around her eyes. Financial strains are discussed. Bertha and then Oscar again make slapstick sexual advances to Eva who again rejects them. Nevertheless, in Eve’s absence, they each claim a sexual relationship with her.

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Bertha overhears Eva talking offstage with Pike, a man who is a forty-year old banker. She tells Oscar that Eve is speaking to Pike of orgasmic sexual feelings and although Oscar looks for Pike he does not find him. Eve prepares to go shopping for food but as there is no cash. Bertha tells Oscar he must look for work. Eve leaves and Bertha and Oscar tell impossible stories to one another of how they have each succeeded in ensuring that Eve is pregnant. On Eve’s return she announces the arrival of Pike but Oscar sends him away. Eve tells Bertha that Pike wants to see Bertha. Brother and sister again claim various sexual successes until Oscar boasts of sex with their mother. Bertha tells him to leave their home. Oscar is speechless and falls to the floor kissing Bertha’s feet but she withdraws to her bedroom. He then suggests that Eve kill Bertha but she tells Bertha and the playground-like quarrelling escalates.

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Pike enters and picks up the distressed Oscar to cradle him until Oscar sleeps. Seeking Pike’s attention Bertha pushes Oscar off Pike’s lap and the quarreling resumes until Oscar leaves the room. He returns wearing a long dress, a veil, and a tiara, dancing until he collapses. Bertha tells Oscar to get a job or leave and he has a heart attack. Searching newspaper advertisements for work Oscar is out of his depth so asks Eve for help. She prepares to find work for herself but looks unwell. Eve needs to go to hospital but they have no money. As she lies upon Oscar’s bed Bertha and Oscar resume their quarreling over her. Pike returns and asks how the work is going. Bertha tells him that Oscar has not been paid although Eve has. Oscar says that he is learning how to work but that it is not easy. [MM]

 

PRODUCTION HISTORY

  • 1987 – Workshop at Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis MN (dir. Maria Irene Fornes)

  • Oscar and Bertha was presented as a work in progress at New Paltz University, the Guthrie Theatre Lab and directed by Fornés at Padua Hills Playwrights Festival, California State University, Northridge, Los Angeles, 1989. Cast: Oscar – Pamela Gordon Bertha – Mary Forcade Pike – Laura Fanning Eve – Molly Cleator Assistant Director – Connie Monaghan Lighting Design – Jason Berliner Music – Tarantella by Stephen Heller, performed by Valerie Gordon.

  • She directed it in 1992 at the Magic Theatre, Northside, San Francisco, California where it opened 10th March. Sets and Costume Design were by Sandra Woodall, and Lighting Design by Jennifer Norris. Cast: Oscar – Dennis Ludlow Bertha – Patricia Mattick Pike – Patrick Morris Eve – Regina Saisel

 

PUBLICATION HISTORY

  • Published in Best of the West, edited by Murray Mednick, Bill Raden and Cheryl Slean, (Los Angeles: Padua Hills Press, 1991), pp 60-94.

 

OTHER DOCUMENTATION

  • To read Fornes’ own comments see her ‘Preface to Tango Palace & The Successful Life of 3’ in The Theatre of Maria Irene Fornes, ed. Marc Robinson.

  • Fornes dedicated this ‘To the memory of my father Carlos Fornes 1891-1945’, in Maria Irene Fornes, Plays, pp.69-88, p.69.

 

 

1991 TERRA INCOGNITA

 

CAST

 

SYNOPSIS

Terra Incognita takes place outdoors in the middle of the day, but the cloud of metaphoric night still hovers over it. Three young American travelers have arrived in Palos, Spain, the port from which Columbus sailed into the “unknown territory” of the New World in search of a shorter trade route to the East Indies. Amalia, her brother Rob, and their friend Georgia spend the morning in an outdoor cafe in typical tourist fashion: sipping coffee in the sun, jotting notes in a journal, consulting maps and guidebooks, sharing anecdotes about lost passports or language difficulties, and meeting the locals. In this instance, the two strangers they meet bring a historical dimension to the play that connects America in 1992 with the one Columbus “discovered” five centuries earlier. The first is a crazy, dirty vagrant named Burt, who punctuates his rambling thoughts about ancient cosmology with karate chops, manic laughter, and exclamations like “I’m a modern man.” It gradually becomes evident that the delusional Burt thinks he is a manifestation of Christopher Columbus, just as the other stranger in the cafe, Steve, is an incarnation incarnation of Bartolomé de las Casas, the Dominican friar and Spanish colonist who chronicled the early European atrocities against the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. Steve interacts with the others hardly at all; mainly he faces front and recites long passages from de las Casas’s History of the Indies that document the greed and barbarism of the Spanish.

Cummings, Scott  T.. Maria Irene Fornes (Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists) (pp. 152-153). Taylor and Francis.

 

PRODUCTION HISTORY

  • An opera for the theatre with libretto by Fornés and music by Roberto Sierra, it was commissioned by Max Ferra of INTAR, (International Arts Relations), Hispanic American Arts Centre with grant funding from NEA Opera Musical Theatre and Meet the Composer. It premiered there, and then in Europe, under Fornés’ direction at the Dionysia Playwrights Festival, Siena, Italy and developed with the following presentations.

    • Summer 1991 – Preliminary studies on libretto and score at Storm King Art Centre, New York. Directed by Maria Irene Fornés, music composed by Roberto Sierra.

    • May 25th – 26th 1992 – The libretto was developed for presentation as a play at the Dionysia Festival at the Public Palace, Siena, Italy (dir. Maria Irene Fornés) Cast: Amalia – Shawna Casey Georgia – Kimberly Flynn Rob – Leo Garcia Burt – Leon Martell Steve – Steve Hofvendahl Director – María Irene Fornés Date Unknown – Presented at the Yale Cabaret Theatre, New Haven CT (dir. John Moscone, music by Kim Sherman). Published in Theatre, Vol. 24, No.2, 1993, pp. 99-121.

    • July 1994 – Padua Hills Playwrights Festival, Woodbury University, Burbank CA (dir. Maria Irene Fornés) Cast:Amalia – Jennifer Alagna Georgia – Kimberly Flynn Rob – Leo Garcia Burt – Leon Martell Steve – Steve Hofvendahl Director – María Irene Fornés

    • From 19th March – 13th April 1997, Fornés directed it for the fourth time when it was co-produced with The Women’s Project and INTAR, 420 West 42nd Street, NYC. Music Direction and piano playing was by Stephen Gosling. Set Design was by Van Santvoord, Lighting Design by Philipp Widmer and Costume design by Willma Kim. Cast: Georgia – Candace Rogers-O’Connor, Amalia – Jennifer Alagna, Rob – Matthew Perri, Cristobal – Lawrence Craig (baritone), Bartolome – John Muriello (tenor).

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PUBLICATION HISTORY

  • Tucker, Dan. Padua : Plays from the Padua Hills Playwrights Festival. 1st ed. Los Angeles] : New York: Padua Playwrights Press ; Distributed by Theatre Communications Group, 2003.

  • Fornes, Maria Irene. Letters from Cuba and Other Plays. 1st ed. New York : [Saint Paul, MN]: PAJ Publications ; Distributed to the Trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, 2007.

 

 

1992 SPRINGTIME

 

CAST

2W, 1M

 

SYNOPSIS

The eternal story of love and betrayal.

 

PRODUCTION HISTORY

  • First performed in 1992 at For Your Life Productions, NYC. This segment of What of the Night? waited until 1997 to be directed by Fornes at Theatre for the New City, New York City, NY. One of the actors was Molly Powell.

 

PUBLICATION HISTORY

  • Frank, Leah D. Facing Forward: One-act Plays and Monologues by Contemporary American Women at the Crest of the 21st Century. Broadway Play Publishing Inc, 2018.

  • Licensing: Broadway Play Publishing

 

 

1993 ENTER THE NIGHT

 

CAST

 

SYNOPSIS

Tressa, a young nurse of the dying, reunites her long-time friends in her loft apartment. Arriving at the apartment are Jack, a young gay playwright, and Paula, a middle-aged straight woman who has heart problems and has come to the city to have a specialist heart check. She is already seriously ill and also has monetary problems which make her farm financially insecure. Jack, who does not have Aids, cannot accept Tressa’s reassurances about this and instead torments himself with the conviction that he infected his now dead partner. To achieve calm, to perhaps reach an Eastern acceptance of suffering, Tressa chooses to dress as an Asian man and with Jack taking the role of Lillian Gish as a young girl seeking sanctuary, they movingly re-enact the girl’s dying from the silent film Broken Blossoms. Eastern mysticism is present too when part of the sound track of Lost Horizon is heard. Tressa and Jack’s ritual, which is accidentally witnessed by Paula who recognizes its acceptance of pain and suffering, enables art, death, and friendship to combine. Jack pushes this combination into their real lives when he hurtles away from them into the night, to return having been brutalized in the street and is held pieta-like by the women as the play closes. [MM]

 

PRODUCTION HISTORY

  • Originally called Dreams, this was directed by Fornes for its 16th April 1993 world premiere performances by the commissioning Theatre Zero, New City Theatre, Seattle, Washington – New City Theatre had staged Fefu and Her Friends in 1990. Cast: Tressa – Mary Ewald, Paula – Patricia Mattick, Jack – Brian Faker. Production: Costume Design by Rose Pedelton, Lighting Design by Anne Militello, Set Design by Donald Eastman. It was also directed by Fornes in 1993 at Dallas Theatre Center, Dallas, Texas as part of the Big D Festival of the Unexpected.

  • 1999 – Signature Theatre, New York NY (dir. Sonja Moser)

 

PUBLICATION HISTORY

  • Fornes, Maria Irene. What of the Night? : Selected Plays. 1st ed. New York: PAJ Publications, 2008.

 

 

1995 IBSEN AND THE ACTRESS

 

CAST

 

SYNOPSIS

 

PRODUCTION HISTORY

  • Developing by 1997 into The Summer in Gossensass this single section of the extended work was directed by Fornes at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.1995 Ibsen and the Actress

  • Developing by 1997 into The Summer in Gossensass this single section of the extended work was directed by Fornes at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

 

 

1996 MANUAL FOR A DESPERATE CROSSING (BALSEROS/RAFTERS)

 

CAST

 

SYNOPSIS

For this opera work, Fornes and others interviewed more than two dozen balseros (rafters), political and economic refugees who left Cuba under duress on makeshift rafts and survived crossing the Florida straits to find a new life in the USA. Hundreds who attempted this same ninety-mile journey were lost at sea, and the piece paid tribute to the heroism and the hardships of planning and carrying out such a dangerous escape. With this in mind, Fornes titled her libretto Manual for a Desperate Crossing, but when the opera premiered in Miami in 1997, it was presented simply as Balseros/Rafters…In her libretto, Fornes did not create individual characters with specific narratives that motivated their desire to leave Cuba. Instead, she focused on the common experience of the balseros and the four basic stages of the journey: 1) preparation for the crossing, including building the raft and gathering provisions; 2) departure, including the sadness of leaving one’s homeland; 3) the difficult time at sea, including a terrible storm and an encounter with a huge ship that sailed close enough to gawk at the rafters and then moved away without offer of aid or rescue; and finally, 4) arrival in Florida and a search for a telephone to contact local relatives and a Coca-Cola to quench parched throats.

Cummings, Scott  T.. Maria Irene Fornes (Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists) (p. 150-151). Taylor and Francis.

 

PRODUCTION HISTORY

  • The libretto was written by Fornes with music by Robert Ashley, who apparently renamed this opera Balseros/Rafters. It premiered on 16th May 1997 at Florida Grand Opera, Miami, Florida (dir. Michael Montel). The South Florida Composers Alliance, Florida Grand Opera and Miami-Dade Community College worked to create it with Fornes and Ashley funded by a Knight Foundation grant of $50,000. See www.knightfdn.org for an interesting account by Fornes.

  • 2010 – Halcyon Theatre, Lincoln Square Theatre, Chicago IL (dir. Coya Paz)

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PUBLICATION HISTORY

  • Fornes, Maria Irene. Letters from Cuba and Other Plays. 1st ed. New York : [Saint Paul, MN]: PAJ Publications ; Distributed to the Trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, 2007.

 

1997 THE SUMMER IN GOSSENSASS

 

CAST

3W, 2M

 

SYNOPSIS

In London in 1891, Elizabeth Robins, a celebrated American actress, and her friend, Marion Leah, a well-known British actress, clamor at the possibility of performing in Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. With the help of Vernon, Elizabeth’s brother and medical student, Lady Bell, essayist and reporter, and David, an actor and Ibsen admirer, Elizabeth and Marion at first find fragments of an English translation of a scene from Hedda Gabler and they try to decipher the essence of the characters through rehearsal. Finally, they find the complete English translation of the play and perform in its London premiere. Based on a true story, Summer in Gossensass offers meditations on Ibsen’s classic play, the craft of acting and a life in the theatre. [AGR]

 

PRODUCTION HISTORY

  • 1994 – Workshop, under the title Ibsen and the Actress, at Iowa Playwright’s Workshop, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (dir. Maria Irene Fornes)

  • From a second draft, there was a further production in July 1995 at the Padua Hills Playwrights Festival, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California (dir. Maria Irene Fornes).

  • In October 1995 the third draft received a reading at the Audrey Skirball Foundation, Los Angeles, California.

  • Fornés directed this 1st and 2nd February 1997 for Women’s Project and Productions, New York NY. Cast: Ron Bagden, Bill Toma Ledbetter, Molly Powell, Irma St. Paule and Aime Quigley. Set and Lighting Design by Philip Widmer, Costume Coordinator was Janie Martinez.

  • Fornés directed this again for its world premiere with Women’s Project and Productions 31st March – 26th April, 1998 at the Judith Anderson Theatre, 422 West 42nd Street, NYC. The production was made possible by a grant from TCG/Pew Charitable Trusts. Costume Design was by Gabriel Berry, Lighting Design by Philip Widmer and Set Design by Donald Eastman. Cast: Elizabeth Robins – Molly Powell, Vernon Robins – Daniel Blinkoff, Marion Lea – Clea Rivera, Lady Bell – Valda Setterfield and David – Joseph Goodrich.

  • 2010 – Staged Reading at the 2010 New York Fornes Festival, Theater for the New City, New York NY (dir. Alice Reagan)

  • 2010 – Halcyon Theatre, Lincoln Square Theatre, Chicago IL (dir. Lavina Jadhwani)

 

PUBLICATION HISTORY

  • Fornes, Maria Irene. What of the Night? : Selected Plays. 1st ed. New York: PAJ Publications, 2008.

 

 

1998 THE AUDITION

 

CAST

 

SYNOPSIS

 

PRODUCTION HISTORY

  • This work was directed by Fornés in 1998 at the Theatre for the New City, New York, NY.

  • 2000 – (part of “The Square”) Mark Taper Forum Asian Theater Workshop at Actors’ Gang Theater, Los Angeles CA (dir. Lisa Peterson)

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