María Irene Fornés

María Irene Fornés was a Cuban and American playwright, director, and teacher. She was an important figure in the development of New York’s off-off-Broadway movement and Downtown Arts Scene. Over the course of her career, she wrote more than forty plays and musicals, won nine Obie Awards, and mentored "thousands of playwrights across the globe". Her play What of the Night? was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1990, the first work by a Latino playwright to receive said distinction. Signature Theatre Company devoted its 1999–2000 season to her work, while The Public Theater presented a fourteen-play "Fornés Marathon" in 2018.