2025 Fornés Institute Symposium
Princeton, NJ 22 March 2025
The Latinx Theatre Commons, in partnership with the Lewis Arts Center at Princeton University hosted the 2025 Fornés Institute Symposium.
Watch the archive recordings from the symposium here.
The Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) will hosted 2025 María Irene Fornés Institute Symposium at the Lewis Arts Complex at Princeton University on Saturday, 22 March 2025. This was a one-day convening of scholars, artists, students, advocates, and others invested in the life, work, and legacy of playwright, director and educator, María Irene Fornés (1930-2018).
The 2025 Symposium gathered over 60 attendees to celebrate the pathbreaking publication of Fornés in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2025), a volume featuring the work of more than thirty artists, advocates, and scholars, which is slated for digital and print publication in July 2025.
The Symposium offered series of plenary readings from Fornés in Context in tandem with a constellation of hosted breakout conversations engaging questions of context, legacy, and engagement around Fornés’s work.
The schedule is below and the digital program can be found here.
10:15 AM: Welcome Remarks
11:00 AM: Harriet and Irene: Infinite Muses by Elaine Romero, directed by Juliana Frey-Méndez, explores Fornés and Harriet Sohmers Zwerling in Paris 1954.
11:40 AM: In Person and Zoom Breakout Sessions*
2:00 PM: Truffle Pigs by Michael Breslin & Catherine María “Cat” Rodríguez, directed by Rodríguez, delves into Fornés as feminist while three students study for a feminist theater oral exam.
2:40 PM: In Person and Zoom Breakout Sessions*
4:00 PM: The House at 27 Rue de Fleurus by María Irene Fornés, directed by Katie Pearl, considers the intersections of art, friendship and joy in the lives of Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and Pablo Picasso in Paris 1932.
4:30pm: Roundtable discussion: A lively conversation among contributors to the Fornés Institute as they think toward the next wave of Fornés-instigated artistry, scholarship, advocacy, and community-engagement.
*Mirroring the informal conversational style of the in-person breakout sessions, the virtual zoom breakout sessions will be an open forum shaped by the folks in the virtual room. We imagine these conversations as drop in/hop out spaces to hear more about the work of the Fornés Institute along with conversations about the Fornésian aesthetics. They will be led by Mariló Nuñez and Javier Hurtado.
The Fornés Symposium is made possible by the Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, Effron Center for the Study of America, Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, Program in Latino Studies, Program in Latin American Studies, Department of Comparative Literature, and Humanities Council.