 maybe tired, maybe energized, and we're excited to hear more about your experiences in the report-out section that's going to come out in a second, and Olga will explain all of that. But before we dive into the conversation, I want to take a moment to correct an omission I made earlier. Normally we would do this at the top of the day, but I did not, and while no harm was intended that does not mean harm was not caused, and for that I apologize. I welcome all of you to join me in taking a moment to reflect on the space that we are in. Though you can probably tell from the architecture of this beautiful school that Princeton is very, very, very old, we know, of course, that long before this school was built or this town was settled, that this land today was and is the traditional lands of the Lenae Lenape people. We acknowledge these original caretakers and pay our respects to their elders, past, present, and future. No LTC convening can happen without a team. You've heard us mention the folks who spent so many hours planning this symposium. Anne Garcia-Romerro, Brian Herrera, Megdalia Cruz, Carla Delagada, Wendelline Alker, Gina Sandides, Olga Sanchez, Georgina Escobar, Amparo Garcia-Crow, and Cristina Leon. Let's give them a quick crowd to work with them. And this circle, championed by the folks who you heard spoke earlier in the opening ceremonies, made up the Fornes Symposium Programming Committee, which is one of the many committees inside of a Latinx theater commons steering committee. While the LTC may have started in 2012 with a small group of eight practitioners and our partners at HowlRound, we have grown to include over 100 past and current volunteer steering committee members, a community of over 3,000, and this gathering here today is our eighth convening in the past four and a half years. With the leadership of our partner HowlRound, we have grown into a movement of people using a commons-based approach to transform the narrative of theater in the United States. Anyone who wants to participate in the commons already is simply because you showed up here and stated your intention. A commons is a resource owned by no one that benefits everyone and in a commons we all manage the resources for the betterment of our whole community. Our community is an ever-changing thing, constantly shifting and overlapping, repelling and attracting. Our community changes every day, depending on who shows up in the room. Today, in this moment, our community is dictated by all of you. Thank you for coming, for bringing yourselves, and for bringing all of your communities from back in your hometowns into this room with you, and thank you for trying to build a community here with us. As we always have to do, we want to take a moment from the LTC perspective to thank a few folks. Two of our major funders, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. We have to thank the amazing team at HowlRound who is live streaming this, who supports us, who will be writing more content next week. You get worried about it. And we also want to thank the team at the Lewis Center for the Arts here at Princeton, including the amazing faculty, staff, student volunteers, student workers, venue managers. They have been amazing, so I want to give them a round of applause for hosting us in your home. Alright, so we're ready to begin. Yes? Okay, so now I'm going to hand it over to Michael DeSanchez. That was a little bit steeper, and I'm out of that because you may be coming up this way, and it actually might be smoother to do that. So hi, everybody. How are you feeling? What an amazing day, and I add my personal thanks, and we're not done. This is the moment of us coming back together and sharing and being together. So in addition to sharing what happened today, I'm inviting us, it's not just a report out, it is a new conversation that's beginning here in this moment. So yes, we're reflecting, but also this is a dialogue, and everybody is going to participate, but we will begin by asking a representative from each of the different sessions, the cafecitos, the workshops, the performances, one person from each of those to please come up and take a seat. Some of you know, I've already decided, and if not, just, yeah. Perfect, thank you. Please, please, please. Yeah, excellent. Everybody will get a chance, just, you know, perfect, beautiful, beautiful view. Thank you. You're going to write something and share it. Did everybody have this desire to write, all of a sudden, or draw, right? Like, why are we talking? Please, please, please, please, somebody from every group. What were the different groups? I know we had, I'm finally represented. Translating cafecito, I think we had a Pettigordi cafecito, Pettigordi cafecito. We had Ann had a workshop, Ann had a writing workshop. Oh, you're from Ann? Okay, so Ampato's workshop. Again, Ampato's workshop. Beautiful. Mike's, Mike's. Oh, okay. I'll do the mic. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Somebody from the documentary. Thank you so much. Josefina, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. So, let's see. So, we've got Ann, we've got Ampato. So, Blanca, would you be willing to come up and report from user? And then... Beautiful. And I'm here for Daniel. Daniel. And that's our group, yeah? I believe it might be. We might have more chairs. So, anybody else want to come? Anybody feel like, just like, I really want to start the conversation. I'm just to add the sort of the idea of the extra chairs. This is a mix of the fish bowl tradition and the round table, long table tradition. So, it's like this conversation among the folks at the table, but then there's always seats at the table for folks to fill in. So, if there's going to be a couple of empty seats, so if you feel called to fill one, that's where you follow the glorious shawl procession and join us on the stage. And if there's no seats here, but you really want to say something, just come up and maybe delicately tap someone and they will graciously step aside and let you take a seat at the conversation. This is for everyone to speak. That's why we invite you to be here. So, here's the opening kind of idea. Just by way of launching, if there were one word and folks who have the mics, and please speak into the mic because it's being recorded so you'll have to just, like, pass mics around. But if you had one word or one phrase to describe your session or what you emerged from that to hear now, because it is about where you are now, what would that word be? You can actually come out and read and I would say I walk out there with a sense of family. I'm just going to start with a kind of psychological agitation. Your station. I'm speaking for, I think, the word that comes to mind is I feel nourished. I'm speaking for the long half of the group and the word that comes to mind for me is clarity in playing with the mic. In the long half of the law's works, I was still giving the word, and I was saying, how do you get ideas less or more than what is produced? So, who do you production? That's the goal, and I think it will be difficulty. That's possibility. I was part of that reciprocal, active audience, and I hope that those who remember myself, the word that came to mind was introspection, looking not just at her, but at ourselves. I'm kind of a strong intellectual, and I would say truth. And what is the truth? The truth. What is the truth? I'm just giving the overall experience of my new plan, and the title workshop, I think the attitude to the workshop, I realized that what she brought to me was this, she owned this space for a feminine process to take place, because I feel that a lot of times theater is such a masculine place. Since the time you're here right now, I think the issue of spending a process of demand is its purpose, please. And again, as I go through with that, I feel that the process is... On behalf of the performance of the venue, that was offered by the Actors to you in the conversation that followed, and I think the word that resonated so much through that was two things, was trust and intuition. Beautiful. So, to begin the idea of what I'm hearing, and I'm going to repeat them, I'm curious about where you feel, having heard these words that have just emerged, where you find resonance, where you find counterpoint, where you say, oh yes, also that, also that, and how you respond to these words. Family, negotiation, nourishment, clarity, producing lesser well-known works, difficulty, possibility, introspection, truth, catharsis and femininity, and truth, trust. I'm definitely being trusted in the very powerful word, because as a result of being in the writing workshop, I trusted the images. Instead of the people in the workshop, was the trust in the images and the false, and I feel that as a result of the spreading of that foundation, I think it's a very, very important work. So trust really empowers you to be more... You bet. Nourishment, nourished, okay, family, negotiation, nourished or nourishment, clarity. Was that unconscious? Clarity in the unconscious. Producing lesser well-known works, active, difficulty, possibility, introspection, truth, feminine process and catharsis and trust. Not wrong. Sorry. Counterpoint, resonance. Great. It's perfect. Go with what? Music. Where you are. Maybe it was something that had to do with counterpoint, was that what it was? Oh, it was counterpoint. It was interesting to see sort of the different way of using that's the thing that I always tend to, I'm attracted to, that everything isn't always grey, but that there are lives and lives. And it's always interesting to me to hear other people's experiences. And I know for me, because I was speaking of my own personal experiences, making sure that it was like, but this is just my experience. And everyone else is equally valid, whatever that is, whether it's an opposing experience, quite different, one that's similar. But even sometimes when experienced, we share the same thing, the points of view are different. How we feel about them are different and they are certainly all equally valid. And that was something that we spoke about a lot during our experiences as actors, as creative people, writers, performers. So I loved being able to hear other people's points of view. So I was in the family, because once we got in the tree, we were all starting to pick up, so I'd be able to see it, and I would be able to do that. Where I also used family, one thing about family is it's kind of easier to get a family for granted. And we know they're really wonderful, but we don't really see them in their full glory all the time. You don't want to go see your sister at work, or go to concerts, you know. I feel like I went to work, but I don't think I really knew her, and that's something that happens and also the breadth of her and her place in the industry, as well as Michelle, the filmmaker, you can really see them on this connection. And as we sit around talking, there were some serious eyes, both, you know, who have their own connection. So the way in which she built this sort of family, people who know her and her personally, people who know her personally. And actually, as you have been asking, is there any way to do it for less or no work so that people get a sense of the breadth and the depth, and the diversity of the work and get more work done out there? And the other thing, but also the thing about this is that if you launch an institution, that your institution should get a copy of this, and so get this, and say that your institution has this vision of seeing what anyone at your institution or that it's a university or arts organization doesn't know about this sort of moment. I would add that in the words still, it's a lot of clients' book, a lot of members, and there's just a section on the still, Latinos, the Latino people, and you know, who's Latino they look like. So it's very important to me because my attention on the work and the work, as I was a kid, seeing Linda Carter as a water woman, I knew she was having nice things, so I was kind of excited because it's going to show your hair, and it's going to mean something. This idea of Irene is always being stealth, you know, like her words out there is always been out there. She's this amazing feminist, you know, in the women's process, gay, sort of icon, and not hiding, you know, the section on the relationship with this object. So we're kind of stealth, and we'll hear it, but you know, we should be okay with it, and we shouldn't want this work, so listen. I think it was sort of a certainty about what we just said. It's a lot of the words that were just shared on how the intersectional Irene was before the intersectional became like a term, a style, and a sort of culture, and feeling that accessibility to her really do come out of the way. I have not had the pleasure to work with her, but I have had the pleasure to work with her students and to learn from them. Now, we both need that, and it's both been an incredible privilege, and having had that ability to be the person who wrote this theory that you know, you got it wrong, and hopefully for us to sit and seriously and simply, it's weird when I write, especially these questions, I find myself, and I can't describe it, you know what I mean, but I feel that spiritual energy is still present, and it's really your overall way. Yeah, you know, the DNA connection is the idea that it's right as a color, and kind into the process, and we often have to write from this trauma, because it's largely what we carry, our lives and spirits, and different kinds of data, but trauma is still in its connection with family as difficulty, as trust, as what is true. You know, who's true? That's the constant question, like, tiredness, illusion, and even my truth is not true, and trusting that through our use of process and through these writing workshops, that whatever your unconscious mind, that is truly useful. So I wanted to just take a picture of that truth, because that will work, and resonate with me. I don't know if this is an impractical or a philosophical, but hopefully it speaks to our current movement. I think we're all known to all realize where there's been a fight in the future in the last few years, since the question of certain persons in which I want to solve, and that we need to be able to learn truth, and I actually think that Irene's notion through which she's given us for a very long years is actually a way for us to come back to not only our personal truth, but also the fact that I know some of ours is information and it's also interesting that it's above and beyond this kind of bullshit of life. So it's all just one personal opinion, but I guess I understand that America is also a higher truth that Irene who was candid to me, the reader, and me who can't find the work and time that's needed. We need to be subconscious to understand what is in people a momentary that we all have within us. And for me, it's not going to say this moment we have not a local truth, but we have a feedback on the truth that we've been with us for decades. You know, this is a historical reality that we cannot forget. We're going to need to have a great capacity to live openly when we say partial truth. Maybe that's something I have processed in Irene for, and just opened my brain up to, you know, as soon as you write something you don't need to immediately judge it and then start to shape it. You need to receive the message and the image and let it become clear versus turning it into, okay, how is this going to look in the world? Who's going to judge this? Who's going to see this? Is this going to make sense to anybody besides me? And that can get you trapped into a box very easily as a playwright. A place I think I've been recently. So just hearing that, it's okay to spend time receiving was like, I will take that away forever. One of the threats that really became through your family, from the actors in the actors to your talk about their process with Dan, was the their affirmation that so much of what was needed for staging that production was Irene had put on the paper in front of us. And one of the things that I like to say that it's all there, just have to listen to it. And one of the things that has been very striking for me throughout the process to this symposium throughout the process of the day and like I said I did not work with Irene directly in the last few years after she moved where she currently lives but what I've experienced and I keep seeing this is her capacity to be the grand teacher remains active and present and available sometimes in her words on the page, sometimes in her words on the screen in Michelle's film. But it's also in process for me it's been a thing of beyond it's been a thing of my trusting that this symposium would work and we'd have to go about it in a very friendly and associative way for it to work. We had to have a team out of normal symposium which made people confused. You know like am I speaking on animal? It's like no we are not animals. I'm like what do you mean it's a symposium? I'm not a symposium, they're no animals. And so it's this thing of how we continue to learn this is going I think tuning into what I heard my friend say how do we continue to learn with one of the 20th century's greatest teachers whose lessons are still available to us and in our community we have access to people who learn with her. So how can we keep those lessons living? How can we keep those lessons alive and how can we learn the lessons we haven't been listening to all this time? While the mic is being passed I want to re-invite anyone to come up and share their response. This is really moving me about that a lot because I feel I feel like I'm not able to work with people who analyze and study the way that I did study I feel so moved by that as teachers you know in addition to myself and so I want to be influenced by wanting to emulate that and continue to learn in some way. And I also feel there's a disability in that. I feel there's a disability coming up. And I was sort of discussing in the pan how we are actually adults after you know and trust in this kind after I've just done a little bit of work again and are necessary particularly you are a teacher or writing in your own practice and so for me thinking about how those who teach and write at the same time can help each other kind of use for us an example of being able to help each other I've done many roles in my adult life so I'll just seem like if I or if I need someone I'll be able to help and be able to learn how to work all the time and continue with that I'm really interested in that how you know keeping a lens keeping activity and the the the energy of the exercises and the work kind of trusting for the life also have an advantage for people to teach it and support them and you know getting the opportunity to teach and also opportunity to see the students as well as transportation and the faculty though and it was a beautiful experience with seeing a lot of people more than both English and Spanish or originally people working Peruvian or almost local Seattle and it's you know all of them have a conversation about what's happening there and intense how they look back to us the different languages and the words and the the association the struck me was the two actors the first to do that because I'm learning English for me and I remember Mariko who spoke about not being able to see Spanish in a daily life and this was the first time I got an opportunity to look more at anything in Spanish and a lot of the time I see the students speaking to the parents on their phone and then the other actor being a brilliant actress I remember speaking about what you said speaking about not being able to Spanish speaker and the way she defined it in her home and how to learn to perform in the city of Spanish to let it go to what it made the performance itself and and I was thinking about the use of internationality and there was a question so why couldn't take this work that's written by a playwright who who chose to graduate from Spanish and had a Spanish and wrote an actor of Spanish descent but the kind of intersectional meetings and roots and kind of the validity of all of that I also remember that I was thinking about at the Episcopal University where my father has a character best known as France being learning from a girl who was being a character who was a student of my father who was one of the teachers that first introduced her to one end a long time a year ago I was meeting my family so it's very does very well to me as to the fact that we finished the conversation talking about identity and performance and all of these typical Easter folks and the aspect folks are even more rather than to me so I really appreciate you being called by the New York family today and I just want to thank you so much you can just come up there's a chair there's chairs this is Rose General her assistant director and a director of the production that maybe she's talking about of fun in alternating Latin and English and Spanish that last summer in the translation that she's talking about I did it in 1989 and Nima picked it out on another typewriter and then put the manuscript in a box and I counted it 25 years later because it's still a working room for a pizza so it's also moving to me the kind of layers of ripples the ripples across across continents so I'm going to give you an analogy in English of our work in 1989 I was looking to do my first directed piece and that's kind of how I do it that was my first presentation but I wanted to kind of shift something that I heard who was talking about the way people are doing art this is something that's kind of been in my mind so I did a workshop with Irene in 1992 on the floor of the production that we had done we did a telephone press with her and she was some place that I did not know at her house similar to this with people talking about theater and then I went to her workshop and she took me to a theme market and I was just sort of taking on the objects and we were very quiet and just went from table to table so I thought about it in different ways in simulating the play or because of art or photography and I love the fact that I did all the work she designed set, she composed and the other thing she did was she would come to Seattle she would bring her like a five-year-old mother and she would be interested to see it in city theater and her mom would come out and stay at her friend's house but I thought what does that right of her culture in that of her own she came from Cuba at 15 and then as soon as she was 16 she was driving up to her mom so I really I don't know asked if I was going to be in a step family and so when I started my mother was going to be going to the theater but I had to take some stuff I won't be on this transition I will bring it to her or help me sew this dress or make it as some blood and go shopping it's just a way of incorporating on different levels so it's just being open in that way so that's the center I'm going to respond to that because it's a thought that I had recently I went to Gala Theater in DC and met with Hugo and Rebeca Medrano who are the founders and who run that beautiful theater and it made me think of Jose Gonzalez and Daniel Malan and Luis Valdez and Lupe Valdez and Jose Luis Valenzuela and Rebevina Fernandes and I'm sure there's more and more but there's something about that family thing and their children and I just want to echo that because it's been on my mind should we bring the mic out to you okay it's okay Vinicius I was living in a theater and it was more open because to me there was a beautiful something of being visible that always came and comes into the room when you find it very much of their inspiration because it's that for every girl in the language of that is another world place or someone in the world that's making space and I love the people of that and you were talking to me about what, what's up what's up and I can feel it inside of me and it's a word that intuitive thank you I thought it was a word that so you should all know perfect thank you everybody that participated in making this symposium possible it was a beautiful day to spend the day in the workshop to watch the film and I'm a very emotional person I'm very emotional right now because I feel like when we talk about things visible there's also a whole lot that gets erased about Irene and it was one of the things that I really appreciated about the film so as we talk about the family there was a reason why Irene didn't have children right and so and as I watched the film I think one of the things that was really emotional for me is I really started to think about how we treat our visionaries how we treat our visionaries and I really trained other visionaries and I really trained other women who were visionaries and I really do feel like if we're going to talk about family and being a family I really do think that we need to look to those visionaries and take care of them and produce their game of war and you make sure that they're okay I think that there are all things that we need to do because I think we're replicating a lot of things that are actually not for us and we're replicating a lot of ways and we're working that erase parts of who we are as a people and so I'm also kind of really emotional and excited to see that it will just play tonight because I think that it will just work with the visionaries playwrights that we have here at the theater I'm a senior university and I'm primarily a voice and actor teacher and I was not very familiar with who we used to work until I started writing these collections of mom's and scene books and I'm doing a microbotic Cynthia De Cura but we're both voice teachers and I'm struck today by the connections between my embodied voice work and this embodied writing and it struck the same chord there were a lot of the same themes and it made me feel and breathe in a particular way and I've never ever breathed my writing and with the prompts and the visuals I was able to breathe in my writing so that was really great and I'm so excited Cynthia and I both work with Hispanic serving institutions and I'm so excited to be part of the next part of this which is to bring the work to our institutions and so I plan on making a film and having a screening and then I also plan my acting concentrations to have a reading and I'll be at the paper center for writing and so I'm just really excited and moved, thank you I'm also very emotional today I recently graduated from a very good acting program but I moved from Puerto Rico for it and I had never been taught by a Latino woman in my training so today was very just that fact that it was somebody who looked like me that I could relate to and that said in my seeing the world in my spirit to be able to contribute something to the page was at a school because from the time that I moved to New York I've been feeling like I have to be somebody else and I have to white myself up you know because I'm white passing so just that, honestly I'm obviously very emotional but just understanding that the work is within me already I don't need to you know back to what listening to a song you remember speaking into there and just listen to it and trust that your experience is enough it's not trying to be anything else and yeah that's the process it's not like Daniel said too it's running three hours a day literally a prep you know so I want to welcome up Cynthia DePure who has a special announcement for us I want to in the spirit of the moment a thought that came to mind listening was trusting and ungrateful for the nourishment that I've received that we've been speaking about in the invisible fountain that is flowing within all of us with truth Cynthia DePure Marisa Chivas could not be here today but we are collaborating on Celebrando Fornes Celebrating Fornes which calls upon universities and colleges and theaters in the United States to celebrate the work of Maria Irene Fornes and in the season of 1920 in the theater season of 1920 these are the participating schools that so far have signed up to either do a reading produce a play bring film in the year 1920 2019 the season of 1920 academic year of 1920 not another year 19 2019 2020 got it right so these are the participating schools of Arizona State University CalArts California State University Fresno California State University Long Beach California State University Stanislas Kent State SMU UCLA University of Illinois Champaign University of Miami University of Oregon Yale and breath of fire theater company and 50 playwrights project if you would like to add your university your theater to the list I would be happy to take it and then we can publish the full list thank you in the spirit of a thing that we do at the LTC a lot next year coming I believe we're going to set up two microphones Abigail no we are not going to set up two microphones we're going to have one microphone and this is it and this is it and this is it and there's a microphone out there so my question is because there was a certain comfort in bringing the mic out there would that be problematic or can we keep the mic out there how does that work for you Stokely just stand up so you can have the mic out there but please stand up when you're taking so this is the thing this event as we mentioned earlier was born of an intention so here we are we're in this event what are we going to do with this and that answer is individual it's mine I can't articulate that yet but let's think on it for a second and we're going to voice it and I'm going to invite Brian to be the first to voice because he's had a moment to think about this Brian so once again thanks for being here thanks for joining us here at Princeton today this is this moment in any LTC convening is one of my one one of the kinds of moments that have been most transformative for me personally it's a moment when we say what our intentions are moving forward what our commitments were willing to make and full sight and view what commitments were willing to allow the community to lift up and take that bravery that moment like the community helped us be a little bit more brave in saying what we're going to do I will say that as I mentioned a little bit this morning in 2013 when I was at the first national convening of the Latino Latino Theater Commons what it was then called I knew as I made my commitments that one of my commitments was a commitment that had been named that nobody knew what it was or whether it would be this thing called the Fortness Institute and I said I knew in my heart that there was some place for me in that I also knew that I had a sense of obligation to Fortness and a sense that I needed to deepen and understand more deeply that feeling so I said I knew I didn't know what I was going to do with the Fortness Institute but I figured okay I'll throw my I made that commitment and at that time I said okay in three years in the spring of 2018 it will be I know I will still have a job at Princeton then I knew that and I knew that we were opening this building and so I said I think between those two things I can make this promise and so I stood up at that meeting that morning in Chicago and I said I can make the commitment that we will have some kind of thing at Princeton in the spring of 2018 don't know what it is maybe we'll call it the I don't know the Fortness Symposium and I can make sure that that happens had I not stood up and made that commitment in front of people I admired and trusted and loved I might have kept that idea as a glimmer of an inspiration or a thought or maybe something I'll get to one day but because I chose to name it as an intention that I wanted you to hold me accountable to it sent me on a journey of discovery and growth and deepening of relationships with people I already knew I loved and discovery and new relationship it's been an extraordinary journey and I want to thank you for being here that's what we do when we affirm our intentions at the end of these meetings we join with our community to say I'm willing to take this risk to lean into this intuition to discover this inspiration that is beginning to speak to me and to say I don't know what shape it's going to take but I'm willing to make it real join me in that to join in that impulse whatever impulse you have about dedicating the Fortness Institute's mission is to celebrate, to amplify to elevate to archive to preserve to make more visible the living legacy of Irene Fortness what is your impulse coming out of today is there anything you'd like our witness our support and our validation forward in your own practice and in your own communities and so this is a time as the microphones pass for you to gather the strength of this community as you take a risk and take a step and build that legacy forward thank you in the spirit of jumping in it doesn't have to be very long for me what comes to mind is I'm committing to writing more courageously I'm committing to wherever my path takes me transition to bringing something of the Irene Fortness Institute to my next institution anyone can go this is partly an announcement I just wanted to share with the community that on May 8th he also will draw more forward we dedicate the room for you and it will become the room for Irene Fortness as she will join another youth in the spaces initiative at the School of Drama to lift up the experiences the diverse individuals who have shaped our field and our institutions and along with that I would just like to put an intention of the room to bring back some of the stuff to be as little drama in some way I also have been dedicated to doing this and I'm first here and this semester I have the honor of having worked on a comprehensive exams dedicated to her and I would like to share that working for some of the room and to continue to advocate can be a very painful process of advocating because the denial is so deep and I share such an event that she's still alive and I personally think that if I had dealt uncomfortable because I didn't know where we're having in you know, three years now when I'm expressed interest in her people have said well I haven't visited to visit her I said no because I don't know her and I still admire her but I felt uncomfortable and like approaching someone that I consider such a fingy as a kind of working you know kind of what I am coming to understand more and more of her community is that a human to human connection is ultimately more important and that I should get over any uncomfortable that I have that is mine and I should not of being present with the teacher who is so pressing so I commit to continue to advocate and to be with her basically because she's still in this I'm going to meet the baby to using the babies this morning that I made a few days ago to purchase some of the books in the back so I can advocate for more in the teachers come on to say yeah she's great, I can tell you more I want to be like the people that I heard her say even though I haven't had a chance to meet her I don't want to let that separate me from her life to not only champion her work but to bring some of the master teachers to my university because they need to be students of the Central Valley of California who do not know her work and through this initiative of celebrating foreigners they will be to know her work but they also need to think that the Central Valley exceeds as far as food is made and this is what seeds are planted and the seeds for working to be planted there so they can proliferate everywhere else and I commit to owning the fact that Brown Trinity and I am committing with Cynthia that Brown Trinity at Brown University will do a reading in 1929 in 1921 I'll do a quick so 2019 2018 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 2028 And I will continue, as I started this year, to use FORNEX as a wonderful case study to teach research methods in the field of discipline, because of its complexities, and I'll continue to do that as I go forward in the next few years. My name is Monica, and I'm a graduate student at the University of Washington in Seattle. And so I will commit to talking to my program at the University of Washington, and I will also talk as a faculty at the University of Houston. I'm hoping to get a promise on Michelle's film, and make sure that we get a screening that's not just for theater people, because I think that, you know, some on-court campuses, if you see this film, I think there's a lot of eligible and subcute students who I think are really, that are good at hosting this film. So I'm committed to creating some kind of a way for us to make it to happen that is as intersectional as I would like to. So much inspiration coming from the year. Inspiring music is coming, so very quickly. Two big commitments are for me. I also am also the co-creator director of the Alliance of Latinx Theater Artists in Chicago, along with my colleague Nancy Garcia-Losa. And we are starting, this is a massive follow-up. So I'm going to launch the very first work from the annual, we're calling it out of the awards in Chicago, dedicated to the Latinx theater companies, theater makers and artists in a way that showcases, will come back to the ratio that the general award is our equipment. So, you know, in Chicago has perpetuated over the last several decades, in the way that I'm combating the ratio of my voice through the evening. And one of our categories is, you know, the new play award. And my commitment is to do dedicated that to being the very important as new play award that I will continue to want to direct the theater school to Paul University. I'm contractual. I'd love to be with them and allow money and stuff to do workshops there. And I would love to bring that out in person, time, and air, or whatever. Don't feel pressure to come in and take over any worship with the students at the fall because they really need some, some, some inspiration. I mainly teach students who are ages 11 to 18, but it does go all the way up. And I'm going to commit to having a workshop in the fall that is dedicated to not just Fortnance, but to the playwrights who have been inspired by her. So, even our young people, not only in college, can experience the work of not just her, but other people. I'm committing myself to the work of many students like that. My wife is a teacher in the Bronx. For a year, she had one of the students that was interested in the playwright and I've been able to meet him because of my stuff. And she always says that there's so many that are interested to write but they're afraid to do it because they don't find any right to do it. So I'm committing myself every year to pick a student and help them do it. Those are the basics and why they can help to start themselves as a playwright or a screenwriter. And so I'm committing to interviewing everyone here who identifies as a playwright. Also, I will say that for people that the inspiration section, Fortnance, is consistently in one there, whether it's people that have worked with her directly or people who have been influenced by her work. And so something I've been wanting to do is really map that and create like a visual, you know, family image. I guess there's a lot next theater making and playwriting and so I'm committing to doing that. But first, I have to do it with everyone. If you have no one even talking about it, I'm going to have to. Hi, my name is Emily. I'm a director and producer. I commit to writing a space for work or for writing workshop and then for me, which I'm championing, which is in artists. And here my work is for a project in 2019. I also felt very much like Kat on a visitation term, because I do not offer personally, but she is one of my inspirations for advocating for aging and older artists and so I'm going to be easy to advocate for that. Hi, I'm a director and a director of various theater. I commit to somehow building space for training and workshops or something just even if it's my environment, just like a healing space for people who know people with Alzheimer's so that we don't feel afraid to reach out and to be present for them even when I'm present for them and more and just to be able to talk about it. I'm Alex, and he really moved me to move something forward that I've been thinking about making it happen faster. I want to find, completely find a retreat for these women of color visionaries that you're speaking to to rest, to relax and hopefully to also have a one-day session to really try to map out what are some things that we can advocate for, how can it take some of that knowledge and information and be able to take it to funders and other people. So I commit to doing that next year. Director of the chair and director, I don't want to do this. Hi everybody. So I admit that I say this because I still have to consult with my co-artists right there. I want to do presentations of Latinas and Latinas playwrights, really important and especially based on where we can discuss today some of the work that has not been extended, maybe. So yeah, let's do that, maybe like a year and a half. Writing a lesson plan that I'm going to propose for a summer conservatory that's due at the end of the month and I was going back and forth of what play to use and the first one that popped in my head was in the month and then I think, like, oh no, that's going to be too much because they're going to say no. And then we didn't see what they were doing but I'd rather be told no and keep on trying because eventually there will be a yes deal. So like her work to make value out of work that's so important and also motivating and keeping relationships with people there. So I'm Rose and I'm from Seattle. I'm going to commit to painting a tree because there was a tree to be outside the Cuba House which was a lovely theater where a lot of us in Seattle were but I really weren't there and that Cuba House House Theater new city theater for a number of years, like 20 years and because I read things so often with her mom they planted a tree in honor of my friend's mom and then they bulldozed the building of course to make room for Vienna condo and the tree spot. But I would like to commit to planting a tree figuring out where's the best place. Can't go there and we should be there. Maybe the University of Washington but some seem to have a good place to be treated and Irene's name and her mom too. My name is Scott Cummings. I've been studying Irene's work off and on for 30 years. I first interviewed her in 1985. It's been a great pleasure to be here with you today. I've written a lot about Irene in a lot of different ways and I don't feel like I have very much more that I need or want to say about her but there is a project that I've been working on off and on for 10, 12 years that I intend to finish. It involves something related to what Anne mentioned this morning. In 1985, she in 687 as Irene became more and more popular and better known as a playwright and teacher she conceived to write a book a book which she never completed and never will complete and there is no way that anybody can ever really do the book that she wanted to do a book that was touching on her playwriting pedagogy but she began to gather a lot of materials for that book having some of her class sessions recorded some of those things have been transcribed and I am intending to follow through on gathering as much of that material as I can contextualizing it in various occasional writings excerpts from interviews that Irene did and trying to create something that does not mean the book that Irene conceived because nobody can do that and as some people have mentioned Irene is a very oral person she taught in the present through speaking language and so any kind of written book that relents her dramaturgy, her pedagogy can't really do it the way Irene would do it but I intend to try to do some approximation of that and I welcome any input that anybody here or in the entire HowlRound community might have in that effort thank you I'm very struck by knowing history of how these intentions have manifested is that these are not only powerful for those of us who share them because they're heard aloud or rather spoken aloud but they are powerful because everyone at the moment of saying them I know that I am envisioning the things that people have uttered the workshops, the planting of a tree the book, the productions and it's our imaginations together I believe that are part of the force that are actually bringing these events these intentions to reality, to manifestation I share that by welcoming you to share your vision in the few minutes that we have remaining for this process if you would like Thank you so much for joining me I saw you guys throughout the day today and I mentioned this morning I began the Fortnance Playwright in Rockford in Chicago through Notre Dame where I'm a professor and we're bringing it again this summer I didn't mention that that line to apply is April 23rd coming up it's going to be the end of June, early July but I'm committing here to continue to pursue funding and resources to continue this workshop year in, year out there's more classes, more time we've seen just the beauty of this kind of work and Notre Dame has been very generous but I have to expand to ensure my funding circles I'm committing to keeping this going as long as I can Hi, my name is Gabby and I'm the founder of Power Street Theater Company in Philadelphia we're a multi-cultural theater company there and the only women of color in that theater company is the city I'm small on the fringe I work a full time I'm just resigning my jobs to follow the dream and so in this scary transition there's definitely been moments of like can I do this but I realized that I am doing this and one of the things that I really have been wanting to focus on is how do I build a program there's this program that I really do called the Producers Organizing Circle PLC beyond the Power Street how am I going to support other companies multi-cultural companies on the fringe that are doing amazing work in Philadelphia and really thinking about doing a collective season together and supporting each other so that we can apply for funding together and that we can really talk to each other about the process of how we're developing new work how we're preserving our histories and also pooling from legendaries and visionaries so that's something that I really wanted to get to is this project that is formulating my brain but like trying to put all the pieces together I really see when we talk about intersectionality we're also talking about the intersectionalities of working with other companies and learning from each other and because being a producer is so lonely really creating a space for producers to exist and work with our artistic directors and have these conversations of what is important to produce and where should we be producing this work and who do we want to serve and just really having these conversations with each other but within our community as well so then you're announcing the film so you remember that call of the book where she said and then I mean just write another play so I'm using that as my mantra for my intention for about 10 to 15 years now I keep doing projects so I'm hoping that tomorrow when you all help me realize the intention I said last August when I decided to do the performance but after that I'm setting the intention for my next another film which will be some version of the staging of Heavenly Round in the next three years after a safe house in the community three years at the round are what some of today's attention gets some kind of a little bit out of the world hopefully in the end for Grandma at YZ and next year I'll be the managing director of the studio with the other company and we'll have to bring the film and say my intention is to make a movie to be honest about everything you're attending intentions in the air intentions, not tensions intentions in the air there are intentions in our hearts perhaps not spoken invisible for now but visible in the future and in the spirit the fountain the well of inspiration that we honor today Maria Irene Fornes I guess I want to propose a toast to our intentions even though we don't have any beverages so maybe that's the correct thing but just I invite us all to say the words and what came to mind was to the Fornes Fuenco which means to the Fornes fountain or the font which is running through this and running forward into the future so to the Fornes Fuenco okay one more time to the Fornes from Abigail and Gwendolyn okay friends Gwendolyn and I are going to do quick logistics and then we're actually we're not leaving so we would love if you could just stay still we're not done thank you not to shame but we're not done and then we're going to bring up make Dahlia Cruz who's going to close us out before we have that moment which I want to hold we just need to do like a hot second of logistics so I'm going to do mine and then you do yours okay cool so the only thing I have to say is if you're going to dinner after this from the dining hall look over where Brian's standing over here the student ambassadors for dinner so we're going to be right after you guys have your college education over here this is Gessa we're connecting with Regina this is Regina we're connecting with Kari Gwendolyn and that's Kai so come over here I'll be next to you guys first and they'll guide you for dinner they'll guide you to your performance destination after this so these student ambassadors and their larger partners are here to guide you to your performance okay we're not done we're not done Gwendolyn I'll be super quick so for those of you who are coming tomorrow to the Fornes Colloquium at NYU please come and this is really an opportunity to see a completely different community that Irene worked with we don't have this we have Scrappy Downtown New York City talent that's all we've got we don't have this so two things I just wanted to announce logistically was that first if you're coming directly from this event and you're very invested in taking the Dinky it's going to be tough because the Dinky first leaves here at 919 from Princeton that won't get you into Penn Station till 1043 the thing starts at 11 with a scholars panel that Scott I and Alisa Solomon and who else and Bonnie Moranca are going to be on at 11am so therefore if you're coming directly from here I would recommend that you get the 912 train from Princeton Junction and avoid the Dinky okay don't do the Dinky we love it but say no to the Dinky so take 912 train that will get you in at 1035 to Penn Station I recommend that you walk one block east to the NR Downtown Yellow Line take it about three or four stops it is working at present I checked not to say it'll be working tomorrow but we'll keep our fingers crossed the NR Downtown train at Harold Square and that will take you to 8th Street which will be a block above the venue at NYU second logistical announcement is accessing the venue for the 11 o'clock panel or the 2 o'clock concert reading of Promenade you will be entering through the same building it's a different number but it's the same entrance so you'll need to come in at 721 Broadway on a lot of the promotional materials it says 715 Broadway I was informed on Friday at 5pm that the 715 lobby will be locked however you can enter it through the 721 Broadway entrance and there will be signs once you get there to go to either to your right which will be to the scholars panel and the women directors panel at 4pm or to your left which will be to the concert reading of Promenade at 2pm so that's just what I want to say take 721 Broadway and all paths will lead from that lobby to your colloquium experience thank you very much I just want to say first off I have three tickets three tickets exist for tonight's show I am in fifth grade you are in kindergarten come find me also if you don't know where you're going for dinner quickly run over there when we're done so I can tell you where because I have a list thank you for the privilege of being able to work with Princeton and to host this event and I want to welcome Magdalia Cruz I start to feel the sting of tears behind my eyes but I push them away by imagining dancing around her and with her all of us all wearing red this makes me laugh I arrive at the nursing home at 12.30pm and walk down the antiseptic hall to find Irene alone in her little room number 419 I walk in and she is clean quiet, reclining in a chair like a painting by Fernand Legerre a reconstructed classic whose hands have turned in on themselves nails too long note to self bring a manicure kit next time she is wrapped tightly in a handmade afghan of white beige green and red her sharp fingernails peaking out from holes in the blanket seems like colors left over from other knitting projects who would put those together I think but on Irene they look comfy a coat of many odd warm colors I fight the urge to thrust a pencil in her hand and a piece of paper in front of her in my mind's eye she is always writing but she doesn't remember how to write I am writing a song by Irene in the hazy warmth of the Amsterdam nursing home in Irene's room I choose to play as Astor Piazzolla compiles Segundo and Edith Piaz then we move to the dining room where from the radio Whitney Houston sings I will always love you segwaying into Ed Sheeran's shape of you I recognize you might like these songs too but they're not on her true soundtrack I know this because her hands clutch the blanket more tightly around her this is my song for you Irene I sing of your fierce words your brutally honest gaze your ability to use one word to express what takes others a paragraph you confirm all we know about the world in your work and that was your work this is my dream for us today and always to be witness to Irene's legacy to be mindful of what she gave us and be grateful to be grateful for what we give each other and generous with our art to know the difference between art and avarice and to use our critical eye to help us maintain our own integrity we must remember those who came before who are now in the air around us whose roots hold us steady and help us see the future Irene told me that to tell the truth is the greatest goal in the theater it doesn't exist in our heads but in our homes speak from our viscera be brave, be relentless we're very informed as to change the music for all of us even as she can no longer get up and change the song this is your song Irene, we sing it for you we hold it close to our chests and imagine your heart in its pulsing glory leaving the music it's getting late the cathedral across the street has rays of sun streaming through its stained glass I watched the tourists climbing the stairs to see Keith Herring's dark stations of the cross or the Baroque Barbarini tapestries I think Irene would have liked those though those tapestries intricate weaving the muted colors I think they would appeal more than the Herring each panel tells a story and all those stories add up I want to pull all those stories Irene might have written out of her but no more of these stories no pencils moving delicately over paper Irene held the pencil like a paintbrush her paintings are her plays except unlike other paintings they breathe they must breathe we know what happens when the breathing stops leaving the nursing home it was like fleeing into exile from quiet contemplation to punishing pavement I feel like I have just tumbled out a window not enough to end me just enough to know what I've left behind this is my song for Irene never ends it's a song we must all sing thank you, thank you all for coming