CONDUCTING A PEDAGOGY: THE INFLUENCE OF MARIA IRENE FORNES’S TEACHING AND THE PADUA HILLS PLAYWRIGHTS WORKSHOP AND FESTIVAL ON THREE CONTEMPORARY WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS ________________________________________ A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia _______________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy _______________________________________________________ by ANDRÉA J. ONSTAD Dr. M. Heather Carver, Dissertation Supervisor DECEMBER 2009 © Copyright by Andréa J. Onstad 2009 All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled CONDUCTING A PEDAGOGY: THE INFLUENCE OF MARIA IRENE FORNES’S TEACHING AND THE PADUA HILLS PLAYWRIGHTS WORKSHOP AND FESTIVAL ON THREE CONTEMPORARY WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS presented by Andréa J. Onstad a candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. ________________________________________ Associate Professor M. Heather Carver ________________________________________ Associate Professor Cheryl Black ________________________________________ Professor Suzanne Burgoyne ________________________________________ Professor Elaine J. Lawless ________________________________________ Assistant Professor Maureen Stanton To the memory of my brother. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to all the members of my dissertation committee: ––Dr. Heather Carver for being there from the beginning; ––Dr. Suzanne Burgoyne for trusting my writing; ––Dr. Cheryl Black for providing such excellent editorial advice; ––Dr. Elaine Lawless for opening my eyes to the creativity that can be found in ethnography; and ––Assistant Professor Maureen Stanton for reminding me what writing is all about. Thank you all for being such great teachers. A special thank you to Murray Mednick, Cheryl Slean, Ki Gottberg, John O’Keefe, and many others not quoted herein, for taking the time out of their busy schedules to provide me with valuable information without which this dissertation could not have been written. And an extra special thank you to the memory of Dr. Andrew Fred Kirchmeier, IV, whose life and accomplishments were and remain my guiding light. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................ ii ABSTRACT................................................ vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION............................... 1 Statement of Purpose.................................... 1 Justification and Literature Review..................... 9 1. Maria Irene Fornes’s Pedagogical Influence. ..... 9 Playwriting Pedagogy Literature Review........ 12 Maria Irene Fornes Literature Review.......... 21 2. The Padua Hills Playwrights Workshop and Festival 34 The Padua Hills Playwrights Workshop and Festival Literature Review............................. 37 3. Contemporary West Coast Women Playwrights Justification and Literature Review................ 40 Methodology............................................. 44 Structure and Organization.............................. 54 CHAPTER TWO: MARIA IRENE FORNES......................... 60 Introduction............................................ 60 Biographical Background––Pedagogical Legacy............. 68 Writing Pedagogy........................................ 79 Conclusion.............................................. 111 CHAPTER THREE: THE PADUA HILLS PLAYWRIGHTS WORKSHOP AND FESTIVAL AND FOUNDER, MURRAY MEDNICK.................... 115 iii A Brief History......................................... 121 CHAPTER FOUR: PLAYWRIGHT CHERYL SLEAN AND PLAY.......... 151 Background.............................................. 152 Playwriting Influence................................... 166 Plays................................................... 171 Analysis of Eclipse..................................... 176 Eclipse................................................. 189 CHAPTER FIVE: PLAYWRIGHT KI GOTTBERG AND PLAY........... 201 Background.............................................. 202 New City Theater........................................ 205 Playwriting Influence................................... 210 Plays and Playwriting................................... 216 Analysis of The Bride................................... 226 The Bride............................................... 240 CHAPTER SIX: PLAYWRIGHT ANDRÉA J. ONSTAD AND PLAY....... 249 Background.............................................. 251 Playwriting Influence................................... 253 Joe’s Bar............................................... 276 CHAPTER SEVEN: SITE SPECIFIC FESTIVAL AND PLAYS......... 291 The SITE Specific Theatre Festival...................... 291 The Plays............................................... 296 The Interview........................................... 308 Conclusion.............................................. 314 iv Birdie Come Home........................................ 316 Sanctuary............................................... 325 CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSION............................... 348 APPENDIX A: IRB PRELIMINARY E-MAIL TO PARTICIPANTS..... 354 APPENDIX B: IRB CONSENT AGREEMENT...................... 355 CONSENT AGREEMENT FOR INTERVIEW DATA.................... 355 APPENDIX C: IRB SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS............. 358 SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR PADUA HILLS PLAYWRIGHTS WORKSHOP AND FESTIVAL WOMEN WRITERS WHO WORKED WITH MARIA IRENE FORNES............................................ 361 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................ 364 Selected Books and Articles............................. 364 Dissertations........................................... 373 Selected Playwriting Texts.............................. 375 Other Playwriting/Writing References.................... 379 Other Sources and Websites Accessed..................... 380 Maria Irene Fornes Published Plays...................... 384 Maria Irene Fornes’s Complete Oeuvre.................... 387 VITA.................................................... 388 v ABSTRACT In some circles, Maria Irene Fornes is as hallowed for her playwriting pedagogy as she is for her plays. Over the years, she developed a series of exercises and a method of presentation to guide students in what she described as “creating life.” Many of these exercises were honed in various workshops including the legendary Padua Hills Playwrights Workshop and Festival under the direction of playwright Murray Mednick, whose pedagogical philosophy closely matched that of Fornes. In an effort to assess the broader implications of their combined approach to playwriting and its long-term effect on American theatre, this dissertation examines the impact of this playwriting pedagogy on the careers of three women playwrights, all alumnae of the Padua Hills Playwrights’ Workshop and Festival, ultimately revealing how, as with Aristotle, teachers beget disciples who beget converts and so on, exponentially, ensuring the endurance of this unique approach to playwriting and the survival of the art. vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Statement of Purpose In this dissertation, I examine the pedagogy of master playwright, director, teacher, and mentor, Maria Irene Fornes, and that of the legendary Workshop and Festival under the direction of playwright Murray Mednick, specifically exploring the influence of their teaching on three contemporary West Coast Padua Hills Playwrights Workshop and Festival alumnae: Cheryl Slean, Ki Gottberg, and myself. Maria Irene Fornes is, in some circles, as hallowed for her playwriting pedagogy as she is for her plays. During her forty-year career, she developed a series of playwriting exercises and a method of presentation that included Yoga postures and meditation techniques designed to guide her playwriting students in what she described as “learning how to create life.”1 Many of these exercises were honed in her famous International Arts Relations Hispanic Writers-in Residence Workshop (INTAR) at the Hispanic Cultural Center in New York which spawned a 1 Andréa J. Onstad, Padua Hills Playwrights Workshop and Festival Notebook (unpublished, 1991), 1. 1 generation of brilliant Hispanic talent including 2003 Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz; Cherríe Moraga, co-editor of This Bridge Called My Back: Writings of Radical Women of 2 Color; Migdalia Cruz, author of Miriam’s Flowers;3 Caridad Svich, proclaimed by San Francisco Playwright Foundation artistic director Amy Mueller to be “the national Fornes expert”;4 and a host of others. While these luminaries have drawn scholarly attention to the INTAR lab and to themselves, scant regard has been given the countless others influenced by Fornes whom she taught in venues outside of INTAR, away from New York City––places such as the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, West Coast Playwrights, Latin American Writers’ Workshop (a non-exclusive, diverse entity), and the Padua Hills Playwrights’ Workshop and Festival, many of which have been abandoned or morphed into other organizations. The Padua Hills Playwrights Workshop and Festival that Cheryl Slean, Ki Gottberg, and I attended at intersecting times was a unique workshop/festival debuting in July of 2 Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds., This Bridge Called My Back: Writings of Radical Women of Color, 2nd ed. (New York: Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press, 1983). 3 Migdalia Cruz, Miriam's Flowers (New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1990). 4 Amy Mueller, E-Mail to Andréa