Nine-Time Obie-Winning Playwright & Director María Irene Fornés Dies at 88

María Irene Fornés, an acclaimed avant-garde playwright and director who lent her talents to numerous works produced off-Broadway, died on October 30 at the Amsterdam Nursing Home in New York City, according to The New York Times. Fornés had long been suffering from Alzheimer's disease. She was 88.

Fornés was born on May 14, 1930, in Havana, Cuba. She first earned acclaim on the New York theater scene netting a Distinguished Plays Obie Award for Promenade (1969) and The Successful Life of 3 (1969).

Fornés' other works, many of which she directed, include Fefu and Her Friends (1978), The Danube (1984), Orchards (1986), Abingdon Square (1987), Terra Incognito (1997), The Summer in Gossensass (1998), Mud and Drowning (1999) and Letters From Cuba (2000).

Her one Broadway credit, The Office (1966), directed by Jerome Robbins and featuring Elaine May and Doris Roberts, closed in previews. Fornés was a Pulitzer finalist for her play And What of the Night? (1990).

The documentary The Rest I Make Up, which explores Fornés' remembered past following her Alzheimer's diagnosis, premiered in 2018.

Fornés' plays won a total of eight Obie Awards; she was also honored with a 1982 Obie for Lifetime Achievement. Fornés was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2018.