Hero Theatre NYC Fornes Festival Directors Announced

Hero Theatre announced today that Lileana Blain-Cruz, Alice Reagan, Laurie Woolery, David Mendizábal and Lou Moreno have joined the roster of directors for their program Festival Irene: Celebrating the Legacy of María Irene Fornés, which will transfer to NYC this fall after a successful run in Los Angeles. Other festival directors include Hero Theatre's Amy Ashton and Elisa Bocanegra.

The festival of plays includes some of the Cuban-American Playwrights' most celebrated works including Fefu & Her Friends, The Conduct of Life, What of The Night? and Mud. The festival will also feature plays written by Fornés' award-winning students from her legendary INTAR playwrights lab.

The full roster of playwrights includes Luis Alfaro, Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, Migdalia Cruz, Nilo Cruz, Lisa Loomer, Eduardo Machado, Cherríe Moraga, Octavio Solis and Caridad Svich.

INTAR, Theater For The New City, La MaMa and Mabou Mines are announced as partner theaters for the festival, which is sponsored by New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, the Institute of Performing Arts, and NYU’s Center for the Humanities.

Festival Irene will be presented as staged readings, free of charge to the public and will run from November 6 through November 19, 2017.

Hero Theatre is currently featuring a critically acclaimed production of Fornés' play, The Conduct of Life, directed by José Luis Valenzuela. It plays at the Rosenthal Theater through June 25.

Academy Award-winner Olympia Dukakis is Chair of Hero Theatre's Advisory Board. Other members include theater notables Bill Rauch, Michael Ritchie, Darko Tresnjak, Michael Wilson, Migdalia Cruz, Lisa Peterson, Lue Douthit and Dolores Chavez.

For more information about Hero Theatre and Festival Irene, visit www.herotheatre.org.