Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard Ph.D talks with Gwendolyn Alker Associate Arts Professor and Director of Theatre Studies in the Department of Drama, Tisch/NYU about Fornes' legacy, identity politics, feminism, the landmark play Fefu and Her Friends and Alker's latest work on Fornes' Evelyn Brown.

GWENDOLYN ALKER'S BIO

Gwendolyn Alker is an Associate Arts Professor and Director of Theatre Studies in the Department of Drama, Tisch/NYU. She is the former Editor of Theatre Topics and the former managing editor of Women & Performance. As a scholar and dramaturg, she has taught and advocated for the work of María Irene Fornés over the last two decades. Dramaturgical credits include the New York Fornés Festival (2010), which she curated and organized, the award-winning documentary The Rest I Make Up by Michelle Memran (2018), and JoAnne Akalaitis’ Maria Irene Fornes Marathon at The Public Theatre (2018). Publications on Fornés include “Teaching Fornes: Preserving Fornesian Techiques in Critical Context” published in Theatre Topics in 2009, as well as “Fornesian Animality: María Irene Fornés’ Challenge to a Politics of Identity” published in the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism (2020). Most recently, she dramaturged and re-assembled the Fornés lost great work, Evelyn Brown (A Diary) as part of Princeton’s Atelier series during the Fall of 2021. Evelyn Brown will be debuted as part of La Mama’s Spring 2023 season.