María Irene Fornés transcended. She wrote through her subconscious and taught many others to do the same. Since her passing in 2018, her legacy endures with students like Migdalia Cruz and Anne García-Romero, relentless and generous playwright-educators who have devoted essays, books, and workshops to honor and reimagine the Fornés method for different settings. Said Cruz, “When you get a blessing from an elder, you pass it on.”
So here’s a Fornesian invitation: Gather a group of creatives. Align desks to touch in a circle, print some poems that may inspire the group, and get paper and pen ready. Appoint a writer-facilitator. Give yourself three or four hours. This “Animal Exercise” is modified by Cruz from Fornés’s teaching at INTAR Theatre’s Hispanic Playwrights-in-Residence Laboratory in the 1980s.
1. Do physical exercises for half an hour (light yoga, stretching, or tai chi).
2. Remember a pet or an animal somehow well known to you. Imagine in your mind’s eye the shape of this animal. What is this animal’s bone structure? Reach out and feel this animal. Does it have fur? Scales? What is the shape of its face? What does it smell like?
3. Select and read an existing poem that relates to the subject of your memory. Get to your desk. Center yourselves on your chair. Close your eyes again and visualize this animal.
4. Imagine this animal in a place where it feels boxed in, contained. How does it feel in this closed space? Safe? Or desperate to escape? What sounds does it make? Does it cry? Screech?
5. Draw a picture of this animal—and of the place where it finds itself.
6. Close your eyes. Imagine that one of your characters enters the place where the animal is enclosed. Allow your character to look directly into the animal’s eyes. Then imagine the animal’s face superimposed over the face of one of your characters. Allow your character to take on the personality of the animal. Does this change the character’s face? How do the animal’s feelings affect the character?
7. Draw the character’s face with its new animal incorporation.
8. Close your eyes. Think of someone you despise. Write their first name on a piece of paper. Fold it and pass it to the person on your left. This is the name of your new character.
9. Close your eyes. Think of a crime or sin. Write it on a piece of paper and pass it to the person on your right. This is a crime committed by one of your characters—either the animal person or the despised person.
10. Begin a scene with these elements. Line: “You’ll never find it.” Object: A rusty piece of metal. Action: To hide the true nature of something.
When you’re done, sustain the sacred space, sharing work with the group. Hopefully, as Cruz put it, “You’ll unleash truth and learn to write like yourself.”
Gabriela Furtado Coutinho (she/her) is the digital editor of American Theatre.
