MUD & SPRINGTIME
By María Irene Fornés
Directed by Colm Summers
Columbia University School of the Arts
Lenfest Center for the Arts · New York
September 23–26, 2021
MFA Directing Thesis
ABOUT
Mud & Springtime brought together two rarely staged plays by María Irene Fornés.
In Mud, in the dustbowl of America’s first Great Depression, Mae is trapped by poverty and the men around her and determined to make meaning of her life.
At its center was a question about what I called “America’s greatest sin — disparity” and the comfort promised by the mythology of the American Dream.
Twenty years later, Springtime follows the disintegration of a forbidden relationship as two women try to understand what makes them free.
Together, I saw the plays as a story about the power required to break free from destitution, moral judgment and the people whose love can drown us.
The production became my MFA directing thesis at Columbia University.
CREATIVE TEAM
CAST
MARÍA IRENE FORNÉS
Playwright
María Irene Fornés
Director
Colm Summers
Dramaturg
Austin Tooley
Co-Producers
Sean Anthony Chia
Anthony Massa
Production Stage Manager
Harry Corthell
Assistant Stage Manager
Tesia Childs
Company Manager
Taeeun Yeo
MAE / RAINBOW
Mazvita Chanakira
LLOYD / RAY
Mike Gerbi
HENRY / GRETA
Delano Montgomery
MOLLY
Kate Vozella
Composer
Daniel Bindschedler
Scenic & Props Designer
Richard Oullette
Lighting Designer
Betsy Chester
Costume Designer
Camilla Dely
Sound Designer
Liam Bellman-Sharpe
Projection Designer
Hamilton Guillén
Intimacy Consultant
Christina (Cha) Ramos
María Irene Fornés was one of the most influential American playwrights and teachers of the twentieth century.
Her work radically altered American playwriting through its compression, formal experimentation and refusal to explain away the mysteries of human behavior.
Mud dates from 1983. Springtime subsequently formed part of Fornés’s And What of the Night? cycle.
PRESS
OPERA NEWS
“Effective directorial choices of the two plays… establishing a strong sense of momentum and dread.”
“Summers’ direction kept us engaged throughout.”
the production’s larger argument:
“the underlying antagonist is not the characters, but their circumstances.”
— Opera News
COLUMBIA SPECTATOR
The Columbia Spectator described the production as:
“gritty and claustrophobic”
and a:
“volatile portrait of an abusive family”
examining:
“the wounds we inflict on those we love.”
ON DIRECTING FORNÉS
During the production, Columbia interviewed me about the work and the end of my directing training.
I described an increasing attraction to theatrical detail:
“There was something compelling to me about the tiny little things; a breath here, the back of someone’s head there.”
And the goal of the production:
“How to be present, and humble before people we do not understand. How to make mysteries.”
Asked what I wanted an audience to leave with:
“I hope what happens in the room thrills them.”