Boundless Theatre Company Assembles Diverse Team Of Designers For THE CONDUCT OF LIFE

This September, fans of the much-lauded playwright María Irene Fornés will have an opportunity to see a fully realized production of one of her "compact masterpieces" (The Los Angeles Times) when Boundless Theatre Company presents a revival of her play The Conduct of Life. Directed by Elena Araoz, the production runs through September 30 at Teatro Círculo, 64 E. 4th Street. The cast features Dakota Granados, Ana Grosse, Déa Julien, Monica Steuer and Terrell Wheeler.

For this production, Boundless Theatre Company has assembled a diverse team of innovative designers. "As a designer-led company, we consider the visual and auditory aspects of this production to be crucial elements in our storytelling," says Executive Artistic Director María-Cristina Fusté. "As such, we maintain continuous communication with the director during the rehearsal process, allowing the everyday discoveries of rehearsal to inform our production design. Our designs are dynamic and fluid, and won't stop evolving until the curtain rises on opening night! It is exciting to envision the world behind Fornés' words, and we look forward to watching her characters live in the space that we have created."

The creative team includes scenic designer Regina Garcia (2000 Princess Grace Award recipient), costume designer Harry Nadal, and lighting designer María-Cristina Fusté (2018 Princess Grace Award recipient). The production team also includes violence/intimacy directors David Anzuelo and Gerardo Rodriguez, composer/sound designer Nathan Leigh, and stage manager Esther Bermann, with associate producers Angel Morales and Amy Palen.

According to director Elena Araoz, "One of the great joys of working with Boundless Theatre Company is the bilingual and even trilingual rehearsal room and production meetings. They make theatre for a diverse audience by starting with a diverse team. For a play set in Latin America, I am excited to collaborate with a core creative team stacked full of Puerto Rican-born designers."

María Irene Fornés' critically acclaimed drama The Conduct of Life presents an unflinching portrayal of the intersection between political and personal violence. The play follows Orlando, an army officer serving under the totalitarian government of an unnamed Latin American state. As he advances in his career, Orlando perpetrates state-sanctioned acts of violence, warping his psyche and gradually upending life in his household. His descent into a lifestyle of corruption and abuse leaves Orlando's family grappling with the pernicious intrusion of state terror in their private lives. This riveting exploration of power, gender and greed provides a timely and brutal portrait of domestic life under authoritarianism.

Cuban-American playwright María Irene Fornés is one of the most influential American theater-makers of the 20th century. Her transformative experiments in theatrical form are trailblazing contributions to the development of feminist, queer and Latinx aesthetics onstage. She is the winner of nine Obie Awards, including for Promenade and The Successful Life of 3, and was also a finalist for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for her play And What of the Night? In 2002, she earned the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist. In 1999-2000, Signature Theater devoted a season to her work. A defining force within the off-off-Broadway movement, Fornés - as a playwright, director, designer and teacher - continues to inspire new generations of theater-makers today.

Performances take place Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 6:00 p.m. There will be two Saturday matinees at 3:00 p.m. on September 22nd and 29th. Teatro Círculo is located at 64 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery, and is accessible from the F at 2nd Avenue, the 6 at Astor Pl., and the N/W at 8th Street. Tickets are $25, and are available at (212) 352-3101 or boundlesstheatre.org