La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club

Stewart started La MaMa as a theatre dedicated to the playwright and primarily producing new plays, including works by Paul Foster, Jean-Claude van Itallie, Lanford Wilson, Sam Shepard, Adrienne Kennedy, Harvey Fierstein, and Rochelle Owens. La MaMa also became an international ambassador for Off-Off-Broadway theatre by touring downtown theatre abroad during the 1960s. La MaMa is the only theatre of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway movement's four core theatres that continues to thrive today. == History ==

Beginnings: Ellen Stewart and the pushcart Ellen Stewart is the spirit of La MaMa; she is its guardian, janitor, fundraiser, press agent, tour manager, conceptual leader—she is the guts of the place. To understand this theatre one must first know Ellen Stewart. Stewart worked as a fashion designer at Saks Fifth Avenue before starting the theatre. Stewart was inspired by her mentor, "Papa Abraham Diamonds", who owned a fabric shop on the Lower East Side. Diamonds told Stewart that everyone needs both a "pushcart to serve others" and their own personal pushcart. Stewart had a revelation about this advice during a trip she took to Morocco and decided to open a boutique for her fashion designs that would also serve as a theatre for her foster brother, playwright Fred Lights, and his fellow playwright Paul Foster. On October 18, 1961, Stewart paid the fifty-five dollar rent on a tenement basement at 321 East Ninth Street to start her boutique and theater. As an Off-Off-Broadway theatre A theatre for the playwright As opposed to Caffe Cino, which was focused on creating a specific atmosphere or clientele, La MaMa's primary focus was on the playwright. Stewart was interested in the people behind the work, and often didn't even read the plays. She relied on what she called "beeps", or "clicks", a hunch or feeling she got when meeting people and deciding whether or not to produce work with them. In the early years, Stewart housed and fed playwrights and directors whenever possible. She acted as a mother; Jean-Claude van Itallie remembers his first meeting with Stewart: I never could have expected the warmth of Ellen's milk. She basically said to me, "Honey, you're home. This space is for you to put on plays." The combination of her kindness and her smile and the beauty of the space were overwhelming ... Ellen broadcast to the world that we were doing something important. We were her baby playwrights and she sat on us like eggs that would hatch. She told us that what we were doing mattered, and we wouldn't get confirmation on that anywhere else. Not only did Stewart create a nurturing environment for the playwright, but La MaMa's space itself was an appealing blank canvas in its early years. One artist recalled that the space, "imposed no aesthetic, made no artistic suggestions." The health department was contacted, but the inspector who arrived happened to be an old vaudevillian. He advised Stewart that getting a license to open a coffeehouse was much easier than getting a license to open a theatre. Following this advice, La MaMa became Café La MaMa. Coffee and cake were served, admission was free, and actors received some minor compensation from "passing the hat". 236 East 3rd Street In June 1971, La MaMa acquired 236 East 3rd and other abandoned buildings on the Lower East Side to turn them into art spaces. No. 236 was used primarily for community workshops, in an effort to engage and produce art that was reflective and representative of the surrounding neighborhood. The children's workshops spearheaded by avant-garde jazz drummer Charles “Bobo” Shaw, were some of the most ambitious. A letter to Ellen Stewart in 1973 indicates that the end goal of the space and programming was to establish a Hispanic theater center. Obviously, a goal that was spirited by the future occupants of this location. The Nuyorican Poets Cafe purchased the building 1985. Throughout the 1970s, La MaMa's 236 E. 3rd location became a centerpiece of the Loft Jazz movement with dozens of renowned and budding musicians traversing this space to gather and rehearse. The hallmark of this period was when, in 1979, trumpeter Lester Bowie rehearsed his Sho'Nuff Orchestra in preparing for a onetime performance of a 59-member contemporary jazz collective, a gathering reflective of the “Great Day in Harlem” photoshoot. Of great help during this period was the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. In 1978, Stewart utilized CETA funds to mount Goethe’s Faust I, directed by Fritz Bennewitz. CETA enabled the hiring of 22 actors, an 8-person chorus, 6 musicians, dancers and an 18-member crew. CETA also funded a series of Chamber Concerts, as well as the La MaMa-Ceta Jazz Cabaret. 66 East 4th Street In 1974, La MaMa purchased 66 E. 4th Street, which is two doors down from 74A E. 4th. In the 2000s In 2005, the theatre was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, made possible by a donation from then-mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg. Today, over one hundred productions with over four hundred performances are staged at La MaMa each season. Stewart continued to be artistic director and "mother" at La MaMa until her death on January 13, 2011. The choice of who would follow Stewart was significant, as "Ellen is La MaMa" == Impact ==

To date, La MaMa has presented and produced work by artists from over seventy nations. Early European tours While frequently moving locations in Manhattan, La MaMa was also traveling internationally. Stewart wanted broad publicity for her playwrights but she wasn't finding this in the United States, due partially to La MaMa's "hit or miss quality" and partially to the short runs of productions. Critics also found it difficult to determine the "dedicated devotion to novelty" of La MaMa productions. Upon hearing that Danish and other European countries would review most productions seen in their cities, Stewart decided to establish a reputation in Europe so that the United States would take more notice. In the fall of 1965, with twenty-two plays and sixteen young actors, La MaMa had its first European tour. La MaMa had two traveling companies. The first company, headed by Tom O'Horgan, went to Copenhagen for six weeks and was well-received. The Danish audience was interested in the company's passion and energy, and La MaMa was invited back the following year. The other company, led by Ross Alexander, went to Paris for six weeks. Unfortunately, the French audience found Jean-Claude van Itallie's America Hurrah obscene and the reviews were negative. Still, this first tour achieved its goal; La MaMa returned to New York with several positive Danish reviews. La MaMa had its second European tour from September–December 1966, again with O'Horgan and with ten actors. A third European tour took place from June–November 1967. Cultural ambassador The La MaMa companies did not only bring La MaMa plays to Europe but also brought plays that were first presented at other Off-Off-Broadway venues. These included Home Free!, The Madness of Lady Bright, and Miss. Victoria from Caffe Cino, as well as Birdbath and Chicago from Theatre Genesis. Thus, La MaMa acted as "international ambassadors, not just for La MaMa, but for new Village playwriting generally." La MaMa has extended past these European tours, with satellite La MaMa theatres opening over the years in Boston, Amsterdam, Bogotá, Israel, London, Melbourne, Morocco, Munich, Paris, Tokyo, Toronto, and Vienna. As of 2006, only a few continued to carry the La MaMa name, including La MaMa Bogotá, La MaMa Tel Aviv, and La MaMa Melbourne. These tours and satellite theatres not only created international connections and established La MaMa as a cultural ambassador for Off-Off-Broadway theatre, but also introduced experimental playwriting and O'Horgan's style of directing to international audiences. The La MaMa tours also allowed Stewart to create cross-cultural exchanges. She brought many notable international artists to La MaMa in Manhattan, including the Polish director Jerzy Grotowski in 1969 and the Romanian director Andrei Șerban in 1970. Stewart also created site-specific productions internationally. In 1981, she directed Romeo and Juliet on the grounds of Leopoldskran Castle in Salzburg, Austria. In 2004, she directed Trojan Women at the ruins in Gardzienice, Poland. La MaMa Umbria, in Spoleto, Italy, is an artist's retreat and cultural center founded in 1990 by Stewart with her MacArthur Grant money. Since 2000, La MaMa has held a three-week international symposium for directors at the Umbria location. == Artistry ==

The European tours influenced Stewart's own aesthetic: "I learned in 1965, that English is not the beginning and end of anything. Generally, it's the ending, it messes you up." She also said that, "I found the plays that were the most visual were the ones people liked." These realizations shifted Stewart's primary interest from the playwright to the director. In the 1970s, Stewart was interested in pairing playwrights and directors as a kind of theatrical matchmaker. She also had an interest in playwrights who directed and/or were solo performers. Stewart's 1970s shift in focus aligned with the concurrent historical "end" of the original Off-Off-Broadway movement. While La MaMa is the only Off-Off-Broadway theatre of the core four Off-Off-Broadway theatres that continues to function, La MaMa has evolved and adapted beyond Stewart's original focus on the playwright. Tom O'Horgan: first artistic director In 1964, Tom O'Horgan joined La MaMa. Directing over sixty plays, including his all-male version of Jean Genet's The Maids, O'Horgan was crucial to La MaMa's development. He was the theatre's first Artistic Director and was also integral to La MaMa's international tours. As a musician, O'Horgan performed with the Chicago Civic Opera in his youth and had professional training as a harpist, and was also trained in ballet. He came to La MaMa from Second City, bringing his interest and knowledge of Viola Spolin and Paul Sills' role-playing theories of human behavior and games adapted for theatre. This background gave O'Horgan an interest in the totality of theatre, which aligned perfectly with Stewart's interest in a theatrical language that transcended text. This interest of Stewart's developed primarily from La MaMa's international touring. O'Horgan's direction included musically driven vocal and movement techniques, which contributed to the distinctive La MaMa genre of theatre. The La MaMa Troupe O'Horgan and Stewart decided to create a workshop to develop the particular type of actors needed for La MaMa's productions. O'Horgan went on to direct the La MaMa Troupe from 1965 to 1969. This decision was initiated by the experience of working on Three from La MaMa with National Educational Television. Three from La MaMa was a television program of three La MaMa theatre pieces: Pavane by Jean-Claude van Itallie; Fourteen Hundred Thousand by Sam Shepard; and The Recluse by Paul Foster. The executive director of National Educational Television, Brice Howard, would not allow any La MaMa actors to perform in Three from La MaMa. Howard declared that the La MaMa actors were too inexperienced, which led Stewart and O'Horgan to start the actor-training workshop. In comparison to the psychological acting style and emphasis on method acting that was popular at the time, the La MaMa workshop focused on the other side of acting: externalized, kinetic techniques. The fifteen members of the La MaMa Troupe had workshops in movement, voice, and acting for five hours a day, five days a week. These workshops included hundreds of different exercises, which are best represented by Hair, a La MaMa show that transferred to Broadway in 1968. Village Voice critic Michael Smith wrote on Hair's Broadway opening: "O'Horgan has blown up Broadway." Hair brought international acclaim to O'Horgan and the La MaMa performance style. For some of the actors in the La MaMa troupe, O'Horgan's Hair was a "betrayal" and a "crass commercialization of lovingly developed ensemble techniques." The success of Hair affected La MaMa's identity, as did O'Horgan's frequent lack of availability to direct later productions. O'Horgan left La MaMa in 1969. == Actors' Equity and the showcase code ==

More experienced actors began to work at La MaMa as its reputation grew, creating problems with the Actors' Equity Association. In 1966, the union refused to allow their members to work at La MaMa without contracts. As a result, La MaMa was forced to shut down from October 12, 1966, until November 9, 1966. Equity believed that since La MaMa did not pay its actors the theatre was competing with Off-Broadway and would have to shut down. Peter Feldman, an Off-Off-Broadway director, wrote into the New York Times disputing Equity's reasoning. He wrote that La MaMa "did provide a stimulating environment for actors to work" and that working at La MaMa often led to paying jobs for actors when productions got transferred to Off-Broadway or Broadway. Feldman also emphasized that Stewart was not a commercial producer, but the head of a not-for-profit theatre, and was thus being considered unfairly. After a hearing with Stewart, the union resolved the conflict by creating a new showcase code. As long as La MaMa remained a private club, Equity actors could perform without contracts. This code still applies to Off-Off-Broadway productions today. == Education ==

Through workshops, talk backs, meet-ups, collaborations with colleges, and artist's retreats, the organization has provided opportunities for other artists to develop within and beyond the downtown performing arts scene. Collaborations with host institutions In the early 1980s, La MaMa resident director Leonardo Shapiro and Trinity College professor and performer Judy Dworin sought to create a performing arts program under Trinity College in partnership with La MaMa. When approached with the idea of collaboration, Ellen Stewart responded enthusiastically, offering space for students to take classes at 47 Great Jones St. In 1986, Trinity/La MaMa Performing Arts Program formed, initiating La MaMa's first of many collaborative ventures with educational institutions. Examples of additional institutions that have worked with La MaMa include Sarah Lawrence College, which holds courses that allow students to engage in workshops with La MaMa artists and attend performances. La MaMa Kids Workshops for children and families occur monthly and are coordinated and taught by La MaMa resident artists. The basics of storytelling, dance, mask and puppet-making are common themes at the workshops. In addition, performances specifically geared to children are present in the La MaMa season. ==Archives==

The La MaMa Archives is a collection chronicling the theatre's history and documenting the development of Off-Off-Broadway theatre. The collection includes approximately 70,000 items in a range of formats, including posters, programs, scripts, costumes, puppets, masks, musical instruments, correspondence, photographs, and audiovisual materials. The Archives has developed a chronological list of productions staged at La MaMa, and in 2014 received a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources to create a searchable digital catalog of its collection. In 2016, the Archives received a grant from the National Historic Records and Publications Commission to support a collaborative project, with the Bay Area Video Coalition and the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theatre Research, that will result in expanded access to a collection of half-inch open reel videos that document theatrical work performed at La MaMa during the 1970s. ==Notable contributors==

Many well-known actors, directors, playwrights, and companies, as well as lighting, costume, and set designers, have performed at La MaMa, including: • Magaly Alabau • Mary Alice • Aaron Bell • Barbara Benary • Kenneth Bernard • George Birimisa • Black-Eyed Susan • Blue Man Group • John Braden • Julie Bovasso • Giannina Braschi • Ed Bullins • Tisa Chang • Ping Chong • Billy Crystal • Jackie Curtis • Candy Darling • Robert De Niro • Andre De Shields • Loretta Devine • Danny DeVito • Ed Di Lello • Johnny Dodd • Lisa Edelstein • Tom Eyen • Harvey Fierstein • Geraldine Fitzgerald • Frederic Flamand • Maureen Fleming • Paul Foster • Morgan Freeman • Hanay Geiogamah • Whoopi Goldberg • Ellen Greene • Helen Hanft • Henry Hewes • William M. Hoffman • Anthony Ingrassia • Ron Jeremy • Bernie Kahn • Tadeusz Kantor • Leon Katz • Geraldine Keams • Harvey Keitel • David Patrick Kelly • Adrienne Kennedy • H.M. Koutoukas • Wilford Leach • Leslie Lee • Diane Lane • Craig Lucas • Charles Ludlam • Mabou Mines • Matthew Maguire (playwright, actor) • Tommy Mandel • Marshall W. Mason • Manuel Martín Jr. • Nancy Meckler • Leonard Melfi • Bette Midler • Andy Milligan • John Moran • Susan Mosakowski (playwright) • Tom Murrin • Nick Nolte • Susan Louise O'Connor • Tom O'Horgan • Hassan Ouakrim • Rochelle Owens • Al Pacino • Pan Asian Repertory Theatre • Robert Patrick • People Show • Meme Perlini • Lisa Jane Persky • Joe Pesci • Michael Warren Powell • Harry Reems • Andrew Robinson • Tadeusz Rozewicz • Kikuo Saito • Amy Sedaris • David Sedaris • Andrei Șerban • Sam Shepard • Patti Smith • Julia Stiles • Elizabeth Swados • Megan Terry • Theater of All Possibilities • Theatre of the Ridiculous • Winston Tong • John Vaccaro • Jean-Claude van Itallie • Stephen Varble • Herve Villechaize • Christopher Walken • Basil Wallace • Jeff Weiss • Richard Wesley • James Wigfall • Lanford Wilson • Andy Wolk • Holly Woodlawn • Mary Woronov • Ahmed Yacoubi • Rina Yerushalmi • Joel Zwick ==References==