La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (sometimes abbreviated as La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theater founded in 1961 by African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer Ellen Stewart. Located in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, the theater began in the basement boutique where Stewart sold her fashion designs. Stewart turned the space into a theater at night, focusing on the work of young playwrights.
Address
Ellen Stewart Theatre: 299
The Downstairs: 150
The Community Arts Space: 74
The Club: 118
1961
Background[edit]
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.[1]
La MaMa is the only theatre of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway movement's four core theatres that continues to thrive today.[1] The other three Off-Off-Broadway theatres that composed this core included Joe Cino's Caffe Cino, Al Carmines' Judson Poets Theatre, and Ralph Cook's Theatre Genesis.[2] More than any other Off-Off-Broadway producer, Stewart reached out beyond the East Village, impelling rather than following new trends in theatre and performance.[1]
To the present, La MaMa's mission is dedicated to "the people who make art, and it is to them that we give our support with free theatre and rehearsal space, lights, sound, props, platforms, and whatever else we have that they can use to create their work. We want them to feel free to explore their ideas, and translate them into a theatrical language that can communicate to any person in any part of the world."[3]
As an Off-Off-Broadway theatre[edit]
A theatre for the playwright[edit]
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.[5] She acted as a mother; Jean-Claude van Itallie remembers his first meeting with Stewart:
Early history[edit]
321 E. 9th Street: Café La MaMa[edit]
La MaMa's first home, the basement at 321 East Ninth Street, was renovated over a period of nine months. During this time, the neighbors became concerned about the different men visiting at various times to work on the space. Moreover, as an African-American woman, Stewart was not welcomed into the neighborhood. Barbara Lee Horn writes:
Actors' Equity and the showcase code[edit]
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.[7]
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.[7]
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.[2]
In the 2000s[edit]
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,[17] made possible by a donation from then-mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg.[18]
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.[19] The choice of who would follow Stewart was significant, as "Ellen is La MaMa"[5] to many people. Before her death, Stewart chose to be succeeded by Mia Yoo, who continues to serve as artistic director.[20]
La MaMa Archives[edit]
The La MaMa Archives[21] 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 [22] searchable digital catalog of its collection.[23] In 2016, the Archives received a grant from the National Historic Records and Publications Commission[24] 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.[25]
Media related to La MaMa at Wikimedia Commons