Mommy, Dearest
Remembering La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart
By Tom Murrin
Ellen Stewart, founder of La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, passed away yesterday at age 91. More than any one, Ellen was the The Mother of Off-Off Broadway. Starting out in 1961, in a small basement theater in the East Village, Stewart created a space where thousands of playwrights, actors and directors, as well as theater troupes from all over the world, could come and perform, trying out radical and new ways of putting on shows; alarming, amusing and thrilling audiences for five decades.
In the mid-'60s, before she moved to 74-A East 4th Street, La MaMa was located on Second Avenue, just south of St. Mark's Place, a third floor walk-up above a tailor shop. Ellen sat outside the door to the theater every night, collecting admissions, making sure no one entered when the play was going on, and sewing costumes for the next week's show. Inside Tom O'Horgan directed the La MaMa troupe of actors in plays like Chicago by Sam Shepard, or This Is The Rill Speaking by Lanford Wilson. A week or two later you might see Tom Eyen's Miss Nefrititi Regrets, a wild musical with a young bombshell named Bette Midler in the lead role.
Every night Ellen would open the show by ringing a cow bell and announcing that La MaMa was "dedicated to the playwright and all aspects of the theater." And she would close the evening by saying,"You can come back every night this week for the $2.50 you paid at the door, and if you have any plays you want to have done, bring them to me and we will see what can be done." First-time playwrights brought their scripts to her. Reportedly, she could tell "by feel" whether or not a play was up to snuff, and she'd pass it on to a director.
When Ellen moved to East 4th Street in 1969, the city's avant-garde theater scene was established. Everyone came downtown to see what was going on, and La MaMa was often their first stop. Multi-talents like Julie Bovasso and Jeff Weiss would write, direct and perform in their own shows. Ellen suggested they do a show together, and they did. Tom O'Horgan directed Rochelle Owen's Futz, which caused quite a stir, because it was about a farmer who was in love with his sow. John Vaccaro brought in his troupe Play-House of the Ridiculous.
Ellen always believed in making her home open to theater troupes from all over the world. She traveled every year to faraway cities, checking out their avant-garde acting groups and inviting them to come to La MaMa to perform. You could go to Tokyo or Calcutta or Warsaw, seek out the experimental theaters, and they would have all heard about La MaMa, and hoped they could some day bring their shows here. Ellen was an ambassador of experimental theater to the rest of the world, and she received many awards and accolades for that accomplishment alone.
In the '80s, when performance artists were the rage, La MaMa once again provided a venue for a new style of performance. Reno, Ethyl Eichelberger, David and Amy Sedaris and The Blue Man Group all did early shows at La MaMa. Ellen was always at the helm, making sure her artists had the freedom, and often the necessary budget, to do what they wanted to do on stage. She was never one to censor on-stage material, although she did have one superstition: she didn't want the color green on stage. She believed it was bad luck for the show, and it even used to be written into the contract.
Every year, aside from all her other endeavors, Ellen also would write, direct and stage a large-scale production, with music, dance and spectacle. Her last one took place this past June. Her health forced her to direct that show from her bed on wheels; she lived in the theater during the run, and watched the performances from a wheelchair. Her strength and commitment to putting on the show never waned. To her, the people who dedicated their lives to putting on a play or making a show were her people, her children, her "bitties," as she sometimes called them. Her family, her dedication to theater, and her legacy will extend long into the future.
In the mid-'60s, before she moved to 74-A East 4th Street, La MaMa was located on Second Avenue, just south of St. Mark's Place, a third floor walk-up above a tailor shop. Ellen sat outside the door to the theater every night, collecting admissions, making sure no one entered when the play was going on, and sewing costumes for the next week's show. Inside Tom O'Horgan directed the La MaMa troupe of actors in plays like Chicago by Sam Shepard, or This Is The Rill Speaking by Lanford Wilson. A week or two later you might see Tom Eyen's Miss Nefrititi Regrets, a wild musical with a young bombshell named Bette Midler in the lead role.
Every night Ellen would open the show by ringing a cow bell and announcing that La MaMa was "dedicated to the playwright and all aspects of the theater." And she would close the evening by saying,"You can come back every night this week for the $2.50 you paid at the door, and if you have any plays you want to have done, bring them to me and we will see what can be done." First-time playwrights brought their scripts to her. Reportedly, she could tell "by feel" whether or not a play was up to snuff, and she'd pass it on to a director.
When Ellen moved to East 4th Street in 1969, the city's avant-garde theater scene was established. Everyone came downtown to see what was going on, and La MaMa was often their first stop. Multi-talents like Julie Bovasso and Jeff Weiss would write, direct and perform in their own shows. Ellen suggested they do a show together, and they did. Tom O'Horgan directed Rochelle Owen's Futz, which caused quite a stir, because it was about a farmer who was in love with his sow. John Vaccaro brought in his troupe Play-House of the Ridiculous.
Ellen always believed in making her home open to theater troupes from all over the world. She traveled every year to faraway cities, checking out their avant-garde acting groups and inviting them to come to La MaMa to perform. You could go to Tokyo or Calcutta or Warsaw, seek out the experimental theaters, and they would have all heard about La MaMa, and hoped they could some day bring their shows here. Ellen was an ambassador of experimental theater to the rest of the world, and she received many awards and accolades for that accomplishment alone.
In the '80s, when performance artists were the rage, La MaMa once again provided a venue for a new style of performance. Reno, Ethyl Eichelberger, David and Amy Sedaris and The Blue Man Group all did early shows at La MaMa. Ellen was always at the helm, making sure her artists had the freedom, and often the necessary budget, to do what they wanted to do on stage. She was never one to censor on-stage material, although she did have one superstition: she didn't want the color green on stage. She believed it was bad luck for the show, and it even used to be written into the contract.
Every year, aside from all her other endeavors, Ellen also would write, direct and stage a large-scale production, with music, dance and spectacle. Her last one took place this past June. Her health forced her to direct that show from her bed on wheels; she lived in the theater during the run, and watched the performances from a wheelchair. Her strength and commitment to putting on the show never waned. To her, the people who dedicated their lives to putting on a play or making a show were her people, her children, her "bitties," as she sometimes called them. Her family, her dedication to theater, and her legacy will extend long into the future.
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