2014 @ La MaMa (in Pictures)

Here is a pictorial look 

at just a handful of shows 

that happened in 2014 @ La MaMa!

Peggy Shaw in RUFF

Black Out by Philippe Saire (Under The Radar Festival)

El Año en Que Nací by Lola Arias (Under The Radar Festival)

The Wong Kids In  The Secret Of The 

Space  Chupacabra Go! by Ma-Yi Theater

Rumore di acque 

(Noise in the Waters) 
by Marco Martinelli 

Captain John Smith Goes to Ukraine by Yara Arts Group

What I learned from 
a decade of fear by Aluna Theatre

Bum Philips: All-American Opera by Monk Parrots

Zachary Karabashliev's Lissabon

THE MAIDEN by Nerve Tank

 DJ Spooky's Seoul Counterpoint by Culturehub

Theodora Skipitares' The Chairs

Myth or Meth by Radiohole 

(part of The Tom Murrin Full Moon Performance Festival)

Catherine Filloux's Selma 65

Tempest directed by Karin Coonrod (part of the Tempest 3 series)

The Elephant in Every Room I Enter 

written and performed by Gardner Comfort

AdA: Author directing Author 

by Neil LaBute and Marco Calvani 

Dead End Dummy by Dick Zigun 

Mokwha Repertory Company's The Tempest 

(part of the Tempest 3 series)

Motus Theatre Company's Nella Tempesta

(part of the Tempest 3 series)

We'll see you in 2015

@ LaMaMa

“Ephemera as Evidence” is an ARTFORUM Critics' Pick

Alex Fialho has chosen Ephemera as Evidence as a Critic's Pick. He says, of the exhibit which is open through Sunday, June 29th:

"Though a palpable sense of loss hangs over the exhibition—evoking Muñoz as well as those who have passed in the wake of the AIDS crisis—the art and ephemera displayed here stands as enduring witness to these vanishings."

Read the full write up: HERE

La MaMa presents

Visual Aids
Ephemera as Evidence

An exhibition curated by Josh Lubin-Levy and Ricardo Montez which brings together visual art, performance, and pedagogical projects that evidence past lives and future possibilities in the work of artists confronting HIV/AIDS.

La MaMa Galleria
6 East 1st Street
(between Bowery and 2nd Avenue)
New York, NY 10001


FREE!


Gallery Hours: Wednesday through Sunday from 1 to 7:30pm

For more info: CLICK HERE

LAMBDA LITERARY talks to Marge Gomez

Marga Gomez spoke with LAMBDA LITERARY about Lovebirds, now playing through Sunday, June 15th.

Lovebirds was written to take the sting out of a long break-up. We had been living in San Francisco and everything there reminded me of us. I started to hate the Cable Cars. Rather than move away I imagined a world of men and women who also made bad choices to comic effect. Lovebirds characters were inspired by people I met on the road to love, which for me began in Greenwich Village where I came out and fell in love every week at a dyke bar called Bonnie and Clyde’s. 

Read the full interview: HERE

La MaMa presents:

LOVEBIRDS

By Marga Gomez
Directed by David Schweizer

FINAL 3 PERFORMANCES!

Now – 15th, 2014
Friday - Saturday @ 10pm / Sunday @ 5:30pm

The Club @ La MaMa
74a East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $18 Adults - $13 Student/Senior; 10@$10 tickets are SOLD OUT, regular prices tickets are still available.

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

The Reviews Are In: Much Love for THE CHAIRS!

"potent, perplexing, inspiring and weird. Consistently, though, it’s quite engaging to watch. 'The Chairs' is wonderfully accessible." 

 - Ken Jaworowski, The New York Times 

"plenty of food for thought...a powerful and beautifully designed theatrical experience." 

 - Zachary Stewart, TheaterMania 

 "The Chairs asks us to listen and look very closely as we observe a parade of visual, textual and auditory artifacts pass before us. And yet, one of my preferred moments included the rare presence of a human being speaking plainly, purposefully and directly onstage. I hearken back to the words of Sister Wendy, one of the many visitors, who reminds us that it is “very hard to make judgments on the works of our own time. We have to wait.” I am waiting to see what Skipitares does next in this new era of her work and grateful that LaMaMa still exists as a home for theatrical experimentation." 

- Catherine Mueller, New York Theatre Review

La MaMa presents 

THE CHAIRS

Conceived and Directed by Theodora Skipitares

NOW – June 8, 2014 
Thursday - Saturday @ 7:30pm / Sunday @ 2:30pm

The Ellen Stewart Theatre @ La MaMa
66 East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $25 Adults - $20 Student/Senior; ten tickets priced at $10 are available, in advance, for every performance via web, phone or box office as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing initiative. 10@$10 tickets not available day of show. 

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

First Look: Theodora Skipitares' THE CHAIRS

Photos from Theodora Skipitares' stunning production of THE CHAIRS have just arrived.  Don't miss this beautiful show!  All photos by Richard Termine.

La MaMa presents 

The Chairs

Conceived and Directed by Theodora Skipitares

NOW – June 8, 2014 
Thursday - Saturday @ 7:30pm / Sunday @ 2:30pm

The Ellen Stewart Theatre @ La MaMa
66 East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $25 Adults - $20 Student/Senior; ten tickets priced at $10 are available, in advance, for every performance via web, phone or box office as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing initiative. 10@$10 tickets not available day of show. 

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Video Preview: Marga Gomez's LOVEBIRDS

Acclaimed performer Marga Gomez portrays a crew of incurable romantics as they chase their hearts’ desires – into the night, through decades, and to insane lengths. Orestes, a macho maitre d’ is infatuated with a tin eared singer who is married to an academic who never sleeps and is never awake. On the other side of town Orestes’s daughter cuts off her hair, joins a coven, and starts dating the captain of a women’s football team. They are observed and documented by Polaroid Phillie, an ageless nightclub photographer and fixture at gay bars, Spanish restaurants, and wherever passion happens.

La MaMa presents

LOVEBIRDS


Written & Performed by Marga Gomez
Directed by David Schweizer
June 6 – June 15, 2014
Fridays & Saturdays at 10pm; Sundays at 5:30pm


The Club @ La MaMa
74A East 4th Street
(Between Bowery and 2nd Avenue)
New York, NY 10003


Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors; ten tickets priced at $10 each are available, in advance via web, phone or box office as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing program. 10@$10 tickets not available day of performance.

For More Info: CLICK HERE 

For Tickets: CLICK HERE

6 QUESTIONS: Jeremy Aluma of Four Clowns

The LA based clown troupe, FOUR CLOWNS brings its eponymous show to The Club @ La MaMa from May 23 - June 1, 2014. Founder and Artistic Director, Jeremy Aluma, took time out from preparing for their East Coast debut to answer 6 Questions:

1. How did Four Clowns come together as a company?
In 2004, 10 years ago, I started my clown training - at The Clown School in LA, The Actors Center in NYC, and the Bali Master Conservatory in Indonesia. In one of my sessions at The Clown School with David Bridel and Orlando Pabotoy, I got an idea to create a clown show about four clowns who are stuck in their archetypes from childhood to death, and only through sharing their experiences with one another can they experience any relief. I sat with the idea for about 2 years and when the Hollywood Fringe Festival announced it's inauguration in 2010, I though it was the right place to premiere the idea. The show, Four Clowns, did tremendously well, so we decided to take it on the road. Over the course of the following year, we toured Four Clowns all over the country - to Las Vegas, Chicago, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Phoenix. We also continued to produce other material. A company slowly coalesced, and clown actors, director and teachers began getting in touch with me to collaborate. In November 2012, we formally created the company, Four Clowns.

2. What should audiences expect from the show? 
It's an exploration of the trials and tribulations of life told through the eyes of a clown. A clown is in touch with their emotions much more readily than you or I. They also have a direct connection to the audience. Essentially it's a very dark comedy about life.

3. Does the show change much from night to night? 
About 20% of the show is improvised so it changes regularly. There's also 2 different endings that depend on how the audience interacts with one of the characters. Also, after every show we discuss what jokes, bits and routines worked and which didn't so we are constantly tweaking. We have done the show about 70 times. 

4. Who has inspired you? 
Slava's Snow Show. Orlando Pabotoy's That Beautiful Laugh. Charlie Chaplin. The Clown School in Los Angeles.

5. Do you think of your work as political? 
Our work's primary goal is to make people laugh.

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you? 
 We've been trying to work with La MaMa for the past 2 years so this is very exciting for us. La MaMa is a staple in the NYC theater scene and we are honored to be a part of its illustrious tradition.

La MaMa presents 
FOUR CLOWNS 
Conceived and directed by Jeremy Aluma 

May 23 – June 1, 2014 
Friday and Saturday @ 10pm; Sunday @ 5:30pm 

The Club @ La MaMa
74A East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors; ten tickets priced at $10 are available, in advance, for every performance via web, phone or box office as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing initiative. 10@$10 tickets not available day of show. 

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

NY Times on La MaMa Moves!

The New York Times' Brian Schaefer preview this week @ La MaMa Moves!

"Since its founding in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has been a home to, and champion of, brash and venturesome artists. This month, that East Village theater presents its annual La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, now in its ninth year, featuring more than 50 local and international artists (through May 25)."

Read the full preview: HERE

La MaMa presents
La MaMa Moves! 
Dance Festival 2014

May 2 – May 25, 2014

La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, takes place in all three La MaMa venues and features over 50 emerging and seasoned choreographers. The Festival reflects La MaMa’s longstanding mission to performance that transcends politics and unifies cultures. 

Tickets: $15 - $20; ten $10 tickets are available, in advance only via web, phone or box office as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing program.  10@$10 tickets not available day of show.

For complete schedule and tickets: CLICK HERE

6 Questions: Theodora Skipitares

Gertrude Stein chair from Theodora Skipitares' THE CHAIRS

Theodora Skipitares brings her response to Eugene Ionesco's THE CHAIRS to The Ellen Stewart Theatre beginning May 22, 2014. Theodora took time out of creating to the show to answer our 6 Questions and we couldn't be more thrilled!

1. What about Eugene Ionesco’s THE CHAIRS was inspiring to you?
I first read THE CHAIRS….maybe in high school, or college and it stayed in my mind, perhaps because of the accumulation of the objects, the chairs, and how important they were. When I revisited the play a couple of years ago, I was deeply disappointed in it. Perhaps, I thought, “absurdist theater” from the mid-20th century was simply out of date. It had no resonance for me. In fact, the idea of bringing invisible people together to hear “an important message for mankind” only to dupe them by the arrival of a hired orator who is in fact a mute and cannot say anything at all seemed cruel.

I began to fashion a response to this play which would allow the chairs themselves to come to life and to speak. These chair/puppets would come from all walks of life and from different points in history. I envisioned giant Old Man and Old Woman puppets (much as in AMERICA HURRAH, by Jean-Claude van Italie) who would welcome these chairs into their home. When I created the old woman, I felt that she was compelling enough on her own and didn’t need a mate. People began to tell me that she looked like Gertrude Stein. And I began to think about Gertrude Stein and the conversations she might have had with Ionesco if they had met. And thus, the play took on a life of its own, very different from Ionesco’s.

2. How do you begin work on a new production? Does it start with visuals or text?
Usually, an article or a topic or an event throws itself at me with such an intensity that I stop what I’m doing and take a closer look. Next, come all sorts of visuals and then the text. I believe that I often work as a bricoleur, gathering or stitching a wide variety of texts and images together.

3. Do you think of your work as political?
I’m always aware of social and political issues as I create my work. But I’m also aware of many artists working today who are more deeply political in their artmaking. I aspire to be more like those artists, who don’t even think of a divide between “their own work” and their social practice work.

4. Is there an idea you’ve had for a while that has not come to fruition?
I’ve always wanted to do a large-scale historical re-enactment project that involves travel by boat to and from Roosevelt Island.

5. When did you know you would dedicate your life to making art?
It just sort of happened. When I first came to New York, when I was 21, it was easy to live on very little, in terms of rent and other expenses. I became quite skillful at getting by with very little money, working odd jobs, and seeing a lot of visual art and performance. There were many of us who did this. Now, I think it’s impossible to emerge as a young artist in New York. It’s best to go to another city.

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?
It’s the closest thing to an artistic home I’ve every had. It’s my neighborhood theater………I live two doors from the back door of the theater. My load-in is really funny…..I open my door, walk the puppets to the left for a few feet, and we’re inside the space!

The Ellen Stewart Theater is my favorite space…….I’ve been able to design unusual site-specific events. For example, my history of medicine, UNDER THE KNIFE, took place in 13 different locations and featured a variety of scales, from tiny puppets that only a dozen people could see to gigantic 12 foot puppets. 


La MaMa presents
The Chairs 
by Skysaver Productions 
Conceived and Directed by Theodora Skipitares 

May 22 – June 8, 2014 
Thursday, Friday and Saturday @ 7:30pm; Sunday @ 2:30pm 

The Ellen Stewart Theater 
66 East 4th Street 
New York, NY 10003 

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors; ten tickets priced at $10 are available for every performance, in advance only, as part of La MaMa's ongoing 10@$10 ticketing initiative to make theater tickets available to everyone. 10@$10 tickets are not available day of show. 

For Tickets and Info: Click Here

6 QUESTIONS: Artist Eric Rhein

Eric Rhein is one of the artists represented at La MaMa's first ever Benefit Art Auction. Eric was also kind enough to answer 6 Questions for our blog:

1. How would you describe your work to someone who is not familiar with it ?
Weather through photography, sculpture, mixed media constructions, or wire drawings, my work reflects the temporality of life and the potential for transcendence. Nature is often used as a metaphor for the human condition, and worlds beyond the tangible.

2. Why is important to you to support nonprofit galleries?
Since childhood accompanying my father to the university art studios where he taught art education, art making has been a means of processing my life experience. Informed by the AIDS crises, this gift of creativity has been the key to my survival. Nonprofit spaces have been homes, and nurtured this connection to my sprit.

3. Who or what inspires you?
Inspiration comes from those who live their lives in quest of expanded consciousness, who are kind, and inclusive of alternative ways of being
.
4. What do you do when you are not making work?
Currently much of my time is involved with archiving my AIDS memorial Leaves, which honors more then 200 people I knew who died though the course of AIDS. The writing of biographies for those included in the piece, many of which were fellow artist and cultural contributors, is a part of this. 5. What was your first experience with/at La MaMa? I moved to New York City in 1980; graduating high school a half year early to create butterfly puppets for New York City Ballet, through an apprenticeship with the designer of Big Bird, Kermit Love. Kermit’s workshop was on Great Jones Street, and some sojourns with Kermit were to La Ma Ma for exposure to theater of an alternative nature.

6. Finish this sentence:
It’s not art unless it is a unique vision; a connection to the divine.

Eric Rhein, Spirit  1991

Eric's work, Spirit, is one of many works available at the La MaMa Benefit Art Auction.  You can see and bid on all the works online and join us at the Closing Night Party for a drinks, entertainment and to bid live.  

La MaMa Galleria presents

La MaMa

Benefit Art Auction

Saturday, May 3: 7pm to 10pm

LaMaMa Galleria 

6 East First Street

(Between Bowery and Second Avenue)

New York, NY 10003

Cocktails & hor d’oeuvres catered by Veselka

Last Look Closing Party & Final Bidding

For Tickets and Information: CLICK HERE

Special Guest Marilyn Sokol Joins Richard Stein at CUT + PASTE

Actress and comedian, Marilyn Sokol, will join Richard Stein in CUT + PASTE: A Musical Memoir this Sunday, May 3rd at 5pm at The Ellen Stewart Theatre. Andrei Serban directs this cabaret evening that takes the audience on a journey through the mirror of life from a man who has spent his in front of the looking glass.

La MaMa Presents
CUT + PASTE: 
A Musical Memoir
by Richard Stein

CUT + PASTE: A Musical Memoir is cabaret evening replete with refreshments and ample lunacy, heart warming tales, songs, a dance or two and some well timed improvisation,that  takes the audience on a journey through the mirror of life from a man who has spent his in front of the looking glass. From London’s down and out East End to New York’s swanky Upper East Side Richard Stein cuts and pastes an evening you will not soon forget. 

One Performance Only!
Sunday, May 4th at 5pm

Tickets: $100 cabaret seating, including wine; $25 Adult/$20 Student/Senior.  Ten tickets priced at $10 are available, in advance only, via web, phone or box office as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing program.  10@$10 tickets are not available day of show.

For tickets and info: CLICK HERE

6 Questions: Daniel Koren of THE MOST IMPORTANT THING

1. What was the original idea behind your show, The Most Important Thing?
English is not my native tongue, and my accent, how to say this lightly, is quite noticeable. When I moved to the US eight years ago and started performing, I realized it'd be better to embrace it rather than to try and hide it. This resulted with a peculiar music-man character, trying to make the most professional show ever seen on stage, and is on the search for The Most Important Thing.

2. How do you describe what the audience’s experience will be at the show?
The show is funny, so laughter is one of the key things the audience would experience. There are also a lot of 'oh-I-acutally-never-thought-about-it-like-this' moments, and some 'what-the-hell-just-happened' moments.

3. How do you use technology in the show?
The entire show is accompanied by bigheaded figures that function as an interactive choir. They are projected on a big screen right behind me, and we have a complicated relationship.

4. What was the best book you read recently?
 One Hundred Years of Solitude

5. Name someone or something that inspires you.
Disney's old songs.

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?
I am a big fan of La Mama and its radical productions. When I just moved to the city I thought: "one day..." I'm extremely grateful to say that that "One Day" arrives really soon! 

Check out the promo video for the show:

La MaMa presents
The Most 
Important Thing
by Daniel Koren

Two Performances Only!
Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3, 2014 at 8pm

Emmy-nominated composer Daniel Koren (@danielkoren) sits by the piano, accompanied by his projected figures In this bizarre and visually mind blowing musical stand up Special. In his own provoking way, Daniel reveals his stream of consciousness, making a virtuosic act that redefines comedy and live music.

La MaMa First Floor Theatre
74A East 4th Street
(Between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

For Tickets and Information: Click Here

Coming Soon: Compagnie Affari-Esteri's EMBRACE

  Teaser du duo "embrace" (Janvier 2012) from Compagnie Affari Esteri on Vimeo.


La MaMa Moves kicks off next week with Compagnie Affari-Esteri's EMBRACE at La MaMa's First Floor Theatre.

Two men face each other constrained in their search for different forms of identification. Poetic notions are employed, from a lovers’ narrative to duplicity, from a social body to a perceptive body, and of the other as witness, mirror, support, and companion. Two New York artists were invited into the process, poet Christina Clark and musician Oren Bloedow. This four-part composition questions the juxtaposition of these different languages creating a symbolic receptacle for disparate artistic voices, a choreographic journey of relation coming into being and a reflection on the existence of one through another.

La MaMa presents
EMBRACE
by Compagnie Affari-Esteri 

Choreography By Shlomi Tuizer & Edmond Russo
Music By Oren Bloedow
Poems By Christina Clark

Three Performances Only!
May 2, 3 and 4, 2014 
Friday and Saturday @ 10pm; Sunday @ 5:30pm 

Tickets: $15; ten tickets priced at $10 are available for each performance, in advance, via web, phone or boax office as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing program. 10@$10 tickets are not available day of performance.

For tickets and information: CLICK HERE

6 QUESTIONS: Ralph Lewis, Peculiar Works Project

Ralph Lewis of Peculiar Works Project is at the helm of the staged reading of Tom Murrin's SON OF COCKSTRONG as part of the Tom Murrin Full Moon Performance Festival. Ralph took a break from putting the show together to answer our 6 Questions. Here are his answers:

1. What did you know about Tom Murrin and his work prior to directing SON OF COCK-STRONG? 
Initially, I saw a few of his solo performance pieces, and now, wish I had seen more. I’m not sure what Peculiar Works show Tom first attended, but he became a big supporter of the Company. And, like everyone else says, his support was always unconditional and totally encouraging. In 2007, we did a staged reading of Cock-Strong at the old Ohio Theater, and he spoke about the play and his work afterward. He was everything that everyone in this community wants to be – just the nicest, most-giving artist. The world is a lil’ less of a good place without him in it.

2. SON OF COCK-STRONG premiered at La MaMa in 1970. What do you think it has to say to audiences today? 
A lot has changed in the downtown theater community since the original Son of Cock-Strong, but the play’s themes of power and love will always prevail. Peculiar Works just had to find a contemporary key to unlock its message. There’s a great old quote that ends with, “…and some people have greatness thrust upon them.” That’s what happens to Arthur Cock-Strong, Jr., and there’s much to be learned about how events and people can push us to places we don’t want to go. Do we control our lives and chart our own course through it, or do the people we meet and what happens along the way determine where we end up?

3. How are you using technology in this reading? 
Technology is still a scary proposition in the theater today – things can always go wrong, and yet the show must go on as they say. We’re using it anyway! Our goal is a “paperless staged reading,” so there will be no scripts, but there will be teleprompters and cue cards like a Saturday Night Live sketch; projections, video, and microphones like the Wooster Group; as well as laptops, palm pads, cell phones, walkie-talkies, and more. If anything goes wrong, it could be wild, but it will be worth the price of admission, and really, I think Tom would appreciate the risk-taking.

4. Who or what inspires you? 
Peculiar Works and I are most inspired by those who have come before us. My partners and I spent 3 years studying the origins of Off-Off Broadway for a previous piece, so I think there is no one who knows more about our forebears than we do. But, we are also inspired by other artistic movements and the artists who made them happen. We’ve researched the hell out of DaDa in the ‘20s, Abstract Expressionists at the Cedar Bar, the Provincetown and Washington Square Players of early Off Broadway, and recently, I’ve even been boning up on the very first theater in Manhattan on Nassau Street and Park Row. Famous artistic movements come together and often explode, but there’s so much to learn from them all – “originality is lack of information.”

5. What is next for Peculiar Works Project? 
On May 9th at 10pm, we’ll be doing 30 minutes of my partner Barry Rowell’s new play, Nobody Brings Anything Small into a Bar in the Dixon Place Lounge, and on May 17th at 2pm, I’ll be giving a book-talk on Before and Behind the Curtain at the Tompkins Sq. Library for LES History Month. It’s a great 1851 book, all about what was going on in the theater at the time when the Broadway theater district went no farther north than Astor Place. There’s more on our website: peculiarworks.org

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you? 
This is a great time to be working at La MaMa. I mean, we all miss Ellen terribly, and I’m so influenced by the half-century of legendary-ness she built here, but she also did a great job preparing this theater for the future. No one can tell if the transition is difficult for the staff, and that is to their great credit, but Mia Yoo is doing a fabulous job of steering this theater forward. I have no doubt that La MaMa’s best days are ahead. Peculiar Works is incredibly grateful to be part of it and the Tom Murrin Full Moon Festival.


La MaMa presents

Son of Cock-Strong


Peculiar Works Project
part of Tom Murrin Full Moon Performance Festival
Saturday, April 26 at 5pm

The Club @ La MaMa

Buy tickets here

Ralph Lewis leads Peculiar Works troupers on a wild ride to the top in Son of Cock-Strong. This non-sequel sequel (originally directed by La MaMa bad boy John Vaccaro) follows Arthur Cock-Strong Jr.’s rise to power in a ridiculous musical with new compositions by Spencer Katzman.

Featuring: STAN BAKER* • CRISTI CASTRO • MEGAN COOPER • TIM CUSACK* • ROB GAINES • DENIS GAWLEY* • MICK HILGERS* • KING MAN HO • CAITI LATTIMER • JOYCE MILLER • SYLVIA MILO • RACHEL NAAR • KEVIN PERCIVAL • CATHERINE PORTER* • GABRIELE SCHAFER*