Watch This: A clip from Bearded Ladies' CONTRADICT THIS!

 
Final week to catch The Bearded Ladies Cabaret in Contradict This! A Birthday Funeral for Heroes at La MaMa through Saturday, June 29th!

6 Questions: ‘MOre’ Zimin from 13 FRUITCAKES

La MaMa presents
13 FRUITCAKES

Written & Directed by Byungkoo Ahn 
Song Cycle by Gihieh Lee 
Lyrics by Lorca, Wilde and Other Queer Poets 
Electronic Music by Los Angeles Laptop Collective 

Filled with movement and music, 13 Fruitcakes is a series of 13 staged musical vignettes about 13 significant LGBTQ figures that influence humanity through their great achievements in the arts, politics, philosophy, and science. Moments in the lives of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, Dong Xian (董賢), King Hyegong, Leonardo da Vinci, Hans Christian Andersen, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, Alan Turing, Frida Kahlo, Josephine Baker and Eleanor Roosevelt are staged along with a beautiful song cycle based on poems by queer poets such as Wilde, Mew, Whitman, Rimbaud and Lorca.

June 13 - June 16, 2019

Thursday - Saturday at 7PM; Sunday at 3PM

Tickets: $25 Adults/$20 Students and Seniors

For Info and Tickets: CLICK HERE

Video Teaser: 13 FRUITCAKES

La MaMa presents
13 FRUITCAKES
Written & Directed by Byungkoo Ahn 
Song Cycle by Gihieh Lee 
Lyrics by Lorca, Wilde and Other Queer Poets 
Electronic Music by Los Angeles Laptop Collective 

Filled with movement and music, 13 Fruitcakes is a series of 13 staged musical vignettes about 13 significant LGBTQ figures that influence humanity through their great achievements in the arts, politics, philosophy, and science. Moments in the lives of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, Dong Xian (董賢), King Hyegong, Leonardo da Vinci, Hans Christian Andersen, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, Alan Turing, Frida Kahlo, Josephine Baker and Eleanor Roosevelt are staged along with a beautiful song cycle based on poems by queer poets such as Wilde, Mew, Whitman, Rimbaud and Lorca.

June 13 - June 16, 2019

Thursday - Saturday at 7PM; Sunday at 3PM

Tickets: $25 Adults/$20 Students and Seniors

For Info and Tickets: CLICK HERE

Promo Video: Contradict This! A Birthday Funeral for Heroes

La MaMa presents

Contradict This! 
A Birthday Funeral for Heroes

By The Bearded Ladies Cabaret

June 20 - June 29, 2019

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

Cake, coffin, gavel, choir, composers, live musical trolling! On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the much lauded homo poet Walt Whitman's birth and the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret is throwing a pageant for the ancestors.

Part trial, part birthday, part funeral, this spectacle will feature original music performed by a host of misfits, drag artists, queers, and a local choir. Come with friends, complaints, heroes and villains alike. All are welcome to the death, birth, and reckoning of the great poet.

Tickets: $25 Adults/$20 Students and Seniors

For Info and Tickets: CLICK HERE

Open Call for Choir Participants for Upcoming La MaMa Show!

The Bearded Ladies Cabaret, open call for choir participants for show at La Mama

The Bearded Ladies Cabaret is a cabaret/theater company working on a project called Contradict This! A Birthday Funeral for Heros, as part of the 50th anniversary of Stonewall. The Bearded Ladies are throwing a party, a funeral, and a trial for Whitman, using him to explore what we do with our flawed heroes. For this pageant we are building a choir and are looking for singers who love to sing, can learn simple music quickly, are excited about working with The Bearded Ladies, and love glitter and fake facial hair.

There is no audition process, the show is looking for about 30 voices in total. It's a volunteer choir (all members will be fed at every rehearsal/performance). The music is fairly simple, and we're looking for all voice types. There may be some elements of physicality in the performance, but we're more interested in getting as many diverse voices and bodies in the room as possible.   

The production will be at LaMaMa, and the schedule we'd like for folx to make is the following:

June 17th 6-10p rehearsal (TBD Great Jones Room of LaMaMa)

June 18th 7-9pm spacing rehearsal at LaMaMa. 

June 19th 6p-10p tech rehearsal (we understand if people cannot make this commitment, the whole day long)

June 20th 5:30pm show call, 7:00pm show

June 21st 5:30pm show call, 7:00pm show

June 22nd 5:30pm show call, 7:00pm show

June 23rd 1:30pm show call, 3:00pm show

June 27th 5:30pm show call, 7:00pm show

June 28th 5:30pm show call, 7:00pm show

June 29th 5:30pm show call, 7:00pm show

If you would like to participate or would like more information, contact Director John Jarboe (he/she) at jtjarboe@gmail.com

6 Questions: Esther Apituley

Bach and Bleach is a play about two opposites merging into an unexpected and wonderful understanding of life and themselves. It’s funny, it’s profound, it’s not to be missed. Renowned Dutch musician Esther Apituley answered our 6 Questions about her upcoming production at La MaMa!

1) How would you describe your character in Bach and Bleach? 

A passionate musician who loved to tell her story through her viola. 

2) What was your original inspiration for Bach & Bleach? 

To make classical music more accessible to people who never go to a classical music concert because they feel intimated by classical music. I want to make classical music approachable. Too many people think of classical music being solemn and I want to change that. 

3) Does this production feel different when performed in different countries with different casts? 

Yes, definitely. When we performed it in Spain the people were more emotional, more open. The Dutch audiences can be more cynical and very straight. Here in the US it's an international cast bringing many cultures together in one show. Jenny Sterlin, the cleaning lady was born in Britain, my pianist is from Puerto Rico, Gregoire, the harmonica player is European as is the cellist (French) and one of the violinists (German). The styles come together, like New York. 

4) What is the significance of Bach's music in Bach and Bleach? 

Bach is monumental, of another universe. Bleach is the opposite, something to clean with -- bringing the two together is intriguing.

5) How is live music important to the production?

Classical musicians tend to be strict in their playing, every note has it's value. Adding jazz musicians gives a freedom, especially with improvisation. A combination of the classical and jazz musicians brings a unique sound. 

6) What does working at La MaMa mean to you? 

La MaMa is in New York City, and its amazing that they were interested to host my show. I'm thankful to them and proud of that. As an artist it is important that there is a theater behind me that believes in the work that I do.

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La MaMa presents

BACH & BLEACH 

Bach and Bleach is a play about two opposites merging into an unexpected and wonderful understanding of life and themselves. It’s funny, it’s profound, it’s not to be missed. renowned Dutch musician Esther Apituley answered our 6 Questions about her upcoming production at La MaMa!
Music performance by Esther Apituley 
New York version Directed by Erwin Maas

June 5 - 9, 2019
Wednesday - Friday at 8pm; Saturday and 1pm and 8pm; Sunday at 5pm

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

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors

For Tickets & Info: CLICK HERE

Promo Video: BACH & BLEACH

An empty stage, a cleaning lady from Bosnia, a vibrant band leader from Holland - two ladies locked in battle for their right to occupy the space - add seven talented band members, a wandering choir, and the power of music to overcome and release the imagination trapped inside - and voila! Bach and Bleach is a play about two opposites merging into an unexpected and wonderful understanding of life and themselves. It’s funny, it’s profound, it’s not to be missed.

The performers led by renowned Dutch musician Esther Apituleyinclude eight talented musicians around the world, among them the acclaimed jazz harmonica player Grégoire Maret, as well as two New York choirs, and Broadway actress, Jenny Sterlin as the cleaning lady directed by Erwin Maas.

BACH & BLEACH comes to La MaMa for six performances from June 5 - 9, 2019.  

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La MaMa presents

BACH & BLEACH 

Music performance by Esther Apituley 
New York version Directed by Erwin Maas

June 5 - 9, 2019
Wednesday - Friday at 8pm; Saturday and 1pm and 8pm; Sunday at 5pm

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

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors

For Tickets & Info: CLICK HERE

NY Times Spotlights 13 FRUITCAKES at La MaMa!

Pride Month 2019

Pride Events: Here’s How to Celebrate

From exhibitions to music and movies, we offer over 25 options for commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising and celebrating Pride Month. 

NY Times singles out Byungkoo Ahn's 13 FRUITCAKES as something to check out during 2019 Gay Pride Month in NYC, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall!

‘13 FRUITCAKES’ (June 13-16) What do Virginia Woolf, Dong Xian and Tchaikovsky have in common? They’re among the famous figures featured in “13 Fruitcakes,” a series of short staged musical vignettes focusing on prominent L.G.B.T.Q. personalities in history. A drag queen named Orlando — taken from Virginia Woolf’s novel of the same name — narrates the show, which includes music, sung in multiple languages, based on poems by queer writers such as Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman.

Read the full list of  The New York Times' Stonewall 50 Event Selections: CLICK HERE 

13 FRUITCAKES is part of Stonewall 50 at La MaMa.  

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

NY Times on SIN CHA HONG

The New York Times picks Sin Cha Hong's MIRROR as one of "8 Dance Performances to See in N.Y.C. This Weekend"
Two performance only: Saturday May 25th at 7pm and Sunday May 26th at 3pm only!

Read the full article HERE

For Tickets and Info about the show: CLICK HERE

6 Questions: Sin Cha Hong

Performer/Choreographer Sin Cha Hong took time out from preparing for her show MIRROR to answer our 6 Questions about her new show, Ellen Stewart and working at La MaMa.  MIRROR opens this Saturday, Mary 25th for two performances only at The Ellen Stewart Theatre.

La MaMa presents

Sin Cha Hong | Mirror

Choreographed, Directed & Performed by Sin Cha Hong

Part of the 2019 La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival

Saturday May 25 at 7pm and Sunday May 26 at 3pm 

Ellen Stewart Theatre

66 East 4th Street (2nd Floor)

New York, NY 10003

Tickets: Adults: $25; Student/Senior: $20  

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Linda LaBeija Interviews the La MaMa Squirts Curators

Each year, La MaMa’s Squirts gathers the most exciting voices from New York City’s queer performance world, across the generations. This year, three trans women artists with deep community roots will each craft a night of the festival, marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.

Linda LaBeija of the House of LaBeija interviewed our three curators -- Cecilia Gentili, Charlene Incarnate and Mizz June -- about their artistic visions and the larger place of trans narratives in the cultural landscape.

Friday, May 31 at 7PM
Curated by Cecilia Gentili

Featuring: 

Julia Rose, Ash RT Yergens, Auset Bennu aka AB, Linda Labeija

Argentinian-American activist and actress Cecilia Gentili kicks things off with an evening of performance and storytelling by trans artists. Gentili learned about Stonewall under the Argentinian dictatorship of the 70s and 80s, and her curation is inspired by what she learned from U.S. LGBT culture during repressive times. 

Saturday, June 1 at 7PM
Curated by Mizz June

Featuring: 

Mizz June, Princess Sasha Fierce, and The Violence. 

Hosted by drag ally Banjela Davis, with a presentation by FIERCE! NYC and very special guest Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

Mizz June presents a night of hip-hop, R&B, punk rock, and PRIDE from established and up-and-coming trans women of color artists. Tonight, it's FEMMES FIRST. 

Sunday, June 2 at 7PM
Curated by Charlene Incarnate

Featuring: 

Remy Black, Image Object, Lucia Honey, and more

Charlene Incarnate curates an all-transgender and non-binary showtunes review. Timeless Broadway material from fraught moments in American history will be reinvigorated by the trans bodies performing today, under a neo-fascist regime in America. As an intergenerational link between queers and dreamers in NYC, musicals help our communities see where we’ve been and where we’re going. 

--

La MaMa presents

La MaMa's Squirts: 
Generations of Queer Performance

May 31 - June 2, 2019 

The Ellen Stewart Theatre @ La MaMa

66 East 4th Street

(between Bowery and Second Avenue)

New York, NY 10003

FREE ADMISSION

For Reservations and Info: CLICK HERE

6 Questions: Playwright Alex Riad

Playwright Alex Riad's play The Floor is Lava is currently playing The Downstairs at La MaMa through May 19, 2019. Alex took time out from the production to answer our 6 Questions about the play, millennials and working at La MaMa. 

1. What inspired you to write The Floor is Lava?

As I'm sure many New Yorkers can relate, when you’re a transplant in this city there's this pressure to justify the move by being wildly successful. When ever I'm back home drinking with friends or catching up with family, everyone’s always asking me, "How are you doing?", which really means, "Are you successful and happy?" My answer has always seesawed somewhere between yes and I'm fucking drowning. When I wrote The Floor is Lava both happiness and success seemed especially far away. I felt stuck and like giving up, but I still had to go home and answer that damn question: "How are you doing?" It just felt easier to lie and pretend. Hold it all in. Put on a happy face. Friends won't notice as long as there's enough scotch at the bar. I started writing Lava to start trying to be honest. Explore what it's like to come home and hide amongst friends instead of actually connecting to them.

2. What does the voice of a millennial sound like?

I don’t really think of it like that. I never aim to capture a voice. I aim to capture an experience, tell stories unique to our generation, while constantly striving for authenticity. In order to capture that authenticity, I need to fill those plays with three dimensional millennial characters, which gets to the core of why I focus on writing about us. When I made this my mission, I never felt our stories were really being told seriously nor our characters portrayed with any real depth. Their is no unifying millennial voice, we’re all just people just like any other generation, but colored with our individual experiences and shared generational experiences. Maybe we say “like” more than other generations too.

3. Do you think social media is good?

I think like any world changing technology it’s got its positives and negatives. Even if I leaned more negative than positive, I still couldn’t live with out it because it’s so ingrained in our society. Plus my day job is in social media so if it wasn’t around, I wouldn’t have a pay check. The positives are the ways that it connects the world. I never feel too far away from anyone anymore because I can stay updated with all my friends’ lives and they can stay updated on mine. Now, there are obvious truly terrible negatives like social media’s influence in interfering in the last Presidential election and how social media is used around the world to spread some pretty terrible misinformation that can have violet consequences. However putting those two aside, I would say the biggest draw back to social media is the way we can present ourselves on these platforms; it can be pretty superficial. We put a version of ourselves online that may or may not be us, so people “like” us. It’s almost like we each have a brand on social media to maintain. I don’t know if it’s a good thing for people to be brands, makes our newly enhanced communication with one another less honest, which in a sense undermines these connections we’re creating and maintaining with social in the first place.

4. What does real connection look like for the millennial generation?

What I brought up in the previous question, isn’t a specifically millennial problem. Every generation on the internet uses social media as a facade in some degree; it’s not a uniquely millennial experience. What’s unique to millennials is that social media has been a part of our lives since we were teenagers and we’ve never experienced adulthood without it. To answer your question, I’m not going to say, let’s put down our phones and really talk to each other because that’s gonna make me sound like a real asshole and it’s just not practical. However, in the context of the play, I can answer that real connection question for the main character in Lava, Sean. It means stop putting up this fake person to cover up his struggles and actually tell his friends who he is and admit that he needs help. Though Sean may not use social media, he’s a walking selfie or Instagram story, telling the world he’s wildly successful and happy when in actuality his life is falling apart and he has no idea what he’s doing. To admit that and be honest about his problems, is the only way out and the only way his friends can really be there for him. However, that would mean sacrificing an image he’s spent his whole life trying to craft.

5. What has changed for the characters in the ten years preceding this play?
If I answered that I’d be ruining one of the twists in the play. Come see it to find out.

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?
It’s a total honor. I’m a huge theatre history enthusiast and LaMama is one of the most important institutions in Indie Theatre history. At LaMama you can feel the history in every room: the textures, the artifacts in the archives, even the smells (which I know sounds weird). I’ve only ever done Indie Theatre in NYC and to be having my work done at one of the theaters that started that movement is unreal. Plus, I heard from my director that this play will now join the LaMama archives along side some really cool playwrights, so it’s almost as if I’m joining Indie Theatre history too.

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La MaMa presents

THE FLOOR 
IS LAVA

written by Alex Riad
directed by Glory Kadigan


May 09 - May 19, 2019 
Thursday - Saturday at 8pm; Sunday at 5pm

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

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

6 Questions: Director Glory Kadigan

Photo by Michael Schwartz

Glory Kadigan, who was last at La MaMa in 2016, directing Eric Ehn's CLOVER has returned to direct Alex Raid's THE FLOOR IS LAVA, now playing in The Downstairs at La MaMa through May 19, 2019. We caught up with Glory to talk about the play, social media and working at La MaMa. 

1) What can audiences learn from The Floor is Lava?

In the play,  the lead character, Sean, has done an excellent job of making it seem like he has "the perfect" life.  As the play moves forward, the chips in that facade become more visible. I've always been interested in the journey of this character from who he presents himself to be, to who he really is.

In real life there are many people "presenting" themselves as happy - people whose lives seem way better than our own like Robin Williams, Anthony Bordain, Kate Spade, Heath Ledger to name a few. How we perceive others and whether or not we can find it in ourselves to look deeper than the surface is part of what The Floor Is Lava is about to me. The play reminds the audience that everything can shift at any moment. The past is not permanent. The past is not the future.

2) What does it mean to be a millennial? 

I'm not sure how to define something as broad as that but I will say that when people are in their 20's they sometimes suffer from thinking they are unique or special in some way. Like the Snowflake Test - this was a test designed to determine during the hiring process if an individual was too fragile to work at a company, based off of their own belief in themselves as "special". The belief that you are "special" is eventually challenged and it becomes clear that really none of us are all that special. At that point some people have breakdowns and can no longer function. So perhaps during the parenting  process, we shouldn't tell our children that they're all special and that they can achieve everything. Not everyone is special and not everyone can achieve everything. Except for me, I mean, look at me - clearly I rock!  (Spoken like a true millennial.)

3) Do you think social media is good?

Yes and no. When you think about famous people who have had meltdowns which are permanently documented for the rest of their lives on social media - I'd say "no it isn't so good".  Having the worst side of yourself permanently "etched in digital stone", doesn't leave anyone the ability to grow or change. 

On the positive side, I've reconnected with people via social media that I haven't heard from in years.  And social media is good for sharing photos with your friends when important life events happen like weddings, graduations and then of course there's marketing your show. We do a lot of marketing for this production on social media. 

But then again, people are also marketing an image of themselves and frequently that image isn't real. So like most  human inventions there are plusses and minuses. 

4) How does this play confront the passage of time?

The play moves in real time.  However, a large portion of the play happened in the past and is discussed during the play. In the rehearsal room, we spent a copious amount of time talking about what high school was like for these characters versus who they are in present day.  I even asked John DiMino, the actor playing Sean, to write his Valedictorian speech and deliver it to the other actors. It was a pretty funny speech which included a quote from Buzz Lightyear.  We also did several improvisations in the rehearsal room with the actors playing Kat and Sean.  I knew early on that my interpretation would include a strong connection between these two characters with high stakes; higher than either character realizes.

5) What does real connection look like for the millennial generation?

To be truly connected, we would need to genuinely see the value of every person around us. We would need to appreciate what each individual brings to the table, regardless of race, gender, sexuality or financial status. We're not really there yet as a generation. But it's good to have hope and to continue to work towards a connection. So.....I'm hopeful.

6) What does working at La MaMa mean to you?

Every day I'm grateful for the La Mama community and for their support.  Thank you Mia, Frank, David, Nicky, John, Amy, Ryan, Kiku, Ozzie, Cathy, Luis, Mary, Denise, Mark, Bev, Billy, Mattie, the other Mary, Chris, Juan, Matt, Andrea and everyone else who helps make this place special for so many artists around the world. For me La Mama is about the people who create and present there. It is and always has been a place where artists from around the world can come to explore creatively without worrying about "commercial success".  Ironically, many commercial successes have come out of La Mama. But, the pressure to be commercially succeed is not placed on the artist directly which allows us to enjoy the process and focus on the work. La Mama has always valued different cultures, genders and diverse voices and I'm honored to be one of those voices.  Thank you.

___

La MaMa presents

THE FLOOR 
IS LAVA

written by Alex Riad
directed by Glory Kadigan


May 09 - May 19, 2019 
Thursday - Saturday at 8pm; Sunday at 5pm

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

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Bobbi Jene Smith in T-Magazine!

The performer Marta Miller rehearses “Lost Mountain” at her farmhouse, Certain Bird, in Stamford, Vt.CreditMatthew Placek

From Bobbi Jene Smith, a Dance Work Like a Mountain

Since leaving Tel Aviv, where she was a principal with Batsheva Dance Company, in 2014, the Iowa-born Bobbi Jene Smith has been busy choreographing or appearing in one work after another. “With Care,” an elegiac follow-up to her solo “A Study on Effort,” debuted in the fall, and “Deo,” a dramatic staging of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, which Smith cocreated with Maxine Doyle for the Martha Graham Dance Company, premiered last month. But even as she embodies Graham’s definition of the artist as someone who just keeps marching, Smith isn’t much interested in straight, continuous lines. “It’s creation and destruction. You build up and then have to come down, or go down to come up,” she says of her process. Indeed, the symbol of the mountain has become something of a touchstone for her, one that’s directly informed her newest piece, “Lost Mountain,” which will open in New York at La MaMa the weekend of May 16.

In this case, the mountain is not just a metaphor for the artistic struggle but also for the search for meaning in life. To Smith’s mind, one way that meaning can be found is through moments of human connection. “I like the idea of people bumping into each other and, much like the tectonic forces that make the mountain itself, rising up to make something larger,” she says. She will perform the piece with an ensemble of 10 that includes the dancer-choreographer Marta Miller (“I’m pulling her out of retirement for this”); Or Schraiber, Smith’s husband; the violinist Keir GoGwilt; and the Israeli singer-songwriter Asaf Avidan. When we speak, Smith is hesitant to give away too many details but shares that the evening-length work consists of a series of cinematic vignettes, that all of the music will be live and that there will be little separation between art forms. Fittingly, the group is rehearsing at a farmhouse-turned-artist-retreat on a mountain in southern Vermont. Have there been any inspirational hikes, one wonders? “Hopefully next week. It’s been pretty cold,” says Smith. “And we have a lot of work to do.” “Lost Mountain” will open as part of La MaMa’s Moves! Dance Festival on May 16, at the Ellen Stewart Theatre, 66 East Fourth Street, New York, lamama.org — KATE GUADAGNINO

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La MaMa presents

Bobbi Jene Smith | Lost Mountain

Part for the 2019 La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival

May 16 - May 19, 2019
Thursday - Saturday at 7PM; Sunday at 3PM

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

Tickets: $25 Tickets; $20 Student/Senior Tickets [+$1 Facility Fee]

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE