Maureen Fleming in Photos

Internationally renowned performer, Maureen Fleming will bring her B. MADONNA to the Ellen Stewart Theatre from October 17 – November 3, 2013.

Here are some beautiful photos from her past performances! 

La MaMa, ETC presents
B. MADONNA
by Maureen Fleming

Internationally acclaimed performer, Maureen Fleming brings her contemporary unveiling of the myth of Persephone to the stage of the Ellen Stewart Theatre. With text by David Henry Hwang and music by Philip Glass (performed live by pianist Bruce Brubaker), original accordion music by Guy Klucevsek, and Taiko drumming by Kaoru Watanabe, this beautiful, multimedia meditation on ’miracles’ juxtaposes Fleming’s new and repertory works with three-dimensional video projections designed by longtime collaborator Christopher Odo.
October 17 – November 3, 2013

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

Tickets: $25 for adults; $20 for students and seniors; a limited number of $10 tickets are available as part of La MaMa's 10 @ $10 initiative.

For tickets and info: Click Here

Coming Soon: MAKINA TOTAL FREE

Amaury Pacheco, David D Omni and Luis Eligio D Omni are Omni ZonaFranca a multi-disciplinary Cuban artist collective, active since 1997, who freely shift between forms of performance, music, poetry, spoken word, rap, visual art, graffiti, video, and dance to embrace art as everyday life. La MaMa and ASS220 are partnering to bring Omni- Zona Franca to New York – the vanguard of alternative Cuban art which has collaborated with artists and ensembles from over 20 countries.

Here is a clip of David Escalona of Omni- Zona Franca in action:


Omni Zona Franca from Tracey Eaton on Vimeo.
La MaMa and ASS220 present
Makina Total Free
By Omni- Zona Franca

October 18 – October 20, 2013

The Club @ La MaMa
74A East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003

For Tickets & Info: Click Here

Broadway World previews Teatro Patologico's HAMLET HALLUCINATIONS

Broadway World previews Teatro Patologico's HAMLET HALLUCINATIONS by Dario D'Ambrosi, which opens at La MaMa's Frist Floor Theatre on October 17th, 2013. 

In this new re-envisioning of "Hamlet," D'Ambrosi makes the Prince into a young, insecure, childish man who emerges from a grave where he has been buried in a pile of skulls, companions of his past. The script, purged of the political references of the original, focuses on his obsessions, phobias, Oedipal complexes and misogyny.

Read the full preview: HERE. 

HAMLET HALLUCINATIONS will run Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2:30pm through November 3rd.

La MaMa, ETC presents
Hamlet Hallucinations
by Dario D'Ambrosi

October 17 – November 3, 2013

La MaMa: First Floor Theater
74A East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors; a limited number of $10 tickets are available for each performance under La MaMa's 10 @ $10 ticketing initiative on a first come first served basis.

For tickets and information: Click Here

What People Are Saying About SHAKESPEARE'S SISTER!

“[Irina Brook's] adaptation is a magic trick, transmogrifying Woolfe’s lectures into lively, stimulating, I’ll-still-be-thinking-about-this-one-for-weeks theatre.”

– Kathleen Campion, Usher Nonsense

"A charming, appealing group... [The actors] create an atmosphere of joy."

- William Wolf, Wolf Entertainment Guide

"Brook, a former actor, is clearly coming into her own as a director (five-time Moliere Award Winner) with this little gem."

- Deirdre Donovan, Curtain Up

Irina Brook's
Shakespeare's Sister 
at The Ellen Stewart Theatre

Now – October 6, 2013

Tickets are $25 for adults; $20 for students and seniors

For tickets call 212-475-7710 or Click Here.

SHAKESPEARE'S SISTER in Photos

Here is a first look at photographer Emily Boland's beautiful production photos for Irina Brook's Shakespeare's Sister.

Irina Brook's 
Shakespeare's Sister (or La Vie Matérielle) 
at The Ellen Stewart Theatre.

Now – October 6, 2013

Tickets are $25 for adults; $20 for students and seniors; a limited number of $10 tickets are available as part of La MaMa's 10 @ $10 initiative.

For tickets call 212-475-7710 or Click Here.

NEXT Magazine Talks To Max Steele

John Russell talks to Max Steele about his solo show, Encourager, that will play The Club @ La MaMa on Saturday, September 28th at 10pm, as part of A SERIES OF ONE.

“I wanted to do something with no sets, no costumes, no props, no escape, no distractions, just feelings.” The resulting performance piece, Encourager, took the form of an ersatz self-help workshop hosted by Steele’s longtime alter ego, Billy Cheer. As he readied Encourager’s one-night-only engagement as part of La Mama E.T.C.’s A Series of One festival of solo works on September 28, we chatted with Steele about the piece, the need for encouragement and whether we should actually trust Billy Cheer’s advice.

You can read the full interview HERE. 

La MaMa presents
Max Steele's
ENCOURAGER

Part of A SERIES OF ONE

Saturday, September 28th at 10pm

The Club at La MaMa
74A East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003

Tickets are $15 for adults; $10 for students and seniors; a limited number of $10 tickets are available (to anyone) as part of La MaMa's 10 @ $10 initiative.

For tickets and info: Click Here

VIDEO PREVIEW: A (micro) history of world economics, danced

A (micro) history of world economics, danced Created and Directed by Pascal Rambert 
In collaboration with Eric Mechoulan 

Conceived at the height of the European economic crisis, A (micro) history of world economics, danced explores our collective economic history over centuries. Created with and circulating around the lives of anonymous, locally sourced performers – a ballet of raw bodies share their own histories in the larger history of economics – tall, short, young, old, of different ethnicities and ancestry on stage, as one community, to make meaning of a crisis. 


A (micro) history of world economics, danced is co-presented by La MaMa, Performance Space 122 and the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)’s Crossing the Line 2013 Festival.

October 11 – October 13, 2013
For tickets and info: Click Here

Sadie Jemmett in SHAKESPEARE'S SISTER

Singer songwriter Sadie Jemmett is one of the five women featured in Irina Brook's SHAKESPEARE'S SISTER which opens tonight at the Ellen Stewart Theatre. Sadie performs several songs in the show, including the title track from her new album The Blacksmith's Girl.

Listen to the song, and come see Sadie performing in SHAKESPEARE'S SISTER at La MaMa through October 6th and you can purchase the CD in the lobby.



For tickets and info about SHAKESPEARE'S SISTER: Click Here

6 QUESTIONS: Alice Reagan

Director Alice Reagan chats about her latest project, Chiori Miyagawa's  I CAME TO LOOK FOR YOU ON TUESDAY, opening September 26th at La MaMa's First Floor Theater.

1. How did this project come to you?

My friend and colleague Chiori Miyagawa asked me to have tea with her in May, 2011. She said that in the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March that she wanted to write a play about reunion. Interestingly, she didn't want to start with a script, but by gathering actors together to work on great reunion scenes by dead playwrights. So we did that: Shakespeare, Ibsen, Pinter, Chekhov, some Greeks... We made discoveries about how reunions function on stage, their characteristics, their surprises. We started there.

2. Have you learned anything from creating this show?

So much! Chiori is wonderful at gathering people together, and I have had the priviledge of working with many talented actors in the workshops we have had over the past two years at New Dramatists.

3. How does working on a new play differ than working on an existing text?

Well, there's the playwright! It's of course exciting to be part of the first group of artists to put a script on its feet, but in this case, many of the artists have been with the play for literally years. I feel this is a "reunion family," with a common history, and common goal, to bring I Came to Look for You on Tuesday to the audiences at La MaMa.

4. When did you know that you would that you wanted a career in the arts?

Always. I just didn't always know it was a possibility.

5. Who has inspired you?

My collaborators, first and foremost. If I widen the circle, the list would be far too long. We stand on the shoulders of giants.

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

Dream Come True. I read about Ellen and La MaMa when I was in undergrad, far from New York City. East 4th Street might as well have been another planet, it seemed that far away and that hard to get to. Now that I'm here, rehearsing and getting ready to step in to tech, I find the buildings vibrate with stories, people, events from the past. It feels so right to have Chiori's play premiere here. We are reuniting with our own theatre history.

--

I Came to Look for You on Tuesday
Written by Chiori Miyagawa
Directed by Alice Reagan

with
Alexis Camins*
Ugo Chukwu*
Amir Darvish*
Rachael Holmes*
Susan Hyon*
McKenna Kerrigan*
Meg MacCary*
Jens Rasmussen*

*Appearing Courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association.

September 26 – October 13, 2013

La MaMa, ETC - First Floor Theatre
74A East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $18 Adults; $15 Students/Seniors; A limited number of $10 tickets are available for each performance, in advance, as part of La MaMa's new 10 @ $10 ticketing initiative

For Tickets and Info: Click Here

TheaterMania Talks To IRINA BROOK

TheaterMania's Hayley Levitt talks to Irina Brook about Shakespeare's Sister, her career and about bringing her show to New York City.

Seven years ago, Irina Brook was struck by what she self-mockingly labels a "strange puritanical desire to be true to myself." Daughter of the legendary director Peter Brook , her own directorial success seemed imminent. Yet after making a name for herself in Europe, touring the world with well-funded production after well-funded production, Brook decided to take the road less traveled and start her own small theater company (Irina's Dream Theatre ) where she could artistically curate her own body of work.

You can read the full interview: HERE.

6 QUESTIONS: Max Steele

Performer and writer Max Steele's solo show, ENCOURAGER will be presented as part of La MaMa's A SERIES OF ONE on Saturday, September 28th at 10pm at The Club.  

We asked Max 6 questions about himself and his work:

1. What was the initial inspiration for this project?

I made ENCOURAGER in my first year as an Artist in Residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange/BAX. I wanted to make a solo performance that wasn't tied to other forms I had worked in before, theater, music, dance, etc. I knew I wanted to make a solo performance, and eventually the material I was working with led me to the form of the self-help seminar. I'd been thinking a lot about Consciousness-Raising groups of the 1960s and 70s, as well as current places where expertise and entertainment overlap (TED Talks, memoir as cinema). The initial inspiration for the project, though, was that I wanted to make a performance in which the audience could feel like they were being hit on. All at the same time. So I started looking for ways to do that, and I think I succeeded. I feel good about where that line of thinking has led me. I definitely figured out a lot of other things, on the way, and the surprise has been that in order for that to happen (for the audience to feel like they're each, individually, being seduced) you have to to teach them to seduce themselves.

2. What was the most challenging element in making this show?

The biggest challege I had in making ENCOURAGER was working by myself the whole time. I wanted to work by myself to generate as much material as I could, and to edit and organize the text and performance entirely by myself. This show is my baby and I'm very proud of it, but it did hurt quite a bit to make everything by myself. I'm sure I could havge saved myself a lot of anguish if I had brough in other people to give feedback at different points, or help direct or coach the performance at different times. That being said, I think the anguish and the isolation was necessary, and I don't regret working this way.

3. Do you think of your work at political?

I do think of ENCOURAGER as inherently political, in the sense that it's about asking people to have a more earnest engagement with themselves and each other. There's not an overt political statement, but my place in the world informs my work and everything else I do.

4. How would you describe your aesthetic?

Cautious optimism, earnest abjection, a serious joke, sexy ambivalence. I think of ENCOURAGER as being content-free in a way, more like a Philosophy lecture, because it's me sort of articulating some of my philosophical values, but I feel pretty confident that the aesthetic experience of it is sort of more black humor.

5. Who has inspired you?

So, so many people, but lately the more and more work I see and make, the more I realize how much Penny Arcade and Lydia Lunch are influences for me, with regard to both writing and performing. Hugely underrated. I feel like they've each inspired more than one generation of artists, and while I can't exactly do what either of them can do in live performance, they've both definitely inspired me with their force of will and rigor of thought.

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

I love La MaMa! I'm really honored and excited to get to be performing my own work there. La MaMa's legacy of supporting artistic innovation is really exciting to get to be part of.

You can check out Max's blog here: www.fagcity.blogspot.com

And don't forget to come see Max's show at La MaMa!

La MaMa presents
Max Steele's
ENCOURAGER

Part of A SERIES OF ONE

Saturday, September 28th at 10pm

The Club at La MaMa
74A East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003

Tickets are $15 for adults; $10 for students and seniors; a limited number of $10 tickets are available (to anyone) as part of La MaMa's 10 @ $10 initiative. 

For tickets and info: Click Here 

JapanCulture NYC Previews I CAME TO LOOK FOR YOU ON TUESDAY

Susan Hamaker from JapanCulture-NYC.com previews Chiori Miyagawa's I Came To Look For You On Tuesday:

"At the time of the Japan earthquake in March 2011, New York City-based playwright Chiori Miyagawa, whose family was affected by the disaster, saw a photo of an evacuation center wall, covered with handmade messages seeking contact with missing family members and friends. This image moved her, and she began thinking about the concept of reunion, especially following a natural disaster or war."

You can read the full article: HERE.

I Came to Look for You on Tuesday
Written by Chiori Miyagawa
Directed by Alice Reagan

with
Alexis Camins*
Ugo Chukwu*
Amir Darvish*
Rachael Holmes*
Susan Hyon*
McKenna Kerrigan*
Meg MacCary*
Jens Rasmussen*

*Appearing Courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association.

September 26 – October 13, 2013

La MaMa, ETC - First Floor Theatre
74A East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $18 Adults; $15 Students/Seniors; A limited number of $10 tickets are available for each performance, in advance, as part of La MaMa's new 10 @ $10 ticketing initiative

For Tickets and Info: Click Here

Takeshi Kawamura's AOI - Tonight @ La Galleria

La MaMa, ETC presents a reading of AOI a play by Takeshi Kawamura, directed by John Jesurun!

Emulating the surreal tones of Japanese horror movies, these dynamic, hallucinatory works of cinematic proportions come from the highly acclaimed avant-garde theater auteur and winner of the presitigious Kishida Kunio Drama Prize, Takeshi Kawamura. The masterful writer/director directs his striking interpretation of a classic 15th-century noh play by Ze’ami. AOI is based on Aoi no Ue, which itself was inspired by the 11th-century novel Tale of the Genji. Kawamura sets the action in the hair salon of a celebrity coiffeur whose former lover haunts his new client in a vicious cycle of poisonous love.

AOI
By Takeshi Kawamura
Directed by John Jesurun

Thursday, September 12, 2013 at 7:30pm

La MaMa Galleria
6 East 1st Street
New York, NY 10003

Admission is FREE!

For More Info: Click Here

The Tuesday Project

In addition to Chiori Miyagawa's play, I CAME TO LOOK FOR YOU ON TUESDAY, that will debut at La MaMa's First Floor Theatre on September 26th, there is also a Street Art project that is incorporated into the larger Tuesday Project.

According to their website:

Street Art Project is designed to provoke curiosity in passersby. Beautifully made prints by artist James Bayard show organic materials in the background such as stones and leaves; in the foreground is text. The text comes from the play I Came to Look for You on Tuesday or a quote from one of the reunion salons. The single line on the print does not make narrative sense. It’s intended to be a puzzling incantation.

Every two weeks from June through August, a new print by artist James Bayard with different text went up guerilla-style at regular intervals at four locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The hope was that  people who passed these construction walls notice that new prints were posted every two weeks and look forward to them—to enjoy the beauty and mystery.

Here is a sampling of the work:

You can see more photos and lear more about the project on their website www.thetuesdayfollowing.org  

READ: Nicky Paraiso's HOUSE/BOY

Our very own Nicky Paraiso, Director of Programming at The Club at La MaMa and Curator for the annual La MaMa Moves! dance festival performed his autobiographical solo piece HOUSE/BOY at La MaMa in 2004.  The third in his "Asian Boys" trilogy HOUSE/BOY was an evening-length solo work with music and mutimedia, dealing with identity, sexuality and the enduring theme of what "home" means to Filipino Americans. Ralph B. Peña directed.

Center for Art and Thought (CA+T) has put Nicky in their Artist Spotlight and is making the original script available on line, complete with Nicky's very own working notes!

You can access the script: HERE.

Fabulous Quotes From Marguerite Duras

Marguerite Duras was a French writer and film director, who's La Vie Matérielle (as well as Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own) is the basis for Irina Brook's upcoming Shakespeare's Sister (or La Vie Matérielle) at La MaMa. 

We've found some fabulous quotes (with the help of www.brainyquote.com) attributed to Duras that we's like to share: 

"Alcohol doesn't console, it doesn't fill up anyone's psychological gaps, all it replaces is the lack of God. It doesn't comfort man. On the contrary, it encourages him in his folly, it transports him to the supreme regions where he is master of his own destiny."

"In love there are no vacations. No such thing. Love has to be lived fully with its boredom and all that." 

"Journalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a moralist. It's absolutely unavoidable."

"Heterosexuality is dangerous. It tempts you to aim at a perfect duality of desire."

"The best way to fill time is to waste it."

Come see Irina Brook's 
Shakespeare's Sister (or La Vie Matérielle) 
at The Ellen Stewart Theatre.

September 20 – October 6, 2013

Tickets are $25 for adults; $20 for students and seniors; a limited number of $10 tickets are availavle as part of La MaMa's 10 @ $10 initiative.

For tickets call 212-475-7710 or Click Here.

New York Times Fall Theater Preview

Steven McElroy's Fall Theater Preview in the New York Times took a look at I CAME TO LOOK FOR YOU ON TUESDAY as well as mentions for A SERIES OF ONE, QUEER NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL and Irina Brook's SHAKESPEARE'S SISTER (Or La Vie Matérielle) among "slew of offerings at the downtown mainstay La MaMa this fall."

You can read McElroy's entire Fall Theater Preview HERE. 

59 Things You Didn’t Know About Virginia Woolf

In honor of La MaMa's upcoming production of Irina Brook's Shakespeare’s Sister (or La Vie Materielle), which is partially based on Virginia Woolf's A Room Of One’s Own, we bring you Flavorwire's 59 Things You Didn’t Know About Virginia Woolf:

1. As a child, it took Woolf longer than usual to begin speaking in coherent sentences. 

2. For a time, Woolf wrote while standing at a desk 3’6″ tall because she wanted to be like a painter who could instantly step away from her canvas to get a better view. 

3. While still in the nursery, she was nicknamed “The Goat.” 

4. Woolf first tried to kill herself at the age of 22 by jumping out of a window. The window she jumped from, however, was not high enough to cause serious harm.

You can read the other 55 things: HERE.

Stunning Photos from THE GOLEM OF HAVANA

La MaMa E.T.C. is proud to present the Columbia Stages, Theater of the Americas and Palo de Agua's production of THE GOLEM OF HAVANA at the Ellen Stewart Theatre through September 8th.

Take a look at a few of their stunning production photos courtesy of Carol Rosegg.

View the entire gallery: HERE.

For tickets and info: www.thegolemofhavana.com

BroadwayWorld Previews Irina Brook's SHAKESPEARE'S SISTER (OR La Vie Matérielle)

BroadwayWorld previews Irina Brook's SHAKESPEARE'S SISTER (OR La Vie Matérielle), opening soon at the Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa.

"This New York premiere of Shakespeare's Sister (or La Vie Matérielle) marks Irina Brook's first time directing a fully produced play in New York. She has directed numerous works to acclaim worldwide. In Paris (where she was born and is based), Lausanne, Tokyo, Belgium, Holland and Italy, among other places, she has directed The Glass Menagerie, Romeo & Juliet, The Good Person of Szechwan, Dancing at Lughnasa, All's Well that Ends Well, Midsummer Night's Dream, Homer's Odyssey, Morphic Resonance and The Island of Slave, in addition to several operas." 

Read the full article: HERE.

VIDEO PREVIEW: Irina Brook's SHAKESPEARE'S SISTER (OR La Vie Matérielle)

Shakespeare' s sister ou La vie matérielle from Dream Theatre on Vimeo.
Irina Brook's adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s A Room Of One’s Own and Marguerite Duras’ La Vie Matérielle is set at a fantasy dinner party where five women prepare the cuisine while singing, dancing and discussing their place in the world

Irina Brook continues her father Peter’s tradition at La MaMa with Shakespeare’s Sister (or La Vie Matérielle), which adapts Virginia Woolf’s A Room Of One's Own and Marguerite Duras’ La Vie Matérielle. Adapted and directed by the younger Brook, the work is set at a fantasy dinner party, where five women prepare the cuisine while singing, dancing and discussing their place in the world. 

The production will feature a diverse ensemble including OBIE-winner Winsome Brown as Virginia Woolf, novelist and former French Vogue editor Joan Juliet Buck (Julie and Julia) as Maugerite Duras, actress Nicole Ansari (“Deadwood,” Broadway and West End productions of Tom Stoppard’s Rock and Roll, Théâtre du Soleil), concert violin soloist Yibin Li and British singer/songwriter Sadie Jemmett.

LA MAMA PRESENTS
THE NEW YORK PREMIERE OF
IRINA’S DREAMTHEATRE’S
SHAKESPEARE’S SISTER
(OR LA VIE MATÉRIELLE)
ADAPTED AND DIRECTED BY IRINA BROOK,

SEPTEMBER 20-OCTOBER 6
THE ELLEN STEWART THEATRE

$25 Adults
$20 Students/Seniors
$10 limited number of 10 @ $10 tickets available for each performance (in advance only)

For tickets and info: Click Here

What is 10 @ $10?

10 @ $10 is a new ticketing initiative at La MaMa, ETC this fall.  It means that ten tickets for EVERY performance will be available for $10 in advance, on a first come - first served basis.  Simple.  No codes, no hassels.  And remember: all of our shows are general admission.

We want to make tickets available to artists to see each other's work.  We want young people to experience daring performances.  We want anyone to be able be able to see live performance for less than the price of a movie ticket.  We want you to come down to East 4th Street, take a chance and see what's happening @ La MaMa!

We've got NY Premiers, US Premieres and World Premiers on tap this fall including works by Irina Brook ( Shakespeare’s Sister [or La Vie Materielle]), Chiori Miyagawa (I Came to Look for You on Tuesday), Pascal Rambert (A (micro) history of world economics, danced), Maureen Fleming (B. Madonna), Dario D’Ambrosi (The Schizophrenic Hamlet), Grant Neale (The Third Policeman), Lee Breuer (La Divina Caricatura Part 1, The Shaggy Dog) and much more!

You can preview our entire Fall Season HERE.

So pick a show (or two, or three...) and we'll see you at the theater!