April 28, 2020
Dear Friends,
In these past three weeks, there is not one day that goes by that I
don’t think about La MaMa’s treasured resident set designer, Jun Maeda,
who died on April 6 due to complications related to the Covid-19 virus.
In some moments I am filled with deep sadness, overwhelmed with the
loss and with all the loss that is happening around us. Mostly though I
hold on and remember that we live on in the people that we touch. His
exquisite art, unwavering creative force and magic live in the spaces
where he worked at La MaMa, in the sculptures and art pieces he made,
and of course in our hearts.
With Maeda’s passing, I cannot help but think of generations of La MaMa that came before us. I go back to the beginnings when Ellen Stewart
started La MaMa. She didn’t set out to establish a theatre, but her
friends were theatre artists and they needed space to create. Now with
our theatres closed, La MaMa is focused on the virtual space for artists
as we continue to present a multiplicity of perspectives and to
experiment with different artistic mediums and theatrical forms.
Ellen used theatre as a vehicle to bring global communities together; now we are leveraging the internet and other emerging technologies as
creative tools for making art and connecting people around the world.
Since 2009, La MaMa in partnership with Seoul Institute of the Arts founded CultureHub.
Together we have been exploring emerging technologies, making online
art and educational programs, and livestreaming countless productions.
Artists need to be in this space, to inform how these online platforms
can be used for art. In the artist’s hands, work generated online will
expand our understanding and potential of this new venue where we can
gather as humans, as a community. During this crisis, the numbers of
viewers in our livestreams have drastically increased. Each stream shows
viewers from various states, as well as in countries across the globe.
The impact and access of the artists’ work to go beyond the four walls of our theatres is how we imagine La MaMa’s future. La
MaMa will always present live performance in our theatres and nothing
will replace the need for us to experience something in a physical space
together. When our work resumes in the theatres, these
online explorations will continue and inform how artists can make/share
work and how audiences can be engaged. For now we are postponing our
productions for the rest of the season but we forge ahead to experiment
and collaborate with our artists online through the summer.
Life is changing around us and as we process where we are and where we
are headed, art creates an environment of sensitivity which opens up the
possibility for change. La MaMa has always been shaped by its community
of artists and audiences. It is all of you who give me energy and hope.
In exploring what new experiences we can create I am inspired by Maeda
who never stopped working until his last days. I feel his spirit in this
endeavor to never stop experimenting and examining our humanity through
artistic creation.
Love,
Mia
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