'Ellen Stewart Presents: Fifty Years of La MaMa Experimental Theatre' Book Released Today
By: BWW News Desk Oct. 18, 2017
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is hosting a handful of special events in conjunction with the publication of Ellen Stewart Presents: Fifty Years of La MaMa Experimental Theatre, a new book by Cindy Rosenthal.
Ellen Stewart Presents: Fifty Years of La MaMa Experimental Theatre by Cindy Rosenthal is available starting today, October 18, 2017, and in conjunction, 'A Poster History of La MaMa's Downtown Community' -- an upcoming exhibit that explores the history of the off-off-Broadway theatre movement through a selection of original posters from La MaMa's Archives is scheduled to open and remain on display through December 10, 2017.
Exhibit: A Poster History of La MaMa's Downtown Community
The Lobby of the Ellen Stewart Theater
Free Exhibition
Opening today, October 18th (on display through December 10, 2017)
Fridays and Saturdays 5PM to 7PM; Sundays 1PM to 3PM
This exhibit documents the history of downtown theater, the changing aesthetic vernaculars of theatrical posters, and the transformation of print technologies over the past 55 years and captures the irreverence and the aesthetic of the Off-Off-Broadway power house over five decades. The exhibit will include posters from every decade since La MaMa's founding in 1961, including the hand-painted boards that announced La MaMa's inaugural season (1961-1962) and the digital print created for the theater's 50th anniversary in 2011. Many of these materials are featured in Cindy Rosenthal's forthcoming book, Ellen Stewart Presents: Fifty Years of La Mama Experimental Theatre (University of Michigan Press, 2017).
Visit lamama.org/poster_history for more about the exhibit.
Special Events:
Celebratory event for the Ellen Stewart Presents: Fifty Years of La MaMa Experimental Theatre, a new book by Cindy Rosenthal
November 13, 2017 | 6:00 - 8:00pm
Join La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club for a celebration of the publication of Cindy Rosenthal's Ellen Stewart Presents: Fifty Years of La MaMa Experimental Theatre (University of Michigan Press, October 2017), featuring a reading by the author, an open Q+A, and refreshments. This new book traces a history of La MaMa through its poster collections, and sheds light on the history of the avant-garde, the East Village, and the international community of artists that have found a home at La MaMa over the past half-century. This book highlights materials featured in the concurrent poster exhibit in the lobby of La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theater. Free of charge and open to all.
Free of charge and open to all.
This program was funded in part by a Humanities New York Action Grant.
Guided Exhibit Tours: A History of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
November 14th & December 5th, 2017 | 1:00pm
Meet in the Lobby of the Ellen Stewart Theatre, 66 East 4th Street
Join Ozzie Rodriguez, the director of the La MaMa Archives, for a guided tour of our current exhibit and a history of La MaMa. Free of charge and open to all.
Free of charge and open to all. Reservations suggested.
This program was funded in part by a Humanities New York Action Grant.
Panel Discussion: Theatre Posters and the History of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
December 4, 2017 | 6:30pm
Lobby of the Ellen Stewart Theatre, 66 East 4th Street
Join a panel of La MaMa artists for a discussion about the evolution of avant-garde theatre posters over five decades. Moderated by Cindy Rosenthal (author of Ellen Stewart Presents: Fifty Years of La MaMa Experimental Theatre), panelists include Theodora Skipitares, Richard Schechner, John Jesurun & Holly Hughes
Free of charge and open to all. Reservations suggested.
This program was funded in part by a Humanities New York Action Grant.
La MaMa is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. The organization has a worldwide reputation for producing daring performance works that defy form and transcend barriers of ethnic and cultural identity. Founded in 1961 by award-winning theatre pioneer Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has presented more than 5,000 productions by 150,000 artists from more than 70 nations. A recipient of more than 30 Obie Awards and dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie, and Villager Awards, La MaMa has helped launch the careers of countless artists, many of whom have made important contributions to American and international arts milieus.
La MaMa's 56th season highlights artists of different generations, gender identities, and cultural backgrounds, who question social mores and confront stereotypes, corruption, bigotry, racism, and xenophobia in their work. Our stages embrace diversity in every form and present artists that persevere with bold self-expression despite social, economic, and political struggle and the 56th season reflects the urgency of reaffirming human interconnectedness.
About Ellen Stewart Presents: Fifty Years of La MaMa Experimental Theatre, a new book by Cindy Rosenthal - The richly-illustrated book places the posters alongside interviews with La MaMa herself and many of the distinguished artists who found their start at the theater. Written by Hofstra University professor Cindy Rosenthal, Ellen Stewart Presents provides the first account of development of La MaMa through the words of the founder herself who was famously reticent about her own story as she sought to foreground the artists that she nurtured. The author uses performance posters as a kind of key in the lock of Stewart's impenetrably mysterious personal connection with her theatre, its history, and the magic of her artistic entrepreneurship, to provide insight into the nature of how she worked over fifty years to create an artistic home for some of the world's most important theatrical artists.
Together the exhibit and the book show how Ellen Stewart was the single most important figure in the history of American avant-garde theater and performance art. They will fascinate anyone interested in the history of Off-Off-Broadway, the cultural history of New York City, or visual culture from the '60s to the present. There will be a book launch on November 13 and a panel discussion about the book and exhibit on December 4.
Title: Ellen Stewart Presents: Fifty Years of La MaMa Experimental Theatre
Author: Cindy Rosenthal
Publication date:October 18, 2017
Format: 8.5 x 11, 232 pages, 111 color posters, 21 photographs, 1 map
Cloth 978-0-472-11742-0 $45.00
For more about the book, go to www.press.umich.edu/1487979/ellen_stewart_presents.
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