La MaMa Announces Season Featuring Works by Estelle Parsons Evan Yionoulis and More
By: Julie Musbach Aug. 14, 2019
La MaMa announces its 58th season, featuring more than twenty world and US premieres, and dozens of artists, playwrights, choreographers, directors, award-winning theater companies and composers, including Philip Glass, Andrei Serban, Estelle Parsons, Germaine Acogny, Evan Yionoulis, Theodora Skipitares, Anne Bogart, Charlotte Brathwaite and many more. The season will also celebrate the centennial of La Mama's celebrated founder, the late Ellen Stewart.
"During this landmark centennial year I reflect on Ellen's vision, and the impact and necessity of that vision," said La MaMa Artistic Director Mia Yoo. "Her vision dreams of a world where a multiplicity of perspectives is essential and where art is a means to bring people together. I am grateful to be a part of this artistic community that she nurtured, and this season again I am energized by its tenacity, passion, bravery and transformative work."
In celebration of Ellen Stewart's centennial, early La MaMa artists Philip Glass, JoAnne Akalaitis and Andrei Serban return this season. Philip Glass brings his DAYS AND NIGHTS FESTIVAL to the Ellen Stewart Theatre in November 2019, including performances of plays by Maria Irene Fornés directed by JoAnne Akalaitis with music by Philip Glass and culminating in a one-night only concert performance by the National Medal of Honor winner. In December 2019, Andrei Serban will direct a new production of THE TROJAN WOMEN, his groundbreaking 1974 success with the late Elizabeth Swadows. This new production will be performed with members of The Great Jones Rep and an international cast. Other celebrations of Ellen Stewart will be scheduled throughout the season.
The Fall/Winter 2019/2020 Season
THE US PREMIERE OF
Somewhere at the Beginning
By Germaine Acogny & Mikaël Serre
Co-presented as part of Crossing the Line Festival, produced by the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)
September 26 - 28, 2019
Ellen Stewart Theatre
Germaine Acogny, the "Mother of Contemporary African Dance," presents the US premiere of her powerhouse solo, SOMEWHERE AT THE BEGINNING. Co-created and directed by Mikaël Serre, this unflinching and brave work traces African history interwoven with her own life narrative.
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
Look Who's Coming to Dinner
By Stefanie Batten-Bland
Co-presented as part of Crossing the Line Festival, produced by the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)
October 3 - 6, 2019
Ellen Stewart Theatre
A Dance-Theatre piece exploring the ritual of meals. Inspired by the film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," Company SBB explore their own dinner. Dinner asks who would be considered shocking in 2019 if brought home? Company SBB // Stefanie Batten Bland is a French-American interdisciplinary dance theatre company performing original works which aim to impact local and global communities.
400 Years of Inequity and Protest
October 12 - 15, 2019
Ellen Stewart Theatre
Saturday October 12: Re:Entry - Actors Playing Jazz
Sunday October 13: 400 Years of Inequity and 400 Years of Protest
Wednesday October 16 at 7PM: Casting the Vote: Call To A Count
La MaMa, Poetry Project, Estelle Parsons, Charlotte Brathwaite and other artists, respond to and reflect upon the 400 years since the British founding of Jamestown through historical text, poetry, music and dance. The often-shameful history from 1619 to the present is marked by ruthless colonization, centuries of slavery and racism, and the demonization of immigrants and the marginalization of entire social classes. Today's artists, through their disciplines, confront our shared history and shed critical light on the way forward.
Saturday October 12 at 7PM:
Re:Entry - Actors Playing Jazz
Directed by Estelle Parsons
ReEntry: Actors Playing Jazz is the story of eight formerly incarcerated men. They have come together after their release from prison to start a theater group to keep them on the straight and narrow and use their creative and theatrical work to transform their responses to society's biases against them. ReEntry was developed at the Actor's Studio in New York, under the direction of Academy Award winner, Estelle Parsons.
Sunday October 13 at 3PM: 400 Years of Inequity and 400 Years of Protest
La MaMa, with the Poetry Project and other artists, respond to and reflect upon the 400 years since the British founding of Jamestown through historical text, poetry, music and dance. James E. Reynolds, Kyle Dacuyan (Poetry Project) and Nicky Paraiso co-curate this afternoon of readings and performance.
Wednesday October 16 at 7PM: Casting the Vote: Call To A Count
A dinner, a party, a call to action, a gathering. A survival guide for troubling times Casting the Vote: Call To A Count examines our future and how we can count on one another in the struggle for democracy, justice, and a more perfect union. Charlotte Brathwaite directs.
Philip Glass' Days and Nights Festival
November 14 - 17, 2019
Ellen Stewart Theatre
National Medal of Arts winner Philip Glass, returns to La MaMa with the Days and Nights Festival. Now in its 9th season on the Monterey Peninsula, California, the Days and Nights Festival features music, theatre, dance, poetry and film with workshops and forums focusing on Science and our environment.
The best of the festival offerings will be presented at La MaMa including: A tribute to playwright María Irene Fornés, directed by JoAnne Akalaitis. Theatre Work: Club Diamond. Spoken Word by Jerry Quickley & Arturo Bejar, performed live with Philip Glass at the piano. The Festival concludes with a special concert with Philip Glass at the piano with Tim Fain on Violin.
The Trojan Women Project Festival
Great Jones Repertory Company
Directed by Andrei Serban
December 5 - December 15, 2019
Ellen Stewart Theatre
Over the past five years, members of La MaMa's legendary Great Jones Repertory Company have traveled to areas of conflict in Guatemala, Cambodia, and Kosovo to collaborate with creative communities there to recreate La MaMa's 1974 landmark production of The Trojan Women originally directed by Andrei Serban, and composed by Elizabeth Swados. In a remarkable culmination of this work The Trojan Women Project Festival now brings many of the artists from these communities to New York for a two week festival that will include performances of The Trojan Women, as well as panels, workshops and additional presentations of work by the festival company.
The New York Premiere of
THE BEAUTIFUL LADY
By Elizabeth Swados and Paul Schmidt
Directed by Anne Bogart
April - May 2020
Ellen Stewart Theatre
The Beautiful Lady follows a group of influential Russian poets on the eve of the 1917 October Revolution, examining how these artists were essential to the development of the political movement. Siti Company's Anne Bogart will direct.
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
Magic Agency Chapter 4: Bro-Tox
By Lilac Co.
Directed by Sean Lewis
September 13, 20, 21, 2019
47 Great Jones Street Studios
Two middle-aged brothers have a long-awaited reunion during which the utter decline of white male America - spoken through the bravado, sexual insecurity, and finally the violence of the contemporary American male - emerges with terrifying clarity. Featuring Sean Lewis and Jim Fletcher.
THE US PREMIERE OF
This is Why We Live
By Open Heart Surgery Theatre Company
Directed by Coleen MacPherson
September 19 - 29, 2019
The Downstairs
Combining poetry-theatre, live music and collage; and inspired by the poems of Polish poet Wisława Szymborska, This is Why We Live is a kaleidoscope of characters, thoughts, reflections, and memories; bringing the audience close to the poet's state of astonishment.
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
All My Fathers
Written by Paul Young
Directed by Evan Yionoulis
October 3 - 20, 2019
The Downstairs
All My Fathers, the playwright's elderly, demented mother says he is the bastard child of the family pediatrician, her former employer, now dead. The surreal, seemingly scripted disclosure plunges him into a real-life Arthur Miller drama, and the play includes text collage from a host of family plays, such as Hamlet, All My Sons, Oedipus, and Well. Evan Yionoulis, an Obie winner, and Richard Rodgers Director of Drama at Juilliard, will direct the production.
Everyday Murder
Created and directed by Uwe Mengel
October 8 - 11, 2019
All days between 6pm - 8pm
Pop Up Performance in Front of La MaMa
Everyday Murder is a participatory performance that takes place in front of La MaMa. The story evolves around a murder. The audience/passersby can ask each of the three performers (one of them is the murderer) any question about their life and their involvement. Audience members decide what question to ask and cross-examination of the performers are welcome.
Celebrating 4o years with Teatro Patologico
by Dario D'Ambrosi
November 1 - November 3, 2019
The Downstairs
A weekend of events will include films, panel discussions and be highlighted by the solo performance Tutti Non Ci Sono (We Are Not Alone), first presented at La MaMa in 1980, about a psychiatric inmate victimized by neglect in the outside world was written as a reaction to the Italian Mental Health Act of 1978, which was the first law to reform the psychiatric system.
The La MaMa Puppet Slam
Curated by Jane Catherine Shaw
October 24 -26, 2019
The Downstairs
Puppeteer and theatre artist Jane Catherine Shaw curates a three-night puppet slam featuring contemporary short-form puppet and object theatre from both emerging and veteran puppet artists. This puppet cabaret, challenges artists to make their best short-form work and to bring a variety of puppet forms to audiences.
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
The Bad'uns: Clown Acts of Contagion
By Clowns Ex Machina
Created and directed by Kendall Cornell in collaboration with the Ensemble
November 7 - 17, 2019
The Downstairs
A darkly comic look at transgression, the corruption of dreams, and women in dangerously, dangerously bad moods. Inspired by legends of "the Bad-uns" - famous women criminals, outlaws and killers - the show examines notoriety, morality, defiance, and the social constraints of womanhood.
Hoppla, We're Alive!
By Eugene Lang College The New School University
Adapted by Ulrich Lehmann, Drew Lichtenberg, Zishan Ugurlu after Ernst Toller
Directed by Zishan Ugurlu-
November 7 -10, 2019
Ellen Stewart Theatre
One of the landmarks of Weimar and early Epic Theater - a thrilling indictment of the politico-military-industrial corrupting democracy - Toller's play remains frighteningly relevant today. Toller's dissection of political conspiracies, failed revolution, feminist emancipation and class solidarity suggests one answer: it is only in the constant struggle against power that we are alive.
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
Virgo Star
Directed by Gian Marco Lo Forte
November 14 - December 1, 2019
The Downstairs Lounge
An underground, kinetic ride through the Cowboy myth performed from a queer perspective, this dance-theatre fuses personal storytelling and movement to re-create scenes from Western Movies. The performance examines same-sex intimacy, self-awareness, and fear of being marginalized in a fictional West.
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
Other Than We
Theater Three Collective
Written & Directed By Karen Malpede
November 21 - December 1, 2019
The Downstairs
The Dark Star From Harlem - The Spectacular Rise of Josephine Baker
By Glynn Borders (Book). Mario E. Sprouse (Music and Lyrics)
November 21 - December 1, 2019
Ellen Stewart Theatre
The Dark Star From Harlem follows the journey of 19-year-old Josephine Baker, from her arrival in Paris in 1925, as a member of La Revue Negre, to her rise to stardom in Europe. As a young woman in a foreign land she navigates sudden fame, a new language, racial acceptance in Paris and the violent Jim Crow laws back home. Originally produced at La MaMa in 1989, this revised version of The Dark Star From Harlem returns to La MaMa for Ellen Stewart's Centennial.
Indian Market and Social
La MaMa Indigenous Initiative Safe Harbors Indigenous Collective
Muriel Borst Tarrant (Kuna/ Rappahannock Nations), Director Safe Harbors;
Kevin Tarrant (Hopi/ Hochunk Nations), Managing Director/Coordinator, Indian Market
December 5 - 8, 2019
The Downstairs
Just in time for the holidays, the Indian Market offers a unique shopping opportunity for visitors to purchase traditional and contemporary works-including silver and semi-precious jewelry, ceramics, fine apparel, handwoven baskets, traditional beadwork, dolls, paintings, prints, and sculpture-by some of the finest Native American artists from across the nation.
THE US PREMIERE OFWhere are we now
Conceived & Performed by Sven Ratzke
Directed by Dirk Groeneveld
December 11 - 21, 2019
The Downstairs
Press and audience agree: there is no other artist who comes so close to David Bowie as Sven Ratzke. In an intimate setting of only piano and voice, Ratzke unravels the songs of the master in all their beauty and pureness and takes you in to another universe with his poetic and hilarious storytelling.
Christmas in Nickyland
Curated & Hosted by Nicky Parasio
December 22, 2019
The Downstairs
Just in time for the holidays, La MaMa presents Nicky Paraiso as the master of ceremonies for the ultimate holiday cabaret at La MaMa. There will be a holy host of characters singing, dancing, gender-bending, and merry making, all to get you into the East Village spirit of the season.
The US Premiere of
GAZ
By Yara Arts Group
December 19 - 22, 2019
Ellen Stewart Theatre
Workers prepare a futuristic gas, the only source of energy for the industrial world. They refuse to see a looming problem. Will there be anything left to reconstruct? GAZ iscomposed by Roman Grygoriv and Illia Razumeiko, who head Kyiv's NOVA OPERA and directed by Virlana Tkacz
JANUARY 7 - 12, 2020
reflections of native voices
La MaMa Indigenous Initiative & Safe Harbors Indigenous Collective
The Downstairs & Great Jones Street Studios
A series of events featuring work by artists in the Indigenous community.
Safe Harbors Indigenous Collective is dedicated to creating a new paradigm with regards to the presentation of Indigenous arts and culture within the broader American theatre to combat stereotypes and support vibrant Native American communities. Murielle Borst Tarrant, Artistic Director/Coordinator, Safe Harbors
Kevin Tarrant, Executive Director/Coordinator, Safe Harbors
THE US PREMIERE OF
Ich kann nicht anders
By Beton Ltd.
January 16 - 19, 2020
The Downstairs
In the intimate yet elusive, ICH KANN NICHT ANDERS (I cannot help it) from Slovenia, audiences are voyeurs into selected intimate moments of three people where the common is ungraspable and everything is connected.
THE US PREMIERE OF
Cezary Goes to War
Directed by Cezary Tomaszewski
By Komuna Warszawa
January 16 - 19, 2020
The Ellen Stewart Theatre
The director's biography, written for four actors and a pianist, becomes a pretext to redefine the existing concepts and create their own queer fantasy system. The performance, in which Nijinsky's Afternoon of the Faun comes to life in the men's dressing room with one of Moniuszko's songs, aerobic exercises with Shostakovich's battle symphony and the memory of recruitment commission's decision from years ago becomes an impulse for launching performative, camp variety.
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
The Transfiguration Of Benjamin Banneker
Directed by Theodora Skipitares
Music by The Soul Tigers Marching Band
January 23 - February 2, 2020
Ellen Stewart Theatre
Multi-disciplinary spectacle that celebrates the life of African-American scientist Benjamin Banneker, a free black man living in Maryland from 1731 to 1806, who taught himself mathematics and astronomy and made important scientific discoveries. It features dance, live music, a drumline, giant-scale puppetry, and a multi-generational cast of Brooklyn natives.
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
You Are Under Our Space Control
By Object Collection
Written & Directed by Kara Feely
Composed by Travis Just
January 23 - February 2, 2020
The Downstairs
You Are Under Our Space Control is a utopian space-opera, a homing signal cast into an empty universe, a beacon for an aesthetically radical future. Drawing on space travel, transhumanism, astronautics and the resurrection of the dead, the piece rehearses a progressive politics through a total re-envisioning of everyday life. Charged with a burning, engrossing physicality-this is a life-giving work, deep in the mess of futuristic fervor.
Winter/spring 2020 Preview
FANDANGO FOR BUTTERFLIES (AND COYOTES) by En Garde Arts, directed by Jose Zayas (February 2020)
The US Premiere of ONE GREEN BOTTLE by Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre directed by and starring Hideki Noda (February-March 2020)
Noche Flamenca bring their acclaimed ANTIGONA to the Ellen Stewart Theater (March - April 2020)
A new work from Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw's renowned SPLIT BRITCHES (April - May 2020)
And La MaMa's annual contemporary international dance festival, LA MAMA MOVES! (May 2020) curated by Nicky Paraiso.
Additionally, La MaMa presents new work from ANTONIO CEREZO and CHARLOTTE BRATHWAITE (February 2020), JACK WATERS (February 2020),CULTUREHUB (March 2020) Elizabeth Hess (March 2020), KINDING SINDAW (March 2020), CONCRETE TEMPLE THEATRE (April 2020) and ANTONIO MARRAS (May 2020).
Coffee House Chronicles
Michal Gamily | Curator/Director
Presented Monthly
Personal accounts of the history and development of the experimental, international, and Off-Off Broadway theatre scenes.
For La MaMa's 58th Season, Coffeehouse Chronicles will highlight the work of women artists including Ellen Stewart, Lola Pashalinski, Penny Arcade with Sarah Schulman, Morgan Jenness, Anne Bogart, Meredith Monk, and the women of The Trojan Woman Project.
La MaMa Kids
October 6 - 20, 2019
Tomte By Tom Lee: an intimate shadow puppet performance adapted from "The Tomten" by Astrid Lindgren and the poem by Victor Rydberg. Ages 4+
November 16, 2019
Clown Workshop Led by Kendall Cornell: learn simple clown techniques from Kendall Cornell and members of her troupe Clowns Ex Machina Ages 6+
December 22, 2019
Winter Wonderland Performance: End of Year celebration event - a fun-filled immersive performance by La MaMa resident artists Ages 4+
January 26 & February 2, 2020
The Life of Benjamin Banneker By Theodora Skipitares: multidisciplinary spectacle celebrates the life of African-American scientist Benjamin Banneker, a free black man living in Maryland from 1731 to 1806, who taught himself mathematics and astronomy Ages 12+
March 5 - 15, 2020
The Rolling Rice Ball (Omusubi Kororin) By Ryo Onodera - a multimedia kids performance based on the Japanese folk tale. Ages 6+
April 18 - May 3, 2020
Seucy and Boto Take on The Giants By Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre: "Seucy and Boto Take on The Giants", is a children's theatrical show that teaches children to be mindful about the environment through South American interpreted stories. Ages 4+
May 16, 2020
La MaMa Moves! Dance Workshop: participants explore the basics of dance improvisation.
Ages 4+
June 7, 2020
La MaMa Family Play Date: Hosted by Slant Performance Group: their 6th Annual La MaMa's Family Play Date - a fun-filled cabaret performance embracing dance, music, and theatre. Ages 4+
La Galleria
47 Great Jones Street, between Bowery and Lafayette Street
Open Wednesday-Sunday: 1pm - 7:00pm
Founded in 1984, La MaMa La Galleria is a nonprofit gallery committed to nurturing artistic experimentation.
Divine Breath By Ruby Rumié (October 4 - 29, 2019)
CROWDS By Sarah Friedland (November 7 - December 8, 2019)
La MaMa Family Show (December 23, 2019 - Januray 5, 2020)
New Paintings By Mark Tambella (January 9 - February 2, 2020)
La MaMa will also present its ongoing POETRY ELECTRIC and EXPERIMENTS PLAY READING SERIES throughout the season. POETRY ELECTRIC (series director: William Electric Black) fuses music, movement, sound, and dance with the spoken word and presents artists working in a wide range of styles including beatboxing, jazz and hip-hop theatre. EXPERIMENTS PLAY READING SERIES (series director: Matt Nasser), now in its 20th year, presents readings of new works by emerging playwrights.
Once again, La MaMa will offer Seasonal Memberships starting at $58 allowing members to access $10 tickets to all shows during the 2019-2020 season along with other Membership benefits.
For more information, visit lamama.org
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