A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, a New Opera and More Set for La MaMa 65th Season

La Mama Experimental Theatre Club has revealed Fall performances of its 65th season–featuring dozens of new works from around the world, including La MaMa Block Party celebrating 65 years, the return of the LA MAMA PUPPET FESTIVAL, a Global Indigenous Theatre Festival Celebrating 50 Years of SPIDERWOMAN THEATER, a new musical by Margot Rose directed by Anne Kenney entitled UNCONDITIONAL: A MUSICAL MEMOIR, BROOKLYN UNITED returns, the EL FUNOUN PALESTINIAN DANCE TROUPE, the new drama DOLL DAY AFTERNOON created and directed by Dmitri Barcomi, a new opera ALLEGRA & THE CELLO, IN MOVEMENTS by Catherine Filloux, and more.

La MaMa’s 65th Season, ONENESS, focuses on unity through collective action—striving to dissolve boundaries between the self and others, exploring ways to build connections, and using art to create a profound connection. In addition to 60-70 productions a season, community events include a free public block party celebration (details to be announced), Care Café (monthly, intergenerational gatherings around food and conversation), outdoor programming in the neighborhood, and multiple global performance series. La MaMa’s Online Happenings will continue with two live streams every month of performances, live talks, workshops and community events to be streamed to audiences nationally and internationally.

Following is an abbreviated list of productions this fall, winter at La MaMa.  

Fall 2026 at La MaMa

El-Funoun Palestinian Dance Troupe

September 5 (The Club)

Experience the vibrant heritage of Palestinian dance in a meet and greet with the renowned El-Funoun Palestinian Dance Troupe. Audiences are invited to share stories, ask questions, and join in the joy of dancing together.

maedeup: Weaving Shin Yun-bok

September 24-27 (The Downstairs)

Seoul Institute of the Arts, directed by Ji-young Kim, created by KNOT

Weaving Shin Yun-bok is a live, non-verbal performance that reimagines Korean classical painting through contemporary performance. Named after the Korean word for “knot” and inspired by the visual world of Shin Yun-bok (Hyewon), an 18th-century Korean painter, maedeup evokes the weaving together of image, movement, sound, and memory.

Queer New York Festival

October 1-11 (The Downstairs)

Curated by Zvonimir Dobrovic, the festival will include performances, a video installation/exhibition, and a series of talks with artists and curators. The works explore a range of contemporary issues related to queer identity and marginalization, opening up topics such as sex work, migration, Indigenous rights, political prosecution, and the new conservatism.

ALL MY BODIES

October 1-4

By Maiamar Abrodos. An intimate, performative, and documentary-style piece, in which Maiamar Abrodos walks us through her story as a trans woman in a country and time when laws were different and prejudice was heavier.

Only Under

October 8-9

Created and performed by Bruno Isaković & Ana Mrak, Only Under is a dance about what lies beneath the surface and about how the invisible becomes inevitable.

Once Upon Tomorrow

October 10-11

By Aleksandra Janeva Imfeld, Once Upon Tomorrow constantly rearranges itself. It is precisely through this uncertainty that a space is created for questioning closeness, distance, and everything that lies in between.

Epstein Oratorio

October 1-4 (Ellen Stewart Theatre)

A reading by Karen Malpede, directed by Evangeline Morphos

BU Live: Back-to-School Edition

October 8-11 (Ellen Stewart Theatre)

Created & Directed by Ty Brown

Featuring 50 Brooklyn United student performers ages 5-18

BU Live: Back-to-School Edition follows young Brooklyn artists using music, movement, storytelling, and student voices to explore education, confidence, leadership, community, and possibility together onstage. Brooklyn United empowers young people through performing arts, education, discipline, leadership, and community, helping Brooklyn youth build confidence, character, creativity, and brighter futures every day.

UNCONDITIONAL, A Musical Memoir

October 15-25 (The Club)

by Margot Rose (playwright & performer)

A time-traveling genre-bending musical of one queer family’s journey in the face of unimaginable loss. With onstage musicians encircling, a mother unthreads the memories that make a life in story and song. UNCONDITIONAL is about dedication and loss, connection and community, a lemon tree and a big backyard.

Doll Day Afternoon

October 15-25 (The Downstairs)

Conceived & directed by Dmitri Barcomi, text adapted from the words of Elizabeth Eden

In the 1975 blockbuster film Dog Day Afternoon, a bank robber portrayed by Al Pacino attempts a heist to pay for his trans wife’s surgery. The truth is even queerer than fiction. Overlooked trans icon Elizabeth Eden sought to set the record gay by writing her own memoir denouncing those who exploited her and sharing a firsthand account of the life of a trans woman in Stonewall-era New York City.

Yungchen Lhamo in Concert and Tibet Day Festival

October 16-17 (Ellen Stewart Theatre)

By Yungchen Lhamo (singer & song writer), One Drop of Kindness Foundation

World-renowned award-winning Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo will raise funds for the charitable One Drop of Kindness Foundation she established in 2004. Yungchen Lhamo has performed in over 80 countries on all five continents and has released seven albums. She is holder of the City of Kingston's 2026 Distinguished Artist Award.

La MaMa's 65th Anniversary Block Party: Art for Healing. Food for Healing.

October 18, 1:00-5:00pm, free event open to the public

Join us for performances, workshops, local food, family fun activities, and more on Ellen Stewart Way (E 4 Street). Celebrating La MaMa's 65th Birthday and the shared power of art and food to heal, build understanding, and transform our communities together.

Untold Wajda: Blokowisko (The Estate)

October 22-24 (Ellen Stewart Theatre)

by Blanka Barbara Stahl (composer, director, on-stage musician)

A dance-theatre spectacle reviving Andrzej Wajda's lost film: a story of love in an oppressed society, told through live electronics, bold choreography and cinematic video. From five-star operas to underground club nights, composer-performer, music producer Blanka Barbara Stahl fuses acoustic instruments with electronics across theatre, contemporary dance and audio-visual concerts.

The Greatest Story Ever

October 29-November 8 (The Club)

by Paul Budraitis

A stolen spaceship. A taxi driver. A distant star. Paul Budraitis returns to La MaMa for an intimate, surprising performance where everyone in the room is part of the story.

Global Indigenous Theatre Festival

October 30-November 7 (Ellen Stewart Theatre and The Downstairs)

50th Anniversary of Spiderwoman Theater

Longtime Resident Company and a foundational force in Native American and feminist performance will present a series of performances and community events.

Invisible Shadows

Oct 30-Nov 1

By Ikidowin Theatre Ensemble, centers youth who participate in community prevention programs and struggle with addiction issues in their homes and communities. Their hopes and dreams collide with learning their cultures and family and community misuse of alcohol and drugs. Can one spirit tell another what to do?

KŌPŪ

Oct 30-Nov 1

By Te Pou Theatre Ensemble. Ho, ho, ho your way through our cheeky ballad of a show, sharing the tales of our young wāhine Māori as they navigate this world, festive nipples first, following in the footsteps of our naughty nannies from the kāuta.

All My R(el)ations

Nov 4-6

By Aanmitaagzi Ensemble, celebrates a return to community. This multi-disciplinary dance theatre project looks at who we are in the face of adversity and who we hope to be.

Healing Scars

Nov 4-6

By Mo Moogahlin Performing Arts in collaboration with Carriageworks, is an expression of the self-healing journey First Peoples take in reconciling the grief of loss from injustice crossing multiple lifetimes. An intricate tapestry of sound interwoven with movement trace tracks leading back from the past.

La MaMa Puppet Festival

November 11-December 6 (all venues)

Denise Greber, Director and Curator of La MaMa Puppet Festival

Federico Restrepo, Producing Director of La MaMa Puppet Festival

Puppetry has been an integral part of La MaMa’s programming since 1962. By setting objects in motion, puppet artists can penetrate linguistic and cultural barriers to tell stories that are accessible to audiences around the world. In 2004, we introduced the La MaMa Puppet Series, a biannual festival showcasing new contemporary puppet theatre. Since then, La MaMa has produced twelve puppet festivals.

Child of Wood

Nov 11-29

Exhibition by Tom Lee

Endless Forms

Nov 11-14

World premiere, by Monica Lerch

“Tiresias Presents New Weird Future, A Work In Process”

Nov 12-15

By Tiresias

The Undercity

Nov 14-16

By Gaby FeBland (writer/puppets), Sammy Zeisel (director)

Where Did You Go, Connie?

Nov 19-22

World premiere, by Amanda Glynn Card

Everything That Follows

Nov 19-23

World premiere, Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company (USA/Colombia)

Mirrored Pool

Nov 27-29

NY premiere by Tom Lee, Lisa Kaplan, and Matthew Duvall

Jump Start 2026

Nov 27-29

Work-in-Progress Presentations of five artists: Justin Perkins, William Carter, Andrew Murdock, Marcella Murray, Torry Bend

Husks from Iran

Dec 3-6

World premiere by Deniz Khateri (USA/IRAN)

En Mer Avec Louise Bourgeois

Dec 3-6

World premiere by Michelle Beshaw

To The Playground

December 4-20, 2026 (The Downstairs)

by Andy Bragen

An afternoon passes, a week, a summer. The days are long and the weather is hot. The world may be falling apart, but first there's potty training. To The Playground is an ode to playgrounds and playground parents – a journey into the beauty, banality and anxieties of the longest shortest time.

ALLEGRA & THE CELLO, IN MOVEMENTS, A New Opera

December 10-20, 2026 (The Club)

Story and libretto by Catherine Filloux, music by Julia Schwartz

Witness a groundbreaking moment in opera history where the first-ever female doctor to take stage in opera brings to life the story of Allegra. Set in the tension-filled days before a high-stakes trial, Allegra lets the audience of lawyers into the most vulnerable and difficult moments in her life and career as they navigate her pretrial discovery together.

Christmas in Nickyland: Rejuvenating Democracy

December 21-22, 2026 (The Club)

Curated and hosted by Nicky Paraiso who shares, “What does it mean to return in 2026 and gather together once again to celebrate during this particular holiday season? As the ever-changing world we live in continues to challenge us both as individuals and within our different communities, we can use this year-end holiday time to reflect, heal, find solace as we celebrate together. Joy, hope, peace and love to this world!”

A New Collaborative Model at La MaMa

A View from the Bridge

By Arthur Miller, directed by Neil Pepe

with Sam Rockwell, Marin Ireland, and Alfred Molina

The strictly limited 13-week engagement begins performances November 27 in the Ellen Stewart Theatre. La MaMa does not usually rent during our season, but decided to try something new with Play Hooky Productions, who shared big ideas. Sam Rockwell shares, “I started my own career downtown, and institutions like La MaMa have always inspired me—as an artist and as an audience member. They're the lifeblood of our culture, championing bold new voices and reminding us why live Theater Matters. I've always considered myself incredibly lucky, but this opportunity feels like kismet.” This rental production pilots a sustainable framework, a new model through which both sectors (commercial and nonprofit) actively support one another.

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