La MaMa to Feature MEDEA, LIFELINE, and More in 2011-12 Season

La MaMa, the world-renowned downtown theatre founded by the late Ellen Stewart, will celebrate is 50th anniversary season in 2011-12 -- entitled "Homecomings" - with a two day celebration on October 16th and 17th 2011: The La MaMa 50 World Block Party and The La MaMa 50 Gala. The festivities kick off with the La MaMa 50 World Block Party on Sunday, October 16 from 2 to 6pm on the block of East 4th Street (between the Bowery and Second Avenue in Manhattan) that is home to La MaMa's three performance spaces, and where Ms. Stewart herself resided for many years before her death in January 2011.

The World Block Party will feature tours of La MaMa's Archive and theaters, as well as family friendly performances by Blue Man Group, The Silver Cloud Native American Drummers and Singers, Pua Ali'I 'llilma o Nuioka Hula Dancers and the Balkan gypsy punk rock band, Bad Buka.

The Block Party will conclude at 6PM with a bevy of city officials proclaiming that East 4th Street between Bowery and 2nd Ave. be co-named as "Ellen Stewart Way" at which time all the church, mosque, temple bells and bells all over the neighborhood and the world will ring in a salute to Ms. Stewart -- or "Mama" as she was affectionately known by artists and audiences alike -- who regularly marked the start of performances at La MaMa by ringing a hand bell before welcoming theatre goers.

The following evening on October 17, the celebration continues with the La MaMa 50 Gala Party featuring dinner, dancing, and performances from distinguished alumni artists and readings from the work of legendary La MaMa playwrights Jackie Curtis, Harvey Fierstein, Wally Shawn, Taylor Mac, and more performed by a lineup on New York's most renowned actors. Patti Smith and other musicians and movement artists will round out the festivities.

Plans for La MaMa's "Homecomings" season from October 2011 through June 2012 were announced by Mia Yoo, a protégée of Ms. Stewart, who served as her Co-Artistic Director for two years before recently being named the company's Artistic Director by La MaMa's Board of Directors. The season is a tribute to Ms. Stewart and her incalculable legacy as a pioneer of experimental theatre and a founder of Off-Off-Broadway and will feature more than 40 productions by a wide array of artists whose work has been performed at La MaMa through the years, along with resident and international companies, and emerging artists who will make La MaMa their 'home' for the first time.

According to Ms. Yoo, La MaMa's 2011-12 "Homecomings" will offer new productions and revivals by a wide array of artists who have called La MaMa 'home' since it was founded by Ellen Stewart in 1961, including PING CHONG, Meredith Monk, JOHN JESURUN, THE TALKING BAND, the Tony-winner lyricist SCOTT WITTMAN, Tan Dun, DARIO D'AMBROSI, Theodora Skipitares, Elizabeth Swados, KARENFINLEY, JULIA ATLAS MUSE, GREAT JONES REPERTORY, THEATRE OF THE 2-HEADED CALF, the CZECHOSLOVAK-AMERICAN MARIONETTE THEATRE, and UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL to name a few. As well, the "Homecomings" will include works by artists who will be making La MaMa their 'home' for the first time: KARIN CONROOD,RAINA VON WALDENBURG, England's THE GATE, Jomama Jones and Orlando Pabotoy.

About the 50th season, Ms. Yoo states, "La MaMa has always been the place where emerging artists learn from established artists and where artists from all over the world share work and ideas. The 50th Homecomings Season is a continuation of that -- bringing together artists who have worked here through the years with artists who are new to La MaMa, creating a dialogue, an
energy, whatever you want to call it, this combustible creative force that will move the theater into the next 50 years."

One of the highlights of the season will take place on November 7th, 2011-- which would have been Ellen Stewart's 92nd birthday -- when La MaMa presents the world-premiere of an as-yet-untitled oratorio by Elizabeth Swados, the text of which will be comprised solely of Ms. Stewart's own spoken and written word.

And in the Spring of 2012, La MaMa Board Chair Frank Carucci will produce a star-studded Spring Gala evening at the Skirball Center on June 24th, 2012 in Greenwich Village.

New to the La MaMa season this year will be MONDAY NIGHTS AT LA MAMA, a series of intimate evenings featuring La MaMa artists in conversation about their work, including such alumnus as Tan Dun, Julie Taymor, Philip Glass, Elizabeth Swados and Meredith Monk.

For more information about La MaMa and upcoming events, visit www.lamama.org or call the La MaMa box office at 212 475 7710.

Following is an abbreviated list of the productions in La MaMa's "Homecoming Season"

October 27-November 13 (Ellen Stewart Theatre, 66 E. 4 St.)
ANGELS OF SWEDENBORG -- One of the most anticipated productions of the "Homecoming Season" will be its opener: a revival of director/choreographer Ping Chong's 1985 seminal work ANGELS OF SWEDENBORG, which he will direct for GREAT JONES REPERTORY, marking the first time that a Guest Artist will direct La MaMa's resident repertory company, founded in 1972 by Ellen Stewart, Elizabeth Swados and Andrei Serban. Ping Chong was among the first generation of theatre artists who found their home -- and their artistic voice --at La MaMa, so it is fitting that the 50th anniversary "Homecoming Season" should begin with his direction of Ms. Stewart's beloved Great Jones Repertory, Mr. Chong's first-ever collaboration with the repertory company.

ANGELS OF SWEDENBORG -- created in 1985 and last performed in 1989 in Yugoslavia -- is a multi-media dance theatre meditation on the fate of modern man, caught between his material existence and spiritual aspirations. Ping Chong, in fact, credits Ellen Stwart as one of the inspirations for ANGELS OF SWEDENBORG.

Ping Chong's own company is celebrating its 40th season this year.

October 20-30 (First Floor Theatre and The Club, 74 A E. 4 St.)
HIP-HOP THEATER FESTIVAL
Known internationally as one of the most influential outlets showcasing Hip-Hop performing arts, HIP-HOP THEATER FESTIVAL celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Featuring the stories, people, music, dance and word of Hip-Hop, the Festival has presented hundreds of artists in the past decade, including Danny Hoch, Aya de Leon, Baba Israel, Kristina Wong, Chad Boseman, Ase Dance Theater Collective, Holly Bass, Drrah Jones, Will Power, Olive Dance Theatre, The Roots, Common, Kanye West, Rennie Harris Puremovement, Eisa Davis, J. Kyle Manzay and many more.

November 17-December 4 (Ellen Stewart Theatre)
GOLEM -- The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre will present a
radical interdisciplinary re-staging of GOLEM with marionettes and live puppets. Created by CAMT and produced by La MaMa in 1997, the script for GOLEM is written by CAMT's Artistic Director Vit Jorejs and reflects the Jewish experience in 20th century Eastern Europe within the visual framework of the 16th century. With a score by Frank London of The Klezmatics that mixes traditional Czech music, Eastern European Jewish music, new classical music and contemporary avant-garde, the GOLEM will feature new staging, and new choreography by Naomi Goldberg.

December 15-23 (Ellen Stewart Theatre)
MEDEA (world-premiere) by Pathological Theatre -- adapted and directed by Dario D'Ambrosi, whose work has debuted at La MaMa regularly during the past 25 years (ALL ARE NOT HERE, FRUSTRATION, MY ENEMY, THE PATHOLOGICAL PASSION OF THE CHRIST, ROMEO AND JULIET). With a cast comprised of professional actors and children from the Drama Academy for disabled children, D'Ambrosi's MEDEA focuses on the relationship between language and the human body. The text is in both English and Attic Greek and will feature live music.

December 1-18 (First Floor Theatre, 74A E. 4 St.)
LIFELINE a solo show by Raina vonWaldenburg, a well-known teacher of a physical approach to acting based on Jerzy Grotowski. Directed by Victoria Libertore, LIFELINE is part musical, part storytelling and part cooking show, and depicts the story of Handel von Wonderburger, an elderly androgynous burlesque performer and narcoleptic organic goat farmer.

January 19-February 5, 2012 (Ellen Stewart Theatre)
STOPPED BRIDGE OF DREAMS, a world-premiere by the American theatre auteur John Jesurun. Inspired by the 17th-century Japanese poet and novelist Saikaku Ihara, known for his stories of "the floating world," STOPPED BRIDGE takes place in a modern version of the pleasure quarter of a "tea house," a "floating world" that is an anonymous airplane that circles the globe. With its central story concernming a mother and son who operate the teahouse, STOPPED BRIDGE will also involve 30 "satellite" plays that reveal the lives of the clients.

February 16-March 4 (First Floor Theater)
I KILLED MY MOTHER, the world-premiere of a play by Karin Conrood. Set in Romania, I KILLED MY MOTHER tells the story of Bernadette, a teenage girl who was abandoned after birth by her mother, a Gypsy woman. She grows up in a series of orphanages and forms a relationship with Clip, who dies trying to save her. The work is based on the true story of a Romanian orphan, one of thousands who resulted from the reproductive policies of the Romanian Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

I KILLED MY MOTHER marks the La MaMa debut of Ms. Conrood, whose internationally-acclaimed work has been seen at The Public Theatre, Arden Party Theatre, ART, Hartford Stage, Moscow Art Theater and Yale University.

La MaMa is a remarkable arts institution with a world-wide reputation for producing cutting-edge work in theater, dance, performance art, and music. Founded in 1961 by theater pioneer and legend, Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has produced and presented more than 3,000 theatrical productions to date and is a vital part of the fabric of cultural life in New York City and around the world.

La MaMa provides a supportive home for artists and takes risks on unknown work. Artists such as Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, Harvey Fierstein, Blue Man Group, David and Amy Sedaris, -and others whose names you haven't heard of yet - began their careers at La MaMa. International Artists introduced to America by La MaMa include Tadeusz Kantor, Andrei
Serban, Kazuo Ohno and, more recently, the acclaimed Belarus Free Theatre.La MaMa has been honored with more than 30 OBIE Awards, dozens of Drama Desk and Bessie Awards, and, in 2006, Ellen Stewart was recognized with a special TONY Award for "Excellence in the Theatre."

 

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