Ellen Stewart News

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, the East Coast's premier producer of Asian-American theatre, will launch their 35th season this fall with a new production of Shanghai Lil's.

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club has announced that the New York premiere of Now the Cats With Jewelled Claws by Tennessee Williams and directed by Jonathan Warman, will begin performances Thursday, October 27, at 10pm, at The Club at La MaMa, (74A E 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery).

Sam Shepard will be the recipient of the first-ever 'Ellen Stewart Award,' to be presented at the La MaMa 50 Gala on Monday, October 17 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 E. 4 St.) in Manhattan, it has been announced by Mia Yoo, artistic director of La MaMa.

Begun humbly in a store front in 1961 by a former fashion designer with a flair for the theatrical -- and dodging brushes with the law without proper city permits! -- the now internationally-renowned LA MAMA theater remarkably begins its 50th anniversary season this month with a FREE La MaMa 50 World Block Party, featuring free performances by Blue Man Group, Silver Cloud Singers, Bad Buka, the dance troupe Pua Ali'i ‘Ilima o Nuioka, Middle Collegiate Gospel Choir, the La MaMa Puppet Parade, Circus Amok, DJ Rabbi Darkside, Carmelita Tropicana and more.

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club has announced that the New York premiere of Now the Cats With Jewelled Claws by Tennessee Williams and directed by Jonathan Warman, will begin performances Thursday, October 27, at 10pm, at The Club at La MaMa, (74A E 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery).

In a featured presentation of its 50th Anniversary season, La MaMa E.T.C. will reprise 'Golem' by Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre (CAMT), a dance-theater rendition of the famed Jewish legend that may have been the first-ever puppet 'Golem' when La MaMa presented it in 1997.

ANGELS OF SWEDENBORG -- Ping Chong's 1985 dance theatre work will be the opening production of the 50th anniversary season at La MaMa with performances starting October 27 prior to an official press opening Sunday, October 30 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 E. 4 St.) in Manhattan.

Women's Project, the 34-year-old non-profit theater dedicated to producing plays written and directed by women, will present its 2011-12 season of new American plays featuring 20 women theater artists, Julie Crosby, Producing Artistic Director announced.

Begun humbly in a store front in 1961 by a former fashion designer with a flair for the theatrical -- and dodging brushes with the law without proper city permits! -- the now internationally-renowned LA MAMA theater remarkably begins its 50th anniversary season this month with a FREE La MaMa 50 World Block Party, featuring free performances by Blue Man Group, Silver Cloud Singers, Bad Buka, the dance troupe Pua Ali'i ‘Ilima o Nuioka, Middle Collegiate Gospel Choir, the La MaMa Puppet Parade, Circus Amok, DJ Rabbi Darkside, Carmelita Tropicana and more.

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club has announced that the New York premiere of Now the Cats With Jewelled Claws by Tennessee Williams and directed by Jonathan Warman, will begin performances Thursday, October 27, at 10pm, at The Club at La MaMa, (74A E 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery).

On Wednesday, October 5, 2011 Horse Trade Theater Group signed a seven-year lease on UNDER St. Marks Theater, securing the space as an artistic playground for the numerous performance artists who have been calling the downtown theater home, including the many regular weekly and monthly shows like Penny's Open Mic, TOLD, Naked Girls Reading, Basterdpiece Theatre, Shotz, God Tastes Like Chicken, Adam Wade, The BTK Band, Sketch Block, Unlicensed, Legends of the Feather, Thank You Robot, The Vintage Vantage Variety Hour, Blogologues, Beaches 2, and KL's Tea Party as well as resident theatre companies The Pumpkin Pie Show, The Management, Subjective Theater Company, Rising Sun Performance Company, AMios, Direct Arts, No Tea Productions, Dysfunctional Theatre Company, Animal Parts, the FRIGID New York Festival, and numerous guest artists and renters.

On Monday, October 31st Horse Trade Theater Group will hold its annual Halloween party with the 2012 FRIGID New York Festival lottery drawing, The BTK Band's 4th Annual Halloween Spectacular, and a preview performance of Dysfunctional Theatre Company's upcoming production, Brew of the Dead 2: Oktoberflesh. And beer, lots of beer.

The New York Musical Theater Festival and Aaron Glick present This One Girl's Story, a new musical with book by Bil Wright (LAMI Award Winning Playwright and Novelist) and music and lyrics by Dionne McClain-Freeney (TruPraise Gospel Ensemble).

ANGELS OF SWEDENBORG -- Ping Chong's 1985 dance theatre work will be the opening production of the 50th anniversary season at La MaMa with performances starting October 27 prior to an official press opening Sunday, October 30 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 E. 4 St.) in Manhattan.

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, the East Coast's premier producer of Asian-American theatre, will launch their 35th season this fall with a new production of Shanghai Lil's.

On Monday September 19, 2011, the IT Awards (New York Innovative Theatre Awards), the organization dedicated to celebrating Off-Off-Broadway, and host comedian Harrison Greenbaum, announced the 2011 recipients at the Seventh Annual IT Awards Ceremony at Cooper Union. This year's nominees represent 169 individual artists, 55 productions and 45 theatre companies. In 2011, the IT Awards had the most individual nominees than in any previous season with 169 nominees.

Sam Shepard will be the recipient of the first-ever 'Ellen Stewart Award,' to be presented at the La MaMa 50 Gala on Monday, October 17 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 E. 4 St.) in Manhattan, it has been announced by Mia Yoo, artistic director of La MaMa.

The New York Musical Theater Festival and Aaron Glick present This One Girl's Story, a new musical with book by Bil Wright (LAMI Award Winning Playwright and Novelist) and music and lyrics by Dionne McClain-Freeney (TruPraise Gospel Ensemble).

The New York Innovative Theatre Awards announced on Monday that Horse Trade Theater Group is to be awarded this year's 2011 Ellen Stewart Award, (formally called the Stewardship Award, renamed in honor of the late pioneer who was the first person to receive the honor in 2005) presented annually to an individual or organization who demonstrates a significant contribution to the Off-Off-Broadway community through service, support and leadership. Horse Trade Theater Group is a self-sustaining theater development group that focuses on new work and provides rehearsal and performance space to many downtown theater companies.

This summer is a busy one for award-winning Broadway star André De Shields. He has been nominated as 'Best Leading Actor' for his title role in Charles Smith's new play The Gospel According to James, produced last Spring at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater in Chicago, Dennis Zacek, Artistic Director. Based on the doubling lynching depicted in the infamous Lawrence Beitler photograph, this drama involves the fictional meeting between a witness and a survivor of that seminal moment in Indiana history. The play garnered four Black Theater Alliance Award nods, including Best Direction for director, Chuck Smith and Best Writing for playwright, Charles Smith. The play was originally commissioned by and experienced its world premiere at The Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis.