Ellen Stewart News

Tony Award-winning La MaMa presents the all-women clown troupe Clowns Ex Machina in the world premiere of THE BAD'UNS: CLOWN ACTS OF CONTAGION, created and directed by Kendall Cornell in collaboration with the ensemble, running November 7 - 17, 2019 at La MaMa's Downstairs Theatre, located at 66 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and the Bowery in New York City. Previews begin November 7 for a November 9 opening.

The Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, in partnership with SHOW- SCORE.COM, recently launched ALL NEW YORK'S A STAGE, the first-ever campaign dedicated to raising the visibility of our vibrant local theater industry, which is made up of small venues, companies and related organizations throughout the five boroughs.

On Monday, September 16, 2019, The New York Innovative Theatre Foundation announced the 2019 recipients at the annual Off-Off-Broadway IT Awards. For the past 15 years, the It Awards have celebrated the vibrant and creative indie theatre community under the dedicated leadership of Executive Directors Shay Gines and Nick Micozzi who are stepping down and at the ceremony introduced new leadership for the organization: Cat Parker, Artistic Director of Articulate Theatre Company; Ariel Estrada, Producing Artistic Director of Leviathan Lab Projects; and Jazmyn Arroyo, Co-Founding Artistic Director of Step 1 Theatre Project will join Akia Squiteri, Artistic Director of Rising Sun Performance Company as Directors of the organization.

On Monday, September 16, 2019, The New York Innovative Theatre Foundation announced the 2019 recipients at the annual Off-Off-Broadway IT Awards. For the past 15 years, the It Awards have celebrated the vibrant and creative indie theatre community under the dedicated leadership of Executive Directors Shay Gines and Nick Micozzi who are stepping down and at the ceremony introduced new leadership for the organization: Cat Parker, Artistic Director of Articulate Theatre Company; Ariel Estrada, Producing Artistic Director of Leviathan Lab Projects; and Jazmyn Arroyo, Co-Founding Artistic Director of Step 1 Theatre Project will join Akia Squiteri, Artistic Director of Rising Sun Performance Company as Directors of the organization.

Celebrate 15 years of the New York Innovative Theatre Foundation and their dedication to Off-Off Broadway by joining them when they present the 2019 New York Innovative Theatre Awards on Monday, September 16, 2019 at 7:00 pm. The ceremony will take place at the Centennial Memorial Theatre at 120 West 14th Street, NYC. Tickets to the ceremony are $29 each and can be purchased at www.nyitawards.com/shop.  

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre (Tisa Chang, Artistic Producing Director) will host a one-night only special event celebrating the upcoming season with the 43rd Art & Action Gala Dinner on Thursday evening, October 10, 2019 at The Golden Unicorn Restaurant in Chinatown (18 East Broadway at Catherine Street). Erin Quill and Henry Yuk return as Master of Ceremonies.

This fall the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) and the Edmond de Rothschild Foundations present the fourth edition of BRIDGING: An International Dialogue on Diversity and Inclusion in the Arts, as part of the 2019 Crossing the Line Festival. This year's iteration spotlights the career and work of Germaine Acogny, known worldwide as the Mother of Contemporary African Dance.

German dancer and choreographer Wilma Casal and her company Wolf & Swan will premiere a new evening-length program, Shadow of a Dragon Wing, September 12-14 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 East 4th Street, NYC), as part of Summer Shares at La MaMa. Shadow of a Dragon Wing comprises three worksa?"Dust in My Wings, Ancestral Shadows, and Dragon Blooda?"performed by dancers Giacomo Bavutti, Wilma Casal, Amanda Egan, Sierra Kay Powell, Madeleine Kim and Hope K. Ruth, the actor David Bennent, and live musician Dorian Wallace.

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.

a??a??a??a??a??a??a??The Association for Theatre in Higher Education named Randy Reinholz (Choctaw), the recipient of their most prestigious honor, named for Ellen Stewart, well-known Artistic Director of the acclaimed La MaMa Theater in New York. Reinholz, a celebrated leader in the field of theater and higher education, has been at the forefront of equity, diversity, inclusion, and social justice for 25 years as the Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Native Voices at the Autry, the only Equity theater company wholly dedicated to developing and producing Native American plays.

The French Institute Alliance Fran aise (FIAF), New York's premier French cultural and language center, today announced the 2019 Crossing the Line Festival, featuring 11 performances and a gallery exhibition from a geographically, generationally, and artistically diverse group of artists whose work transcends genres and boundaries. All performances are world, US, or New York premieres; they are united by their convention-breaking fearlessness as they confront topics from social injustice to personal demons. Many of the performances pay homage to legendary artists of our time and previous eras, while the theme of migration and its transformational effects on identity informs several others. The festival runs from September 12 to October 12. Ticket are available at crossingtheline.org.

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre announces the line-up for NuWorks 2019, an annual experimental series that features new work from emerging artists who explore different genres and techniques with a diversity of voices, topics, and types of art to be presented during the World Pride Week in New York City.

It feels in many ways poetic that both the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman's birth fall on the same year. That's precisely where The Bearded Ladies Cabaret comes in. The Philadelphia-based experimental cabaret troupe is part of La MaMa's STONEWALL 50 celebrations, joining a group of LGBTQ+ artists from around the globe. The Beards' contribution is the New York premiere of their CONTRADICT THIS! A BIRTHDAY FUNERAL FOR HEROES, which---spoiler alert---starts as a birthday party for 'much-lauded homo poet' Walt Whitman and descends into a trial, taking on Whitman's problematic political views, our imperfect heroes, and cancel culture as a whole.

Cake, coffin, gavel, choir, composers, live musical trolling! On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the much lauded poet Walt Whitman's birth, a group of Philly queers and misfits known as The Bearded Ladies Cabaret gathers to put this ancestor and his legacy on trial. Should Whitman be canceled? Can he be? Come with friends, complaints, heroes and villains alike. All are welcome. Presented by La MaMa, the New York premiere performances will take place in the Ellen Stewart Theater (June 20 - 29).

LA MAMA - the 2018 Tony Award winning theater - will present the world premiere music drama from South Korea, 13 FRUITCAKES, written and directed by BYUNGKOO AHN, as part of the STONEWALL 50 festival at the Ellen Stewart Theater (66 E. 4 St.) in Manhattan, June 13-16. BYUNGKOO AHN returns to La MaMa having previously directed a Korean adaptation of HAMLET in 2011, described by The New York Times critic as "Intense. The production creates a delicious mood of menace and is beguiling to watch, a reinterpretation with a dark mind all its own."

CultureHub in association with La MaMa and The Great Jones Repertory Company will present Paul Fosters' 1964 iconic and internationally heralded one-act play, BALLS.

CultureHub in association with La MaMa and The Great Jones Repertory Company will present Paul Fosters' 1964 iconic and internationally heralded

Contradict This! A Birthday Funeral for Heroes will take place as part of Stonewall 50 at La MaMa, a month-long celebration of World Pride with exciting voices from around the globe and down the block, featuring multiple generations of queer performers as they pose questions, honor legacies and ignite the present.

LA MAMA - the 2018 Tony Award winning theater - will present the world premiere music drama from South Korea, 13 FRUITCAKES, written and directed by BYUNGKOO AHN, as part of the STONEWALL 50 festival at the Ellen Stewart Theater (66 E. 4 St.) in Manhattan, June 13-16. 

LA MAMA presents, COFFEEHOUSE CHRONICLES #154 TAYLOR MAC celebrating the career and achievements of American actor, playwright, performance artist, director, producer and MacArthur Fellow recipient TAYLOR MAC Saturday, June 8 at 3:00pm at The Ellen Stewart Theater (66 East 4th Street), in Manhattan.