La Mama Experimental Theatre Club News

IATI Theater opens its 2017 Spring season with Gazoline, a play written by Jordi Casanova, one of Spain's most prolific contemporary playwrights, and inspired by the 2005 French riots, but with a 2017 New York Latino accent.

Signature Theatre's world premiere production of Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing, written and directed by Pulitzer Prize winner James Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods), based on the real-life story of Elva Miller, a middle-aged housewife who gained notoriety as an unlikely pop phenomenon in the 1960s for her warbling renditions of chart topping hits 'Downtown,' 'Monday, Monday,' 'A Hard Day's Night,' and more, runs tonight, February 28, through March 26 in Signature Theatre's MAX Theatre.

For three nights in March, a former medical marijuana dispensary in Seattle's University District will transform into a makeshift theatre cafe. Inspired by Joe Cino's legendary Greenwich Village performance space, Caffe Cino, the space will house performances of six short plays from the early days of Off Off Broadway. 

Pioneers Go East Collective will present the World Premiere of American Mill No. 2, a new music-theatre and documentary work written and directed by Gian Marco Lo Forte, with music by Kamala Sankaram, and choreography by Maura Nguyen Donohue. The production, which is devised, performed and written by the Pioneers Go East Collective will begin on March 30, 2017, and run through April 9, 2017 at A.R.T./NY Theatres (502 West 53rd Street at 10th Avenue) as a limited engagement.

Pioneers Go East Collective will present the World Premiere of American Mill No. 2, a new music-theatre and documentary work written and directed by Gian Marco Lo Forte, with music by Kamala Sankaram, and choreography by Maura Nguyen Donohue.

Rave reviews and audience popularity have resulted in an extension for the hit show DAVID'S FRIEND at The Club at La MaMa.

Rave reviews and audience popularity have resulted in an extension for the hit show DAVID'S FRIEND at The Club at La MaMa. Three additional performances, starring veteran downtown performer Nora Burns, will take place through February 12.

A series of short plays by Robert Patrick - author of the forward-thinking dramas CAMERA OBSCURA and ALL IN THE MIND, minimalist works from the 1960s and 1970s that questioned the future and presciently foreshadowed the cyber web we live in today - will be presented together as an evening-length work that immerses the viewer in technologies that were science fiction when the plays were originally written.

A powerful new comic memoir about the electrifying joy and intoxicating madness of New York City in the 1980s will take the stage at The Club at La MaMa from tonight, January 27, through February 5, created by and starring veteran downtown performer Nora Burns.

Signature Theatre has announced full casting for the world premiere production Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing written and directed by Pulitzer Prize winner James Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods). This new play based on the real-life story of Elva Miller, a middle-aged housewife who gained notoriety as an unlikely pop phenomenon in the 1960s for her warbling renditions of chart topping hits 'Downtown,' 'Monday, Monday,' 'A Hard Day's Night,' and more runs February 28 - March 26 in Signature Theatre's MAX Theatre.

A series of short plays by Robert Patrick - author of the forward-thinking dramas CAMERA OBSCURA and ALL IN THE MIND, minimalist works from the 1960s and 1970s that questioned the future and presciently foreshadowed the cyber web we live in today - will be presented together as an evening-length work that immerses the viewer in technologies that were science fiction when the plays were originally written.

A powerful new comic memoir about the electrifying joy and intoxicating madness of New York City in the 1980s will take the stage at The Club at La MaMa from January 27 through February 5, created by and starring veteran downtown performer Nora Burns.

Part noise concert, part Burroughs' reading tour, Decoder 2017: The Soft Machine is the latest work conceived and directed by OBIE winner Mallory Catlett ("This was the End"). Using material from The Nova Trilogy, (a 60's intergalactic space odyssey written by cutting up text and randomly reassembling it for a mind bending effect), Catlett creates a contemporary cut-up of sound, word, and image generated live by cassette tape DJ and sound artist G Lucas Crane. Together with legendary downtown artist and Obie, Bessie and Lucille Lortel award winner, Jim Findlay ("Botanica,' 'Dream of the Red Chamber') they act as both fictional characters and real-time systems operators. Along with Crane, the interactive design is completed by Keith Skretch (video) and Ryan Holsopple (interaction).

Allee Willis will host Gala 55 at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club and perform her live show, 'Ba-de-ya Baby! Or: How I Learned to Love the Theatre.'

La MaMa proudly presents I'm Bleeding All Over The Place: A Living History Tour, conceived and directed by Brooke O'Harra, text by Brooke O'Harra and Casey Llewellyn, with Erin Courtney, Kristen Kosmas and Heidi Schreck, and original music by Brendan Connelly. I'm Bleeding All Over The Place runs from June 16 - 26, 2016 at La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theatre, located at 66 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and the Bowery in New York City.

The Riant Theatre (Van Dirk Fisher, Artistic Director), a nonprofit theatre supporting playwrights and theatremakers of diverse cultural backgrounds, is holding the Launch Party for its annual Strawberry One-Act and Theatre Festival on Saturday, June 25, 2016, 3pm at the Poet's Den Theatre (309 East 108th Street, NYC). The evening will include the presentation of 2016 Pioneer of the Arts Award For Outstanding Achievement In Television and Theatre to the Emmy-winning stage, film and TV actor Joe Morton, Tony Nominee and eight time AUDELCO Award winner, Andre De Shields, the acclaimed Broadway and television actress Barbara Montgomery, and multiple Grammy Award winner, Broadway musical director and arranger Chapman Roberts. A reception with food, drinks and dancing will follow. Tickets ($50 before June 15th; $60 after that date) are available through The Riant Theatre's website (www.therianttheatre.com) and by calling the box office at 646-623-3488. They can also be purchased (cash only) at the door.

This year marks the fifth installment of 'NEEDING IT: Solo Performance in Queer Community,' a two-month workshop in which students develop their own pieces while studying the history of queer performance in New York City. This class emerged directly from the very first show Dan Fishback developed at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, when he was an Artist in Residence in 2010-11. Fishback's solo piece, 'thirtynothing,' aimed to make sense of his life as a young queer person in the context of his community's history -- a history that was largely unknown to him. Through this work, Fishback began to understand that history is a human right, and that queer communities cannot be healthy unless there are structured ways to pass along stories from generation to generation.

LA MaMa presents COFFEEHOUSE CHRONICLES #132 'TALKING BAND' -- tonight, March 12, 2016 at 3 to 5 p.m. -- Located at, La MaMa, Downstairs (66 East 4th Street, NYC).

Two Colombian theater artists -- Bernard Rey and Nube Sandoval -- are the recipients of the first-ever Ellen Stewart International Award, it has been announced by La MaMa, the world-renowned experimental theater company founded by the late Ellen Stewart and now in its 54th season on East 4th Street in New York City. 

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club will present the world premiere of LOVE'S REFRAIN, a new solo play by Justin Sayre from April 1-3 and 8-10. Tracing the lives of stars from nebula to supernova, Sayre extracts a fresh definition for love in his latest performance piece. Wedding personal stories with the science and poetry of astronomy, LOVE'S REFRAIN is romanticism for the modern age. The piece is directed by acclaimed visual artist Matthu Placek with costume design by Dusty Childers and a musical score by David John Sokolowski.