Roger Guenveur Smith's Fredrick Douglass Show (1990) was initially commissioned by Ellen Stewart for her theater La MaMa.
Off-Off-Broadway Pioneer Ellen Stewart Dies (AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Ellen Stewart, the founder and director of the Off-Off-Broadway pioneering group La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, died Thursday at New York's Beth Israel Hospital after an extended illness, said Mia Yoo, the theater's co-artistic director. Stewart was 91.
During Stewart's 49-year tenure, La MaMa presented some 3,000 productions, hosted artists from more than 70 countries and earned countless cultural awards. She was the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 1985 and a 2006 Tony Honor for Excellence in Theater.
"She was extremely nurturing to young theatrical talent and also very open to new ideas and inventive theater," said Brenda Smiley, an actress, writer and journalist who worked with Stewart and remained close. "She allowed people to go beyond and to break barriers in a lot of ways."
Stewart, who was born in Chicago, began her career in New York as a fashion designer and started La MaMa in 1961 when she rented a tiny basement in lower Manhattan for $55 a month to provide her brother and his playwright friends with a space to showcase their plays. Already nicknamed "Mama," one of her actors suggested La MaMa as the name for her theater.
La MaMa moved several more times and took up residence in its original and current space on East 4th Street in 1969. In 1974, the company acquired a second space, The Annex, down the street. In November 2009, on the occasion of Stewart's 90th birthday, The Annex was officially renamed the Ellen Stewart Theatre.
Read the Full Article @ AP
NEW YORK (AP) — Ellen Stewart, the founder and director of the Off-Off-Broadway pioneering group La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, died Thursday at New York's Beth Israel Hospital after an extended illness, said Mia Yoo, the theater's co-artistic director. Stewart was 91.
During Stewart's 49-year tenure, La MaMa presented some 3,000 productions, hosted artists from more than 70 countries and earned countless cultural awards. She was the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 1985 and a 2006 Tony Honor for Excellence in Theater.
"She was extremely nurturing to young theatrical talent and also very open to new ideas and inventive theater," said Brenda Smiley, an actress, writer and journalist who worked with Stewart and remained close. "She allowed people to go beyond and to break barriers in a lot of ways."
Stewart, who was born in Chicago, began her career in New York as a fashion designer and started La MaMa in 1961 when she rented a tiny basement in lower Manhattan for $55 a month to provide her brother and his playwright friends with a space to showcase their plays. Already nicknamed "Mama," one of her actors suggested La MaMa as the name for her theater.
La MaMa moved several more times and took up residence in its original and current space on East 4th Street in 1969. In 1974, the company acquired a second space, The Annex, down the street. In November 2009, on the occasion of Stewart's 90th birthday, The Annex was officially renamed the Ellen Stewart Theatre.
Read the Full Article @ AP
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