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La MaMa ETC th
74A East 4 Street, New York 10003 212-­‐260-­‐2471 [email protected] Overview of the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club Archives Creator: La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (New York, NY) and many other groups and individuals. Title: La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club Archives Collections Inclusive Dates: 1962-­‐present Quantity: Approximately 900 cubic feet + 8 TB Languages: The records are mostly in English, with other languages scattered throughout. About this guide: Created in February 2015. Written by Rachel Mattson with assistance from Suzanne Lipkin and Julia Sandy. Abstract: The La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club Archives contains material related to the work of La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, its founder Ellen Stewart, and its contributing artists. Historical Note: La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is an experimental theater located in New York’s East Village. Founded by Ellen Stewart in 1961, the organization has evolved over the decades from a small basement theater to a multi-­‐sited, international arts organization. As one of New York’s first off off-­‐
Broadway theaters, La MaMa has been critical to the development of queer, African American, Asian American, Native American, Latino and international theater forms, as well as experimental theater practices of various kinds. Ellen Stewart first established the theater that would eventually come to be called La MaMa ETC in a basement space at 321 East 9th Street. Here, the playing area was just a small space between the café tables where audiences sat, and attendees were required to purchase a minimum of one dollar’s w orth of refreshment from the coffee bar in place of tickets. Stewart and her compatriots remained in this space for less than a year: a series of complaints by neighbors led to a succession of visits from City agencies. In the spring of 1963, the Buildings Department informed Stewart—apparently in error—that the building housing her theater was not zoned for cafés. She moved the project to 82 Second Avenue and reopened in June of 1963. Here again, she was harassed by NYC authorities; and just a month after moving in, she was told that her theater was once again in an area zoned against cafes. In response, she reclassified the space-­‐
-­‐no longer a café, she re-­‐established the project as a members-­‐only club. But in July of 1964, coordinated harassment by police, fire, and health departments forced Stewart to move yet again-­‐-­‐a few doors up, to 122 Second Avenue. La MaMa remained here for 4 years. When the lease on this space expired in 1968, Stewart bought the building at 74A East 4th Street; and then purchased several other buildings, including 66 East 4th Street. La MaMa ETC continues to occupy both of these buildings in 2015. In its five decades of existence, La MaMa has hosted more than 150,000 artists representing as many as 70 nations and in excess of 3,500 productions. Stewart’s 2011 front page obituary in the New York Times declared, “In the decades after World War II her influence on American theater was comparable to that of Joseph Papp, founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival, though the two approached the stage from different wings...Ms. Stewart’s terrain was...decidedly noncommercial. Her theater became a remarkable springboard for an impressive roster of promising playwrights, directors and actors who went on to accomplished careers both in mainstream entertainment and in the push-­‐the-­‐envelope theater.” (Mel Gussow and Bruce Weber, New York Times, Jan. 13, 2011.) Scope and Contents: Ellen Stewart began documenting the life and labors of the theater from the moment she established it. At that time, the idea of creating a formal institutional archive to hold and preserve these materials was still far away; nonetheless, she kept posters, clippings, and programs from the theater’s earliest years. In 1987, she decided to collocate La MaMa ETC’s institutional documents in a basement “archive”—and she recruited resident director Ozzie Rodriguez to administer it. As a result of these practices, La MaMa Archives holds a rich and unique collection of materials going all the way back to La MaMa’s earliest “pushcart” years (1962-­‐1985). Collectively, these materials document the history of the off off-­‐Broadway movements and the people, communities, and ideas that shaped them. The archives includes approximately 10,000 unique items-­‐-­‐posters, programs, costumes, puppets, and photographs, and audiovisual materials. And because the archives continues to serve as the institution’s repository for non-­‐
current records, it grows bigger every year. Provenance: Materials were collected by La MaMa in the normal course of business. Processing Note: This material was processed by Ozzie Rodriguez and Shigeko Suga over many decades, and then described in a series of Excel spreadsheets. Information about these materials is now also being added to La MaMa Archives’ Collective Access database. Arrangement Note: The collection is arranged in the following groups and series: 1) Ellen Stewart's Personal Collection a) Correspondence b) Books c) Miscellany 2) Business and Institutional Records a) Facilities Materials b) Administrative Files 3) La MaMa Community Files a) Directors’ Files b) Playwrights’ Files 4) Pushcart Collection a) Show Files b) Photographs c) Posters d) Audiovisual Materials 5) Annex-­‐Era Collection a) Show Files b) Photographs c) Posters d) Audiovisual Materials i) Video Masters ii) Optical Media iii) Born-­‐Digital 6) Artifacts a) Puppets + Masks b) Costumes c) Set Pieces 7) Tour + Club Files 8) Scripts Rights summary: Rights vary across the collection. Users should consult the archives staff regarding rights and use. Conditions Governing Access: Time and staff availability permitting, researchers may access any part of the collection, excluding those materials whose condition renders them too fragile for handling. Please email [email protected] to make an appointment. Conditions Governing Use: La MaMa does not hold the exclusive rights to everything in its collections. Thus, restrictions may apply concerning the use, photoduplication, or publication of materials. Users should consult our written policies (available at http://lamama.org/programs/archives/ ) or the archives staff for information about use restrictions. Metadata Rights Statement: The metadata that describes La MaMa's holdings is available under the Open Data Commons Attribution license (an open license) for study and research. (For more information about this license, see oclc.org/research/activities/ohiolink/odcby.html.) How to cite items from this collection: [Item Creator], [Item title], [Object ID], [Group], [Series], La MaMa Archives, NYC.