124-528: La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (sometimes abbreviated as La MaMa E.T.C. ) is an Off-Off-Broadway theater founded in 1961 by African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer Ellen Stewart . Located in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City , the theater began in the basement boutique where Stewart sold her fashion designs. Stewart turned the space into
248-476: A MacArthur Fellow and Tony Award -winning actor, are frequently lauded as "New Vaudevillians". References to vaudeville and the use of its distinctive argot continue throughout North American popular culture. Words such as "flop" and "gag" were terms created from the vaudeville era and have entered the American idiom. Vaudevillian techniques can commonly be witnessed on television and in movies, remarkably in
372-458: A nonprofit organization in 1967. La MaMa remained at this third location until 1967. This period was crucial to La MaMa's establishment and audience development. La MaMa moved for a final time when the lease on 122 2nd Avenue expired in April 1968. The second floor at St. Mark's Place served as a transitional space for La MaMa from January through March 1969. On April 2, 1969, Stewart purchased
496-584: A Broadway show. This is when she began experimenting with improvisational comedy and quickly found her unique success, even taking her performances global with acts in the U.K. Sophie Tucker , a Russian Jewish immigrant, was told by promoter Chris Brown that she was not attractive enough to succeed in show business without doing Blackface, so she performed that way for the first two years onstage, until one day she decided to go without it, and achieved much greater success being herself from that point on, especially with her song "Some of These Days." Moms Mabley
620-463: A commitment to entertainment equally inoffensive to men, women and children. Acts that violated this ethos (e.g., those that used words such as "hell") were admonished and threatened with expulsion from the week's remaining performances or were canceled altogether. In spite of such threats, performers routinely flouted this censorship , often to the delight of the very audience members whose sensibilities were supposedly endangered. He eventually instituted
744-654: A day, five days a week. These workshops included hundreds of different exercises, which are best represented by Hair , a La MaMa show that transferred to Broadway in 1968. Village Voice critic Michael Smith wrote on Hair' s Broadway opening: "O'Horgan has blown up Broadway." Hair brought international acclaim to O'Horgan and the La MaMa performance style. Off-Off-Broadway Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of
868-480: A form of entertainment. He incorporated them in his shows as early as 1902. Later, he entered into a partnership with the Famous Players–Lasky , a major Hollywood production company and an affiliate of Paramount Pictures . By the late 1920s, most vaudeville shows included a healthy selection of cinema. Earlier in the century, many vaudevillians, cognizant of the threat represented by cinema, held out hope that
992-537: A gathering reflective of the “ Great Day in Harlem ” photoshoot. Of great help during this period was the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act . In 1978, Stewart utilized CETA funds to mount Goethe’s Faust I , directed by Fritz Bennewitz. CETA enabled the hiring of 22 actors, an 8-person chorus, 6 musicians, dancers and an 18-member crew. CETA also funded a series of Chamber Concerts, as well as
1116-574: A harpist, and was also trained in ballet. He came to La MaMa from Second City , bringing his interest and knowledge of Viola Spolin and Paul Sills ' role-playing theories of human behavior and games adapted for theatre. This background gave O'Horgan an interest in the totality of theatre, which aligned perfectly with Stewart's interest in a theatrical language that transcended text. This interest of Stewart's developed primarily from La MaMa's international touring. O'Horgan's direction included musically driven vocal and movement techniques, which contributed to
1240-415: A launching pad for later careers. They left live performance before achieving the national celebrity of earlier vaudeville stars, and found fame in new venues. The line between live and filmed performances was blurred by the number of vaudeville entrepreneurs who made more or less successful forays into the movie business. For example, Alexander Pantages quickly realized the importance of motion pictures as
1364-535: A marketing strategy to attract many different audiences. As stated in Andrew Erdman 's book Blue Vaudeville , the Vaudeville stage was "a highly sexualized space ... where unclad bodies, provocative dancers, and singers of 'blue' lyrics all vied for attention." Such performances highlighted and objectified the female body as a "sexual delight", but more than that, historians think that Vaudeville marked
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#17327874509121488-530: A method of understanding different groups and their societal positions within their cities. The use of the greenhorn immigrant for comedic effect showcased how immigrants were viewed as new arrivals, but also what they could aspire to be. In addition to interpreting visual ethnic caricatures, the Irish American ideal of transitioning from the shanty to the lace curtain became a model of economic upward mobility for immigrant groups. The continued growth of
1612-518: A multipurpose space on the third floor and more bathrooms." Dressing rooms are also expanded, bringing the building "up to the current ADA accessibility requirements while preserving its original facades and historic essence." In June 1971, La MaMa acquired 236 East 3rd and other abandoned buildings on the Lower East Side to turn them into art spaces. No. 236 was used primarily for community workshops, in an effort to engage and produce art that
1736-434: A response to perceived commercialism of the professional theatre scene and as an experimental or avant-garde movement of drama and theatre. Over time, some off-off-Broadway productions have moved away from the movement's early experimental spirit. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as a "complete rejection of commercial theatre". Michael Smith gives credit for the term's coinage to Jerry Tallmer in 1960. Among
1860-528: A serious actress but was advised to remain in comedy. She went on to star in a few films but again returned to vaudeville, her original career. Another famous vaudevillian actress was Trixie Friganza , originally born Delia O'Callaghan. She had a famous catchphrase: "You know Trixie with her bag of tricks." She began her career in opera, performing to help provide for her family. The oldest of three daughters, she wanted to help her family financially but had to do it secretly, as female performers were frowned on at
1984-572: A set of guidelines to be an audience member at his show, and these were reinforced by the ushers working in the theatre. This "polite entertainment" also extended to Keith's company members. He went to extreme measures to maintain this level of modesty. Keith even went as far as posting warnings backstage such as this: "Don't say 'slob' or 'son of a gun' or 'hully gee' on the stage unless you want to be canceled peremptorily... if you are guilty of uttering anything sacrilegious or even suggestive you will be immediately closed and will never again be allowed in
2108-459: A single (an individual male or female performer); next would be an alley-oop (an acrobatic act); then another single, followed by yet another sketch such as a blackface comedy. The acts that followed these for the rest of the show would vary from musicals to jugglers to song-and-dance singles and end with a final extravaganza – either musical or drama – with the full company. These shows would feature such stars as ragtime and jazz pianist Eubie Blake ,
2232-402: A single host introducing a series of acts became a popular television style and can be seen consistently in the development of television, from The Milton Berle Show in 1948 to Late Night with David Letterman in the 1980s. The multi-act format had renewed success in shows such as Your Show of Shows with Sid Caesar and The Ed Sullivan Show . Today, performers such as Bill Irwin ,
2356-546: A speech at the 2005 New York Innovative Theatre Awards . Vaudeville Vaudeville ( / ˈ v ɔː d ( ə ) v ɪ l , ˈ v oʊ -/ ; French: [vodvil] ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition or light poetry, interspersed with songs or ballets. It became popular in
2480-659: A surprise to audience members when such beautiful women actually possessed talent in addition to their appealing looks. This element of surprise colored much of the reaction to the female entertainment of this time. In the 1920s, announcements seeking all-girl bands for vaudeville performances appeared in industry publications like Billboard , Variety and in newspapers. Bands like The Ingenues and The Dixie Sweethearts were well-publicized, while other groups were simply described as "all-girl Revue". According to Feminist Theory, similar trends in theater and film objectified women, an example of male gaze , as women's role in public life
2604-411: A taste for the risqué . In the 1840s, the minstrel show , another type of variety performance, and "the first emanation of a pervasive and purely American mass culture", grew to enormous popularity and formed what Nick Tosches called "the heart of 19th-century show business". A significant influence also came from "Dutch" (i.e., German or faux-German) minstrels and comedians. Medicine shows traveled
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#17327874509122728-441: A theater at night, focusing on the work of young playwrights. Stewart started La MaMa as a theatre dedicated to the playwright and primarily producing new plays, including works by Paul Foster , Jean-Claude van Itallie , Lanford Wilson , Sam Shepard , Adrienne Kennedy , Harvey Fierstein , and Rochelle Owens . La MaMa also became an international ambassador for Off-Off-Broadway theatre by touring downtown theatre abroad during
2852-496: A theatre where Mr. Keith is in authority." Along these same lines of discipline, Keith's theatre managers would occasionally send out blue envelopes with orders to omit certain suggestive lines of songs and possible substitutions for those words. If actors chose to ignore these orders or quit, they would get "a black mark" on their name and would never again be allowed to work on the Keith Circuit. Thus, actors learned to follow
2976-459: A three-week international symposium for directors at the Umbria location. The European tours influenced Stewart's own aesthetic: "I learned in 1965, that English is not the beginning and end of anything. Generally, it's the ending, it messes you up." She also said that, "I found the plays that were the most visual were the ones people liked." These realizations shifted Stewart's primary interest from
3100-628: A time in which the female body became its own "sexual spectacle". This sexual image began sprouting everywhere an American went: the shops, a restaurant, the grocery store, etc. The more this image brought in the highest revenue, the more Vaudeville focused on acts involving women. Even acts that were as innocent as a sister act were higher sellers than a good brother act. Consequently, Erdman adds that female Vaudeville performers such as Julie Mackey and Gibson's Bathing Girls began to focus less on talent and more on physical appeal through their figure, tight gowns, and other revealing attire. It eventually came as
3224-518: A time. This new, larger space attracted artists who had previously worked at other tiny Off-Off-Broadway venues but were ready for a larger space. Lanford Wilson 's Balm in Gilead , which needed a stage that could accommodate twenty-five people, and was also the first full-length play written for off-off Broadway, opened at 122 Second Avenue in January 1965. Partially due to previous legal struggles,
3348-584: A trained mule) shared a stage with acts more usually regarded as "highbrow" or classical entertainment (opera vocalists, classical musicians). B. F. Keith took the next step, starting in Boston , where he built an empire of theatres and brought vaudeville to the United States and Canada. Later, E. F. Albee , adoptive grandfather of the Pulitzer Prize -winning playwright Edward Albee , managed
3472-401: A unique ethnic interplay between Irish American use of self-deprecation as humor and their diverse inner city surroundings. The interactions between newly arrived immigrants and settled immigrants within the backdrop of the unknown American urban landscape allowed vaudeville to be utilized as an avenue for expression and understanding. The often hostile immigrant experience in their new country
3596-505: A wide range of clientele. Many small towns had purpose-built theatres. A small yet interesting example might include what is called Grange Halls in northern New England, still being used. These are old-fashioned, wooden buildings with creaky, dimly-lit, wooden stages, which were meant to offset the isolation of a farming lifestyle. These stages could offer anything from child performers to contra-dances to visits by Santa to local, musical talent, to homemade foods such as whoopee pies. Some of
3720-484: A zoning violation. Café La MaMa moved into its second home, a loft above a florist shop at 82 Second Avenue, on June 28, 1963. One month after opening, Stewart was informed by the Buildings Department that she had to vacate this new space because she was making a profit from serving coffee. Stewart stopped serving coffee and began charging an admission of fifty cents. On March 12, 1964, Café La MaMa
3844-494: Is often considered to have been the death knell of vaudeville. Though talk of its resurrection was heard during the 1930s and later, the demise of the supporting apparatus of the circuits and the higher cost of live performance made any large-scale renewal of vaudeville unrealistic. The most striking examples of Gilded Age theatre architecture were commissioned by the big time vaudeville magnates and stood as monuments of their wealth and ambition. Examples of such architecture are
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club - Misplaced Pages Continue
3968-484: Is often referred to as a "vaudevillian". Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon , minstrelsy , freak shows , dime museums , and literary American burlesque . Called "the heart of American show business", vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades. The origin of the term is obscure but often explained as being derived from
4092-518: The vau de vire origin, a truncated form of chanson du Vau de Vire ' song of the Valley of the Vire ' . Around 1610, Jean le Houx collected these works as Le Livre des Chants nouveaux de Vaudevire , which is probably the direct origin of the word. With its first subtle appearances within the early 1860s, vaudeville was not initially a common form of entertainment. The form gradually evolved from
4216-634: The Drama Desk Awards began evaluating such productions with the same criteria as it used for Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Since 2005, the New York Innovative Theatre Awards (NYIT Awards or IT Awards) have annually honored individuals and organizations that have achieved artistic excellence in off-off-Broadway theatre. The term indie theatre , or independent theatre, was suggested as an alternative for "off-off Broadway" by playwright Kirk Bromley during
4340-421: The Lower East Side . Diamonds told Stewart that everyone needs both a "pushcart to serve others" and their own personal pushcart. Stewart had a revelation about this advice during a trip she took to Morocco and decided to open a boutique for her fashion designs that would also serve as a theatre for her foster brother, playwright Fred Lights, and his fellow playwright Paul Foster . On October 18, 1961, Stewart paid
4464-734: The Marx Brothers , Jimmy Durante , Bill "Bojangles" Robinson , Edgar Bergen , Fanny Brice , Burns and Allen , and Eddie Cantor , used the prominence gained in live variety performance to vault into the new medium of cinema. In doing so, such performers often exhausted in a few moments of screen time the novelty of an act that might have kept them on tour for several years. Other performers who entered in vaudeville's later years, including Jack Benny , Abbott and Costello , Kate Smith , Cary Grant , Bob Hope , Milton Berle , Judy Garland , Rose Marie , Sammy Davis Jr. , Red Skelton , Larry Storch and The Three Stooges , used vaudeville only as
4588-671: The Tivoli Theatre are housed at the State Library of Victoria , Melbourne , Australia , with additional personal papers of vaudevillian performers from the Tivoli Theatre, including extensive costume and set design holdings, held by the Performing Arts Collection , Arts Centre Melbourne . The American Vaudeville Museum, one of the largest collections of vaudeville memorabilia, is located at
4712-659: The concert saloon and variety hall into its mature form throughout the 1870s and 1880s. This more gentle form was known as "Polite Vaudeville". In the years before the American Civil War , entertainment existed on a different scale. Similar variety theatre existed before 1860 in Europe and elsewhere. In the US, as early as the first decades of the 19th century, theatergoers could enjoy a performance consisting of Shakespeare plays, acrobatics, singing, dancing, and comedy. As
4836-457: The "Irwin Sisters". Many years later, their act had taken off and with performances in both vaudeville and burlesque at famous music halls, until Irwin decided to continue her career on her own. She then changed her approach to vaudeville, performing African-American-influenced songs, even later writing her songs. She introduced her signature in vaudeville, "The Bully Song", which was performed in
4960-425: The "big time" (possible remuneration of several thousand dollars per week in large, urban theatres largely patronized by the middle and upper-middle classes). As performers rose in renown and established regional and national followings, they worked their way into the less arduous working conditions and better pay of the big time. The capital of the big time was New York City's Palace Theatre (or just "The Palace" in
5084-546: The "characteristics of off-Broadway, which had gradually moved toward reshaping itself in the image of Broadway, though often producing works that were unsuitable for commercial theatre." An off-off-Broadway production that features members of the Actors' Equity Association may be an Equity Showcase production intended to allow actors to be seen by potential future employers. Equity maintains union rules about working in such productions, including restrictions on price of tickets,
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club - Misplaced Pages Continue
5208-494: The "dedicated devotion to novelty" of La MaMa productions. Upon hearing that Danish and other European countries would review most productions seen in their cities, Stewart decided to establish a reputation in Europe so that the United States would take more notice. In the fall of 1965, with twenty-two plays and sixteen young actors, La MaMa had its first European tour. La MaMa had two traveling companies. The first company, headed by Tom O'Horgan , went to Copenhagen for six weeks and
5332-539: The 1960s. La MaMa is the only theatre of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway movement's four core theatres that continues to thrive today. The other three Off-Off-Broadway theatres that composed this core included Joe Cino 's Caffe Cino , Al Carmines ' Judson Poets Theatre , and Ralph Cook's Theatre Genesis . More than any other Off-Off-Broadway producer, Stewart reached out beyond the East Village, impelling rather than following new trends in theatre and performance. To
5456-656: The Annex was renamed the Ellen Stewart Theatre. To date, La MaMa has presented and produced work by artists from over seventy nations. While frequently moving locations in Manhattan, La MaMa was also traveling internationally. Stewart wanted broad publicity for her playwrights but she wasn't finding this in the United States, due partially to La MaMa's "hit or miss quality" and partially to the short runs of productions. Critics also found it difficult to determine
5580-639: The Chinese, Italians, Germans and Jews utilized ethnic caricatures to understand themselves as well as the Irish. The urban diversity within the vaudeville stage and audience also reflected their societal status, with the working class constituting two-thirds of the typical vaudeville audience. The ethnic caricatures that now comprised American humor reflected the positive and negative interactions between ethnic groups in America's cities. The caricatures served as
5704-584: The French expression voix de ville ' voice of the city ' . A second hypothesis is that it comes from the 15th-century songs on satire by poet Olivier Basselin , "Vau de Vire". In his Connections television series, science historian James Burke argues that the term is a corruption of the French Vau de Vire ' Vire River Valley ' , an area known for its bawdy drinking songs and where Basselin lived. The Oxford English Dictionary also endorses
5828-423: The Irish becoming subject to discrimination due to their ethnic physical and cultural characteristics. The ethnic stereotypes of Irish through their greenhorn depiction alluded to their newly arrived status as immigrant Americans, with the stereotype portrayed in avenues of entertainment. Following the Irish immigration wave were several waves in which new immigrants from different backgrounds came in contact with
5952-453: The Irish in America's urban centers. Already settled and being native English speakers, Irish Americans took hold of these advantages and began to assert their positions in the immigrant racial hierarchy based on skin tone and assimilation status, cementing job positions that were previously unavailable to them as recently arrived immigrants. As a result, Irish Americans became prominent in vaudeville entertainment as curators and actors, creating
6076-481: The La MaMa actors were too inexperienced, which led Stewart and O'Horgan to start the actor-training workshop. In comparison to the psychological acting style and emphasis on method acting that was popular at the time, the La MaMa workshop focused on the other side of acting: externalized, kinetic techniques. The fifteen members of the La MaMa Troupe had workshops in movement, voice, and acting for five hours
6200-511: The La MaMa-Ceta Jazz Cabaret. In 1974, La MaMa purchased 66 E. 4th Street, which is two doors down from 74A E. 4th. Initially referred to as the Annex, 66 E. 4th includes a flexible theatre space with a seating capacity of 299 as well as an upper floor dormitory for visiting artists. This space had previously served as a forty-eight by one hundred feet television soundstage with thirty-footy high ceilings. In November 2009,
6324-796: The Polish director Jerzy Grotowski in 1969 and the Romanian director Andrei Șerban in 1970. Stewart also created site-specific productions internationally. In 1981, she directed Romeo and Juliet on the grounds of Leopoldskran Castle in Salzburg, Austria . In 2004, she directed Trojan Women at the ruins in Gardzienice, Poland . La MaMa Umbria, in Spoleto, Italy , is an artist's retreat and cultural center founded in 1990 by Stewart with her MacArthur Grant money. Since 2000, La MaMa has held
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#17327874509126448-423: The United States and Canada and a large interest in two vaudeville circuits. Another major circuit was that of Alexander Pantages . In his heyday, Pantages owned more than 30 vaudeville theatres and controlled, through management contracts, perhaps 60 more in both the United States and Canada. At its height, vaudeville played across multiple strata of economic class and auditorium size. On the vaudeville circuit, it
6572-652: The United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, while changing over time. In some ways analogous to music hall from Victorian Britain , a typical North American vaudeville performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts have included popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals , magicians, ventriloquists , strongmen , female and male impersonators , acrobats, clowns, illustrated songs , jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels , and films. A vaudeville performer
6696-466: The United States and Canada, first for about three months in Emil Boreo’s Mirage de Paris followed by nine months in their own Ballet Caprice . After Jack quit the act near the end of 1927, Betty continued to manage the troupe and, with a new dance partner, toured throughout the northeastern United States for the next six months as Betty Felsen and Company. The final performance of Ballet Caprice
6820-486: The ability to explore without the fear of professional criticism too early in their career, and that new playwrights shouldn't be critiqued in the same way as more experienced playwrights. Stewart said that playwrights who didn't feel they had the experience to make work at Caffe Cino would come to La MaMa instead. By producing their work, Stewart was creating a space for new playwrights to learn from practical, collaborative experiences. Stewart did not believe that her theater
6944-421: The basement at 321 East Ninth Street, was renovated over a period of nine months. During this time, the neighbors became concerned about the different men visiting at various times to work on the space. Moreover, as an African-American woman, Stewart was not welcomed into the neighborhood. Barbara Lee Horn writes: Now, number 321 had been an all white building, and the tenants liked it that way. Further provoked by
7068-459: The building 1985. Throughout the 1970s, La MaMa's 236 E. 3rd location became a centerpiece of the Loft Jazz movement with dozens of renowned and budding musicians traversing this space to gather and rehearse. The hallmark of this period was when, in 1979, trumpeter Lester Bowie rehearsed his Sho'Nuff Orchestra in preparing for a onetime performance of a 59-member contemporary jazz collective,
7192-710: The building at 74A East 4th Street using grant money from the Ford , Rockefeller , and Doris Duke Foundations. The ground floor of 74A E. 4th is a theatre which seats one hundred people. Originally called the La Mama Repertory Theatre, the theatre is now called the First Floor Theatre. The second-floor space is a cabaret called the La MaMa Experimental Club with the capacity to seat seventy-five. With additional funding,
7316-1027: The business side of Vaudeville, like Amanda Thorpe, a white woman who founded a black theater in Virginia, and the Griffin Sisters , who managed several theaters in their efforts to create a Black Vaudeville circuit. Black performers and patrons participated in a racially segregated vaudeville circuit. Though many popular acts like Lewis and Walker, Ernest Hogan , Irving Jones , and the Hyers Sisters played to both white and black audiences, early Vaudeville performances for white audiences were limited to one Black act per show, and performers faced discrimination in restaurants and lodging. Entertainers and entrepreneurs like The Whitman Sisters , Pat Chapelle and John Isham created and managed their own touring companies; others took on theater ownership and management and created Black vaudeville circuits, as
7440-500: The chain to its greatest success. Circuits such as those managed by Keith-Albee provided vaudeville's greatest economic innovation and the principal source of its industrial strength. They enabled a chain of allied vaudeville houses that remedied the chaos of the single-theatre booking system by contracting acts for regional and national tours. These could easily be lengthened from a few weeks to two years. Albee also gave national prominence to vaudeville's trumpeting "polite" entertainment,
7564-420: The circuit's central office weekly, follow each act's description. The bill illustrates the typical pattern of opening the show with a "dumb" act to allow patrons to find their seats, placing strong acts in second and penultimate positions, and leaving the weakest act for the end, to clear the house. In this bill, as in many vaudeville shows, acts often associated with "lowbrow" or popular entertainment (acrobats,
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#17327874509127688-478: The comings and goings, they accused Stewart of running a bordello—fifteen men in one hour—and asked the health department to issue a summons for prostitution. The health department was contacted, but the inspector who arrived happened to be an old vaudevillian . He advised Stewart that getting a license to open a coffeehouse was much easier than getting a license to open a theatre. Following this advice, La MaMa became Café La MaMa. Coffee and cake were served, admission
7812-416: The countryside offering programs of comedy, music, jugglers , and other novelties along with displays of tonics, salves, and miracle elixirs, while " Wild West " shows provided romantic vistas of the disappearing frontier, complete with trick riding, music and drama. Vaudeville incorporated these various itinerant amusements into a stable, institutionalized form centered in America's growing urban hubs. From
7936-409: The daughter of a musician, she moved to the United States of America in her childhood. At just fourteen years old, she left home to begin her career, lying about her age and sending her mother half of her paycheck. Dressler found great success and was known for her comedic timing and physical comedy, like carrying her male co-stars. She eventually worked on Broadway, where she had a great desire to become
8060-505: The death of vaudeville. After all, when "small time" theatres could offer "big time" performers on screen at a nickel a seat, who could ask audiences to pay higher amounts for less impressive live talent? The newly-formed RKO studios took over the famed Orpheum vaudeville circuit and swiftly turned it into a chain of full-time movie theatres. The half-century tradition of vaudeville was effectively wiped out within less than four years. Inevitably, managers further trimmed costs by eliminating
8184-771: The distinctive La MaMa genre of theatre. O'Horgan and Stewart decided to create a workshop to develop the particular type of actors needed for La MaMa's productions. O'Horgan went on to direct the La MaMa Troupe from 1965 to 1969. This decision was initiated by the experience of working on Three from La MaMa with National Educational Television . Three from La MaMa was a television program of three La MaMa theatre pieces: Pavane by Jean-Claude van Itallie ; Fourteen Hundred Thousand by Sam Shepard ; and The Recluse by Paul Foster . The executive director of National Educational Television, Brice Howard, would not allow any La MaMa actors to perform in Three from La MaMa . Howard declared that
8308-435: The early years, Stewart housed and fed playwrights and directors whenever possible. She acted as a mother; Jean-Claude van Itallie remembers his first meeting with Stewart: I never could have expected the warmth of Ellen's milk. She basically said to me, "Honey, you're home. This space is for you to put on plays." The combination of her kindness and her smile and the beauty of the space were overwhelming ... Ellen broadcast to
8432-487: The famous and magical Harry Houdini , and child star Baby Rose Marie . In the New-York Tribune ' s article about Vaudeville, it is said that at any given time, Vaudeville was employing over twelve thousand different people throughout its entire industry. Each entertainer would be on the road 42 weeks at a time while working a particular "Circuit" – or an individual theatre chain of a major company. While
8556-503: The fifty-five dollar rent on a tenement basement at 321 East Ninth Street to start her boutique and theater. As opposed to Caffe Cino , which was focused on creating a specific atmosphere or clientele, La MaMa's primary focus was on the playwright. Stewart was interested in the people behind the work, and often didn't even read the plays. She relied on what she called "beeps", or "clicks", a hunch or feeling she got when meeting people and deciding whether or not to produce work with them. In
8680-698: The first venues for what would soon be called "off-off-Broadway" theatre were coffeehouses in Greenwich Village , particularly the Caffe Cino at 31 Cornelia Street, operated by the eccentric Joe Cino , who early on took a liking to actors and playwrights and agreed to let them stage plays there without bothering to read the plays first, or to even find out much about the content. This DIY aesthetic also led to creative acts of object repurposing by playwrights and directors, who cobbled together sets from materials scavenged from local streets. Also integral to
8804-495: The instructions given to them by B. F. Keith for fear of losing their careers forever. By the late 1890s, vaudeville had large circuits, houses (small and large) in almost every sizable location, standardized booking, broad pools of skilled acts, and a loyal national following. One of the biggest circuits was Martin Beck's Orpheum Circuit . It incorporated in 1919 and brought together 45 vaudeville theatres in 36 cities throughout
8928-427: The last of the live performances. Vaudeville also suffered due to the rise of broadcast radio following the greater availability of inexpensive receiver sets later in the decade. Even the hardiest in the vaudeville industry realized the form was in decline; the perceptive understood the condition to be terminal. The standardized film distribution and talking pictures of the 1930s confirmed the end of vaudeville. By 1930,
9052-529: The length of the run, and rehearsal times. Professional actors' participation in showcase productions is frequent and comprises the bulk of stage work for the majority of New York actors. There has been an ongoing movement to revise the Equity Showcase Code, which many in the community find overly restrictive and detrimental to the creation of New York theatre. In 1964, off-off-Broadway productions were made eligible for Obie Awards , and in 1974,
9176-563: The lower-priced cinema in the early 1910s dealt the heaviest blow to vaudeville. This was similar to the advent of free broadcast television 's diminishing the cultural and economic strength of the cinema. Cinema was first regularly commercially presented in the US in vaudeville halls. The first public showing of movies projected on a screen took place at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in 1896. Lured by greater salaries and less arduous working conditions, many performers and personalities, such as Al Jolson , W. C. Fields , Mae West , Buster Keaton ,
9300-535: The mid-1860s, impresario Tony Pastor , a former singing circus clown who had become a prominent variety theater performer and manager, capitalized on middle class sensibilities and spending power when he began to feature "polite" variety programs in his New York City theatres. Pastor opened his first "Opera House" on the Bowery in 1865, later moving his variety theater operation to Broadway and, finally, to Fourteenth Street near Union Square . He only began to use
9424-485: The most prominent vaudevillians successfully made the transition to cinema, though others were not as successful. Some performers such as Bert Lahr fashioned careers out of combining live performance with radio and film roles. Many others later appeared in the Catskill resorts that constituted the " Borscht Belt ". Vaudeville was instrumental in the success of the newer media of film, radio, and television. Comedies of
9548-636: The neighborhood character of vaudeville attendance had always promoted a tendency to tailor fare to specific audiences, mature vaudeville grew to feature houses and circuits specifically aimed at certain demographic groups. Black patrons, often segregated into the rear of the second gallery in white-oriented theatres, had their own smaller circuits, as did speakers of Italian and Yiddish (see below). This foreign addition combined with comedy produced such acts as "minstrel shows of antebellum America" and Yiddish theatre. Many ethnic families joined in on this entertainment business, and for them, this traveling lifestyle
9672-477: The neighbors' fears concerning Stewart's supposed brothel had been quelled, fire inspectors often found violations at the theatre, which created serious legal problems. Stewart herself was arrested twice, and several other times under another alias. Issues with fire-code violations at Café La MaMa's first basement location led Stewart to search for a new space. In 1963, the Café was closed by the Buildings Department due to
9796-547: The new era adopted many of the dramatic and musical tropes of classic vaudeville acts. Film comedies of the 1920s through the 1940s used talent from the vaudeville stage and followed a vaudeville aesthetic of variety entertainment, both in Hollywood and in Asia, including China. The rich repertoire of the vaudeville tradition was mined for prominent prime-time radio variety shows such as The Rudy Vallée Show . The structure of
9920-476: The next play's opening. If playwrights wanted longer runs and more exposure for a popular play, they went to La MaMa. There was an unspoken agreement between Cino and Stewart that the plays produced at either theatre could continue to a second run at the other. When Caffe Cino burned down in 1966, La MaMa hosted benefit shows to aid in the theatre's reopening. Joe Cino's family offered Stewart the theatre after his death in 1967, but she declined. La MaMa's first home,
10044-545: The performances at 122 Second Avenue were primarily publicized by word of mouth. The theatre had no sign; the street-level door was labeled "122 Delivery Entrance". There were weekly listings of the productions in the Village Voice , but an address or a phone number was never listed. Only members could attend, and one had to visit 122 2nd Avenue in person to become a member. By 1967, La MaMa E.T.C. had an estimated three thousand members. La MaMa E.T.C. officially became
10168-418: The phone from all over the world. I'd be a zero without my kids. They stay with me, and many have been very fortunate in their later careers. Not only did Stewart create a nurturing environment for the playwright, but La MaMa's space itself was an appealing blank canvas in its early years. van Itallie said of the space, "it imposed no aesthetic, made no artistic suggestions." For this among other reasons, La MaMa
10292-531: The playwright to the director. In the 1970s, Stewart was interested in pairing playwrights and directors as a kind of theatrical matchmaker. She also had an interest in playwrights who directed and/or were solo performers. Stewart's 1970s shift in focus aligned with the concurrent historical "end" of the original Off-Off-Broadway movement. While La MaMa is the only Off-Off-Broadway theatre of the core four Off-Off-Broadway theatres that continues to function, La MaMa has evolved and adapted beyond Stewart's original focus on
10416-476: The playwright. In 1964, Tom O'Horgan joined La MaMa. Directing over sixty plays, including his all-male version of Jean Genet 's The Maids , O'Horgan was crucial to La MaMa's development. He was the theatre's first Artistic Director and was also integral to La MaMa's international tours. As a musician, O'Horgan performed with the Chicago Civic Opera in his youth and had professional training as
10540-399: The present, La MaMa's mission is dedicated to "the people who make art, and it is to them that we give our support with free theatre and rehearsal space, lights, sound, props, platforms, and whatever else we have that they can use to create their work. We want them to feel free to explore their ideas, and translate them into a theatrical language that can communicate to any person in any part of
10664-404: The promotion of black-face minstrelsy on the stage, purposefully used to place African Americans beneath the Irish in the racial and social urban hierarchy. Although the Irish had a strong Celtic presence in vaudeville and in the promotion of ethnic stereotypes, the ethnic groups that they were characterizing also utilized the same humor. As the Irish donned their ethnic costumes, groups such as
10788-540: The recent, worldwide phenomenon of TV shows such as America's Got Talent . In professional wrestling , there was a noted tag team, based in WWE , called The Vaudevillains . In 2018, noted film director Christopher Annino, maker of a new silent feature film, Silent Times , founded Vaudeville Con, a gathering to celebrate the history of vaudeville. The first meeting was held in Pawcatuck, Connecticut . The records of
10912-611: The rise of off-off-Broadway were Ellen Stewart at La MaMa , and Al Carmines at Judson Poets Theatre , located at Judson Memorial Church . Other theaters of note that presented many plays were Theatre Genesis , New York Theatre Ensemble, The Old Reliable, The Dove Company, The Playwrights Workshop, and Workshop of the Players Art. At its coalescence, off-off-Broadway was known for its experimental nature. Brooks McNamara wrote that over time, off-off-Broadway work lost some of its experimental spirit, instead beginning to imitate
11036-405: The second floor of 122 Second Avenue, La MaMa's third home. On November 11, 1964, La MaMa E.T.C. opened at 122 Second Avenue with David Novak's The Wedding Panda . This space was twenty-three by seventy-five feet with a twelve-foot ceiling; the stage at the back was twenty-three by ten feet. The seating capacity was technically seventy-four, but the theatre would often fit 115 people at
11160-451: The silent nature of the "flickering shadow sweethearts" would preclude their usurpation of the paramount place in the public's affection. With the introduction of talking pictures in 1926, the burgeoning film studios removed what had remained the chief difference in favor of live theatrical performance: spoken dialogue. Historian John Kenrick wrote: Top vaudeville stars filmed their acts for one-time pay-offs, inadvertently helping to speed
11284-468: The slang of vaudevillians), built by Martin Beck in 1913 and operated by Keith. Featuring a bill stocked with inventive novelty acts, national celebrities, and acknowledged masters of vaudeville performance (such as comedian and trick roper Will Rogers ), the Palace provided what many vaudevillians considered the apotheosis of remarkable careers. A standard show bill would begin with a sketch, follow with
11408-448: The songs that were popularized onstage by white singers, and paved the way for African-American musical theater . In addition to vaudeville's prominence as a form of American entertainment, it reflected the newly evolving urban inner-city culture and interaction of its operators and audience. Making up a large portion of immigration to the United States in the mid-19th century, Irish Americans interacted with established Americans, with
11532-457: The space as a boutique during the daytime quickly disappeared. As Stewart said, "Once our theatre got started, I didn't have the discipline to sew. I was too busy doing other things – not writing or directing – but just doing theatre." The plays ran for one week, from Wednesday-Saturday, and major theatre critics did not come. Even operating as a "café," Café La MaMa was forced to close and reopen ten times during its first year. Although
11656-410: The term "vaudeville" in place of "variety" in early 1876. Hoping to draw a potential audience from female and family-based shopping traffic uptown , Pastor barred the sale of liquor in his theatres, eliminated bawdy material from his shows, and offered gifts of coal and hams to attendees. Pastor's experiment proved successful, and other managers soon followed suit. The manager's comments, sent back to
11780-627: The theatres built by impresario Alexander Pantages . Pantages often used architect B. Marcus Priteca (1881–1971), who in turn regularly worked with muralist Anthony Heinsbergen . Priteca devised an exotic, neo-classical style that his employer called "Pantages Greek". Though classic vaudeville reached a zenith of capitalization and sophistication in urban areas dominated by national chains and commodious theatres, small-time vaudeville included countless more intimate and locally controlled houses. Small-time houses were often converted saloons, rough-hewn theatres, or multi-purpose halls, together catering to
11904-466: The third floor became a rehearsal space and workshop. Finally, the top floor was turned into an apartment for Stewart. In 1970, a decaying seven-story loft building at 47 Great Jones Street was purchased for additional rehearsal space, using money from the Ford Foundation. Between 2018 and 2023, the 74A E 4th Street location underwent a renovation that "expanded the lobby and public spaces, adding
12028-690: The time. She worked largely in comedy and gained acclaim and success due to her willingness to step into other's roles who had fallen ill, and were otherwise unable to perform. In her acts, she often emphasized her plus-size figure, calling herself the "perfect forty-six". Friganza was also a poet and writer. She used many of her performances as ways to raise money to support the poor or disenfranchised and went on record publicly numerous times to support these social causes. Friganza also spent much of her life fighting for women's equality and pushing for self-acceptance for women, both publicly and within themselves, as well as their rights in comparison to men. Betty Felsen
12152-600: The vast majority of formerly live theatres had been wired for sound, and none of the major studios were producing silent pictures. For a time, the most luxurious theatres continued to offer live entertainment, but most theatres were forced by the Great Depression to economize. Some in the industry blamed cinema's drain of talent from the vaudeville circuits for the medium's demise. Others argued that vaudeville had allowed its performances to become too familiar to its famously loyal, now seemingly fickle audiences. There
12276-478: The vaudeville stage, Irish Americans became interpreters of immigrant cultural images in American popular culture. New arrivals found their ethnic group status defined within the immigrant population and in their new country as a whole by the Irish on stage. Unfortunately, the same interactions between ethnic groups within the close living conditions of cities also created racial tensions which were reflected in vaudeville. Conflict between Irish and African Americans saw
12400-592: The winter of 1923 Betty began a partnership with Jack Broderick. From then until the end of 927 Broderick & Felsen performed on the B.F. Keith and Pantages vaudeville circuits throughout the U.S. and Canada. Their act evolved from a simple dance act to one with over twenty dancers, an orchestra, and elaborate costumes and sets. From 1925 to 1926 they played for 20 straight weeks at the huge Colony Theater on Broadway in New York City. In 1926 and 1927, they starred in two spectacular musical productions, touring across
12524-434: The world that we were doing something important. We were her baby playwrights and she sat on us like eggs that would hatch. She told us that what we were doing mattered, and we wouldn't get confirmation on that anywhere else. In a 1997 interview, Stewart echoed this sentiment: I call them my kids. I'm very fortunate. They know they can come to see me whenever they want. They don't need to have appointments. And they call me on
12648-410: The world." Ellen Stewart is the spirit of La MaMa; she is its guardian, janitor, fundraiser, press agent, tour manager, conceptual leader—she is the guts of the place. To understand this theatre one must first know Ellen Stewart. Stewart worked as a fashion designer at Saks Fifth Avenue before starting the theatre. Stewart was inspired by her mentor, "Papa Abraham Diamonds", who owned a fabric shop on
12772-723: The years in Boston, Amsterdam, Bogotá, Israel, London, Melbourne, Morocco, Munich, Paris, Tokyo, Toronto, and Vienna. As of 2006, only a few continued to carry the La MaMa name, including La MaMa Bogotá, La MaMa Tel Aviv, and La MaMa Melbourne . These tours and satellite theatres not only created international connections and established La MaMa as a cultural ambassador for Off-Off-Broadway theatre, but also introduced experimental playwriting and O'Horgan's style of directing to international audiences. The La MaMa tours also allowed Stewart to create cross-cultural exchanges. She brought many notable international artists to La MaMa in Manhattan, including
12896-486: The years progressed, people seeking diversified amusement found an increasing number of ways to be entertained. Vaudeville was characterized by traveling companies touring through cities and towns. A handful of circuses regularly toured the country; dime museums appealed to the curious; amusement parks, riverboats, and town halls often featured "cleaner" presentations of variety entertainment; compared to saloons, music halls, and burlesque houses, which catered to those with
13020-603: Was a comedienne who got her start in Vaudeville and the Chitlin circuits in the 1920s, and ended up with mainstream success in the 20th century. Other 20th century women performers who started in Vaudeville included blues singers Ma Rainey , Ida Cox and Bessie Smith . Women-led touring companies like Black Patti's Troubadours , the Whitman Sisters and the Hyers Sisters were popular acts. Other women worked
13144-421: Was a one-step stage that was twenty by eight feet. 82 Second Avenue is where La MaMa E.T.C. truly became a theater. During this time, playwrights Lanford Wilson and Sam Shepard began producing plays at La MaMa. This was also where Stewart started her tradition of sitting outside on La MaMa's steps during performances to ensure that civic authorities didn't interrupt. Because of building code violations, La MaMa
13268-623: Was accepted to be a member of the Chicago Opera’s Pavley-Oukrainsky Ballet corps de ballet. From December 1920 until the fall of 1922 Betty was a ballerina soloist and performed with them throughout North America. Under the name Buddye Felsen, Betty landed a starring dancing role in a new show at Fred Mann’s Million Dollar Rainbo Room in the Rainbo Gardens . The show, Rainbo Trail , directed by Frank Westphal , opened on 15 December 1922, and ran until 1 March 1923. In
13392-664: Was an American ballerina, vaudeville star, and teacher. She was born on 9 June 1905, in Chicago, IL Betty began taking lessons at a local Chicago ballet school when she was eight years old, and often performed solo dances in shows presented by that school. Just before her tenth birthday in 1916, her parents enrolled her as a ballet student with the Pavley-Oukrainsky Ballet School within the Chicago Opera Association. Then, in 1919 Betty
13516-400: Was an imitation of Cino's. Cino and Stewart had a close relationship, and the first documented production at La MaMa, ( One Arm , July 27, 1962, an adaptation of a Tennessee Williams story, transferred from Caffe Cino. Perhaps the best way to understand Cino and Stewart's relationship is to consider their different models of producing plays. Cino rarely extended a run, as he didn't want to affect
13640-501: Was considered by many playwrights to be the most inviting of the Off-Off-Broadway theatres. In 1963, Stewart created a policy of exclusively presenting new plays, producing a new play each week. She also began ringing a bell before each production, welcoming the audience with, "Welcome to La MaMa dedicated to the playwright and all aspects of the theatre. Tonight we present ..." Stewart believed that young playwrights needed
13764-433: Was expanding. These expectations for women in the 19th century played a big role in the compelling aspects of vaudeville. Through vaudeville, many women were allowed to join their male counterparts on the stage and found success in their acts. Leila Marie Koerber, later Marie Dressler , was a Canadian actress who specialized in vaudeville comedy, and eventually won an Academy Award for Best Actress later in her career. Being
13888-602: Was forced to relocate again in November 1964. All of these relocations were initiated by the Buildings Department inspector, who would contact the Fire Department, who would then contact the Police Department to issue a summons for Stewart's arrest. In order to avoid a third conviction , which would have made her a felon , Stewart moved La MaMa to a new space with the audience's help. Stewart recalled: It
14012-410: Was free, and any compensation that the actors received came from "passing the hat". Stewart's fashion designs and seamstress jobs subsidized the theatre during its first decade of operation. The first space was twenty by thirty feet with earthy red walls. The café sat twenty-five people and the dirt floor was planked with orange crates. There was one set piece: a bed. Stewart's initial intention of using
14136-516: Was no abrupt end to vaudeville, though the form was clearly sagging by the late 1920s. Joseph Kennedy Sr. in a hostile buyout, acquired the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Theatres Corporation (KAO), which had more than 700 vaudeville theatres across the United States which had begun showing movies. The shift of New York City's Palace Theatre, vaudeville's center, to an exclusively cinema presentation on 16 November 1932,
14260-498: Was now used for comic relief on the vaudeville stage, where stereotypes of different ethnic groups were perpetuated. The crude stereotypes that emerged were easily identifiable not only by their distinct ethnic cultural attributes, but how those attributes differed from the mainstream established American culture and identity. Coupled with their historical presence on the English stage for comic relief, and as operators and actors of
14384-440: Was officially renamed La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C). The "passing of the hat" ended with this transition from café to a members-only club. Even operating as a club, this space was often visited by civic authorities, frequently interrupting performances. This second space was approximately five times larger than the first space and sat up to seventy-four people. The ceilings were twenty by fifty feet high and there
14508-413: Was on 4 June 1928, at Broadway’s Palace Theater in New York City. Another famous comedienne, one who brought in thousands of audience members with her signature improvisational skills, was May Irwin . She worked from about 1875 to 1914. Originally born Ada Campbell, she began her life on the stage at thirteen years old following the death of her father. She and her older sister created a singing act called
14632-441: Was reflective and representative of the surrounding neighborhood. The children's workshops spearheaded by avant-garde jazz drummer Charles “Bobo” Shaw , were some of the most ambitious. A letter to Ellen Stewart in 1973 indicates that the end goal of the space and programming was to establish a Hispanic theater center. Obviously, a goal that was spirited by the future occupants of this location. The Nuyorican Poets Cafe purchased
14756-440: Was rivaled only by churches and public schools among the nation's premiere public gathering places. Another slightly different aspect of Vaudeville was an increasing interest in the female figure. The previously mentioned ominous idea of "the blue envelopes" led to the phrase "blue" material, which described the provocative subject matter present in many Vaudeville acts of the time. Many managers even saw this scandalous material as
14880-565: Was said that if an act would succeed in Peoria, Illinois , it would work anywhere. The question "Will it play in Peoria?" has now become a metaphor for whether something appeals to the American mainstream public. The three most common levels were the "small time" (lower-paying contracts for more frequent performances in rougher, often converted theatres), the "medium time" (moderate wages for two performances each day in purpose-built theatres), and
15004-460: Was simply a continuation of the circumstances that brought them to America. Through these acts, they were able to assimilate themselves into their new home while also bringing bits of their own culture into this new world. White-oriented regional circuits, such as New England 's "Peanut Circuit", also provided essential training grounds for new artists while allowing established acts to experiment with and polish new material. At its height, vaudeville
15128-984: Was the case for Sherman H. Dudley and the Griffin Sisters Later, in the 1920s, many bookings were managed by the Theatre Owners Booking Association . African-Americans challenged the prevailing Blackface stereotypes played by white performers by bringing their own authenticity and style to the stage, composing music, comedy and dance routines and laying the groundwork for distinctly American cultural phenomena like blues , jazz , ragtime and tap dance . Notable Black entertainers in Vaudeville included comedians Bert Williams , and George Walker , dancer/choreographer Ada Overton Walker , and many others. Black songwriters and composers like Bob Cole , Ernest Hogan , Irving Jones , Rosamond Johnson , George Johnson , Tom Lemonier , Gussie L. Davis , and Chris Smith , wrote many of
15252-484: Was the closing performance of Balls , Paul Foster's play. There must have been 35 people who came to see the play. Many of them had never been there before, I told them just to strike the café. Many didn't know what I meant, but they all saw the others picking up chairs and tables. Everybody picked something up and followed me down the street. We took everything, paintings, tables, chairs, coffeepots—everything. Well, they moved me in one hour. The audience followed Stewart to
15376-1133: Was well-received. The Danish audience was interested in the company's passion and energy, and La MaMa was invited back the following year. The other company, led by Ross Alexander, went to Paris for six weeks. Unfortunately, the French audience found Jean-Claude van Itallie's America Hurrah obscene and the reviews were negative. Still, this first tour achieved its goal; La MaMa returned to New York with several positive Danish reviews. La MaMa had its second European tour from September–December 1966, again with O'Horgan and with ten actors. A third European tour took place from June–November 1967. The La MaMa companies did not only bring La MaMa plays to Europe but also brought plays that were first presented at other Off-Off-Broadway venues. These included Home Free! , The Madness of Lady Bright , and Miss. Victoria from Caffe Cino, as well as Birdbath and Chicago from Theatre Genesis. Thus, La MaMa acted as "international ambassadors, not just for La MaMa, but for new Village playwriting generally." La MaMa has extended past these European tours, with satellite La MaMa theatres opening over
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