La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an off-off Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, and named in reference to her. Located on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the theatre grew out of Stewart's tiny basement boutique for her fashion designs; the boutique's space acted as a theatre for fledgling playwrights at night. La MaMa has evolved during its over fifty-year history into a world-renowned cultural institution.

Background

In its earliest days, La MaMa was a theatre dedicated to the playwright, encouraging young playwrights 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 acted as an international ambassador for off-off Broadway playwriting by touring downtown playwriting abroad during 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 programmer, Stewart reached out beyond the East Village location, forcing new trends rather than following.

La Mama

La Mama may refer to:

La Mama (band)

La Mama is a German pop and disco trio who worked in Frank Farian's studios in the first half of the 1980s. Adapting their name from New York theatre La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, they released three singles and two albums and worked as backing singers on a number of recordings for other artists.

History

The original members Madeleine Davis, Patricia Shockley and Cathy Bartney, all hailing from the United States of America, had settled in Germany in the late 1970s where they had done various session work. While singing backing vocals on ex-Silver Convention singer Ramona Wulf's album Shake What Yo Mama Give Ya, they were introduced to producer Frank Farian by guitarist Mats Björklund. He hired them for backing Precious Wilson on her debut album On the Race Track (1980) - at this time they had not yet adapted the collective name La Mama. Impressed with their harmonies, Farian also used La Mama to demo new songs for Boney M. - even doing one Boney M. recording, "Gadda-Da-Vida" with La Mama and himself doing all the vocals. Also several tracks on Boney M.'s 1981 album Boonoonoonoos ("Silly Confusion" in particular, "Don't Kill the World" and "Malaika") featured La Mama's uncredited backing vocals.