Beginnings: Ellen Stewart and The Pushcart
Ellen Stewart is the spirit of La MaMa; she is its guardian, janitor, fund raiser, 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 before founding the theatre. Stewart was inspired by her mentor "Papa Abraham Diamonds," an owner of a fabric shop on the Lower East Side. Papa Diamonds told Stewart that everyone needs a "pushcart to serve others" and that everyone needs their own personal pushcart as well. Stewart had a revelation about his advice during a trip she took to Morocco. As a result, Stewart decided to open a boutique for her fashion designs that would also serve as a theatre for her foster brother and playwright Fred Lights and playwright Paul Foster. On October 18, 1961 Stewart paid the fifty-five dollar rent on a tenement basement at 321 East Ninth Street to start this boutique/theater.
Read more about this topic: La Ma Ma Experimental Theatre Club
Famous quotes containing the word stewart:
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)