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 words ellen and/or stewart:
“I have eyes to see now what I have never seen before.”
—Anonymous, U.S. correspondence student. As quoted in The Life of Ellen H. Richards, ch. 9, by Caroline L. Hunt, quoting Ellen Swallow Richards (1912)
“... such is the horrible idea that I entertain respecting a life of servitude, that if I conceived of there being no possibility of my rising above the condition of servant, I would gladly hail death as a welcome messenger.”
—Maria Stewart (1803–1879)