La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club

La MaMa and Caffe Cino

Stewart did not believe that her theater 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 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.

321 E. 9th Street: Café La MaMa

La MaMa's first home, 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. Some accused her of running a bordello. 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 was free, and actors received some minor compensation 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 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 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 to Saturday.

Even operating as a "café," Café La MaMa was forced to close and reopen ten times during its first year. Although 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 several times, sometimes under an 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 a zoning violation.

82 2nd Avenue: La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club

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 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 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 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 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 the second floor of 122 Second Avenue, La MaMa's third home.

122 2nd Avenue

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 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, 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 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.

74A East 4th Street

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 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, 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 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."

236 East 3rd Street

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 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.

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, 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 the La MaMa-Ceta Jazz Cabaret.

66 East 4th Street

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-foot high ceilings.

In November 2009, the Annex was renamed the Ellen Stewart Theatre.

In the 2000s

In 2005, the theatre was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, made possible by a donation from then-mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg.

Today, over one hundred productions with over four hundred performances are staged at La MaMa each season. Stewart continued to be artistic director and "mother" at La MaMa until her death on January 13, 2011. The choice of who would follow Stewart was significant, as "Ellen is La MaMa" to many people. Before her death, Stewart chose to be succeeded by Mia Yoo, who continues to serve as artistic director.