MariBet · La MaMa Experimental Theatre: a lasting bridge between cultures

La MaMa Experimental Theatre: a lasting bridge between cultures

This project is focused on the activity of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club of New York, founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart (1919-2011) in an old café on Manhattan Lower East Side, to give voice to artists marginalized by both the institutional theatres of Broadway and the Off-Broadway scene. In America, during the 60’s, Stewart conceived a theatre that could be a real place of collaboration, sharing and cohesion of different cultures; a theatre in which artists coming from all over the world could work together taking advantage of their various languages and cultures. She conceived theatre as a meeting and integration point, overcoming cultural and geo-political barriers, engaging artists and companies in a common artistical research. Stewart’s ideas spread out by exporting La MaMa productions all around the world, opening branches in different countries and establishing relationships with the local theatres and citizens. * Some key concepts used by La MaMa in those years, like ‘integration’ and ‘identity’, are still crucial today in its artistical research and activities, being a place where artists of different generations and from all around the world can share their work. * Objectives The first objective of the project is to fill the gap in the field of theatre studies with an in-depth and exhaustive study of the history of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club within the Avant-Garde theatre (1961-1975) and of a selection of its historical productions directed by Andrei Serban, the first director of La MaMa coming from Europe (1972-1974). The second objective is to analyse the engagement of La MaMa in approaching relevant socio-political issues and promoting intercultural dialogues both in the past and in the present. MariBet brought to light the role of La MaMa as a bridge between the European culture and the American one. The research hightlighted the collaboration Ellen Stewart fostered between La MaMa's companies and the most important European masters of theatre, and how the American artists brought to the US the principles and the training created by the European master Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook and Eugenio Barba, developing them in new approaches to the theatre research and creation. Through the deep sudy of original documents, MariBet evidenced the essential role of La MaMa in the development of the American Avant-garde and in sharing the Off-Off Broadway theatre in Europe.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз