Theater News

La MaMa Announces Launch of New Archival Digital Collections Website

The site is freely available for use by artists, scholars, educators, and the public.

Harvey Fierstein in a production of his play Safe Sex, (staged	at La MaMa in 1987).
Harvey Fierstein in a production of his play Safe Sex, staged at La MaMa in 1987.
(© Peter Cunningham/photo courtesy of the La MaMa Archives/Ellen Stewart Private Collection)

The Archives of La MaMa has announced the launch today of La MaMa’s Digital Collections Website. The site, premiering as part of La MaMa’s 55th anniversary season, is freely available for use by artists, scholars, educators, and the public, and offers free public access to digitized selections from La MaMa’s unique collection of scripts, programs, posters, flyers, clippings, correspondence, photographs, videos, and other materials.

Established in 1987, La MaMa's Archives collects, preserves, and exhibits records of permanent historical value relating to La MaMa and the off-off-Broadway movement. Theatre scholar Alisa Solomon (Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof) said in a statement, "It is impossible to exaggerate how crucial the [La MaMa] archive is to the stories of American theater, New York City, and innumerable facets of creative culture and the wider social currents this work traced and fomented."

The development of La MaMa’s Digital Collections Website was made possible by a generous "hidden archival collections" grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources. Most of the materials currently on the site document La MaMa’s earliest "Pushcart" years (1961-1985). Items will continue to be added in the months and years to come. Visit the website at here.

La MaMa is an off-Broadway theater founded in 1961 by award-winning theater pioneer Ellen Stewart. Since then, La MaMa has presented more than 5,000 productions by 150,000 artists from more than 70 nations.