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L A M A MA CELEBRATES 20 room Ellen Stewart's statements are based on series of Interviews and recorded conversations with Glenn Loney. Photographs and memorabilia were compiled from the La Mama Archives. LA MAMA REVIVES 20 YEARS OF OFF-OFF BROADWAY "CLASSICS" We wanted to see what the plays would look like today. And they do work, indeed they do! Everybody was amazed-including the playwrights. The revivals began with work from 1963 and ended with Godspell, done initially at La Mama in 1971. Nothing was added. Nothing was changed. The first of the revivals were Leonard Melfi's Birdbath, directed by Tom O'Horgan; Ross Alexander's Little Mother, staged by Alexander himself; and Why Hanna's Skirts Won't Stay Down, directed by its author, Tom Eyen. You know, in those days, everyone working at La Mama had to think a lot about part-time jobs to keep going. And now Tom Eyen's Dreamgirls seems the season's biggest success. But while it was In rehearsal here in New York, Tom would come down to La Mama late at night to rehearse Hanna. And Helen Hanft, who created the role, returned to play it again for us. It was all quite a Togetherness! Ross Alexander had been living in Belgium for some years, so it was strange for him to come back and do his play under such different circumstances. And for Birdbath, we had Its original cast of Kevin O'Connor and Barbara Eda-Young back again. They were on La Mama's stage In that play sixteen years ago. But here they were, back for a public that was fifty percent new. Lanford Wilson directed his Rimers of Eldritch, and he had eighty percent of his original cast again. Michael Kahn, who directed Jean-Claude van Itallie's Mote/-which was first called America Hurrah-returned to restage It for us. We revived Ed Bullins' Clara's Old Man, which we took to Venice Nancy Campbell 7 and the Biennale in the late 1960s. We revived Jose Triana's The Night of the Assassins, with a Hispanic cast playing in English. He's a Cuban, and the play originally was smuggled out. We introduced his work at La Mama, and now he's known all over the world. He's recently left Cuba, so he saw the play at La Mama for the first time this season. HOW IT ALL BEGAN: ELLEN STEWART COMES TO NYC I came to New York in 1950. I came from Chicago to go to the Traphagen Fashion Institute. Colored people couldn't go to a school like that in Chicago . I was supposed to meet a friend who lived in New York. Two Chicago friends had come along with me. We waited at Grand Central "under the clock," but my friend never showed up. I had only $60. I didn't want to tell anyone in Chicago what had happened. My friends left New York, but I was too proud to go back home. I had to find a job. Like a miracle, I found one at Saks Fifth Avenue. While I was looking for a job, I got lost and went into St. Patrick's-I didn't know it was St. Patrick's then. I lit a candle and asked for a job. Thirty minutes later, I had one. I was to be a porter at Saks. Sundays, I'd get on the subway and go anywhere, exploring the city wherever I got off the train. One Sunday, I discovered Delancey Street and all those little shops with clothes and fabric. I wanted to be a dress designer and here was all this wonderful fabric! You could look at anything you liked. You could try things on. No one said anything to you. And this little man-my Papa Diamond-came out of his shop. He was wearing a little black cap on his head. He tried to sell me some fabric. I told him I had no money. He said, "Come inside. Maybe you'll see something you like better?" Finally, he understood I really hadn't a cent. Also, that I didn't...

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