La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club

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Established by esteemed theatre director and producer Ellen Stewart in 1961, La MaMa is cherished as a home for emerging artists and is considered a leading training ground for new talent.

Their 1873 building on East 4th Street, purchased in 1969, is likewise highly regarded as one of the city’s finest examples of 19th-century architecture and its exterior features busts of Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

After 60 years of operation, La MaMa’s home on East 4th Street has received a top-to-bottom renovation that includes a comprehensive redesign of its foyer and performance spaces as well as a sensitive restoration of its façade. Charcoalblue has provided theatre and acoustical consultancy, designing new seating systems, new and forward looking stage lighting and audio visual systems and full acoustic design across the building.

One space serves as a multi-purpose teaching, meeting, rehearsing and creation space with, directly underneath it, the Club Space that is the building’s core performance space. Charcoalblue embraced the acoustic challenge of sound separation between these two spaces, employing multiple strategies to decouple the layers of new structure that were being introduced within the historic shell. The stagelighting system positions La MaMa to transition to the use of energy efficient LED stage lighting gradually, while utilizing the equipment they currently have.

People sit in a circle under lighting equipment. Images by John Bartelstone Photography — Images by John Bartelstone Photography

The venue features a system of flexible platform staging, loose seating for multiple configurations and new stagelighting and AV infrastructure, with new pipe grids in both spaces and a new drapery package. The new stagelighting system positions LaMama to transition to the use of energy efficient LED stagelighting.

A person sits on a stool and speaks to audience in intimate performance space. Images by John Bartelstone Photography — Images by John Bartelstone Photography

“These spaces will push the artists’ work beyond the four walls of the theater to radically expand access for people we couldn’t reach before, and they will fundamentally shift how La MaMa interacts with cultural organizations and communities locally ad globally.”