La MaMa Experimental Theatre - A Lasting Bridge Between Cultures. The Dialogue with European Theater in the Years 1961-1975

The book is the result of a deep analysis of archival documentation. It investigates the activity of Off-Off Broadway theater Café La MaMa within the Avant-garde of the Sixties and Seventies, pointing out the two-way influence occurred between Europe and the US, a relevant artistic exchange in which La MaMa and its founder Ellen Stewart emerged as key-elements. The essay, retracing the development of western Avant-garde theater, focuses on some La MaMa’s companies that had been a link between American and European cultures. La MaMa Repertory Troupe, The Great Jones Repertory Company, La MaMa Plexus, the Jarboro Players, the Native American Theatre Ensemble, and the Open Theatre while hosted by La MaMa, brought to Europe the American theater and the New York counterculture, bringing to the US the training techniques learnt by taking part in the research of Eugenio Barba, Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook. The six chapters introduce the companies focusing on their historical and artistic context and present some performances. Poetics and practices are illustrated with the support of unpublished archive documents, references to articles, reviews and stage photographs. This book has been conceived for scholars of theater, undergraduates, master and PhD students, as well as for theater artists, in order to offer them a new perspective of the history of the Avant-garde theater.