The collection consists of 268 digitized video files, representing approximately 170 La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club theatrical productions, recorded between 1970 and 1980. The videos were originally shot using a Portapack camera on half-inch open reel videotapes. The collection is a unique historical record capturing and preserving the artists, theatrical companies, productions, communities, and ideas which had a lasting influence on the performing arts landscape.
The collection provides a deeper understanding of the history of experimental theatre, transnational artistic collaboration, urban life, and the beginnings of the Off-Off-Broadway movement. The video documentation of these filmed performances portrays a range of artists' responses to the pressing social, cultural, and aesthetic questions of the decade. The works reveal this history through multiple lenses, including Native American mythology, communities of color, immigrant cultures, debates about American identity, poetic traditions, gay and lesbian life, United States popular culture, racial conflict, and the Vietnam War.
Among other works, La MaMa's first 5-Play Repertory included: Renard / based on a one-act chamber opera-ballet by Igor Stravinsky (1916); Carmilla / based on a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1872); Gertrude / by Wilford Leach, The Only Jealousy of Emer (Serglige Con Culainn) / based on Irish mythology, and Demon / based on a Noh play by Zeami Motokiyo (14th century).
For more information and context, please see the La MaMa Archives catalog: https://catalog.lamama.org
