Off-Broadway's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club has revealed the lineup of productions for its 2024-2025 season. The company's 63rd season will feature dozens of new works from around the world, dance and puppetry festivals, and more.
As previously reported, the season will open with banned theatre troupe Belarus Free Theater (BFT)'s KS6: Small Forward, a new play based on Belarusian athlete Katsiaryna (Katya) Snytsina’s life and career. Established in 2005, BFT spent years performing only in secret to escape political censorship. The company was exiled from Belarus in 2021 after publicly opposing the regime of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, and now performs at venues worldwide without a permanent home. The production will run September 21-October 13.
From October 10-20, La MaMa will present Hanna Eady and Edward Mast's The Mulberry Tree. The work explores the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 from the perspective of a Palestinian boy. The boy and his beloved neighbor, a rabbi, struggle to maintain their friendship in a village filled with conflict, until it becomes impossible. The production has been rescheduled for the fall after its previously announced world premiere was postponed earlier this year.
Richard Foreman's new play Suppose Beautiful Madeline Harvey will be staged at La MaMa December 12-22. Directed and adapted for the stage by Kara Feely with music by Travis Just, the work follows Madeline Harvey, who is not certain whether she does or does not exist.
La MaMa's biannual Puppet Festival will return for its 20th anniversary October 24-November 10. Directed by Denise Greber and Federico Restrepo, the festival features a variety of puppetry works by a wide range of global artists for all ages.
From March 13-23, 2025, Tony nominee John-Andrew Morrison (A Strange Loop) will star in the title role in Medea of the Laundromat, penned by H.M. Koutoukas. Arthur Adair will direct.
The Trojan Women Project's Sur will follow, running March 27-April 6. Based on a short story by Ursula Le Guin, the play depicts real-life events of 1909 as nine South American women are planning to complete a journey to the South Pole, years before its "discovery" by an all-male crew.
The 20th anniversary La MaMa Moves Dance Festival will be presented April 3-May 4. The event will showcase works by choreographers Jordan Demetrius Lloyd, Kenyan French, Yuko Kaseki and BamBam Frost.
The LaMaMa Kids series will present creative workshops and performances throughout the season, including Leah Ogawa and John Tsung's Let's Plant Rice, a Mexican Mask Making Workshop, Petit Mondrian by Edward Salas Acosta, Woods by the Canadian/Bulgarian Puzzle Theatre, The Great Zodiac Animal Race by Tom Lee, and The Adventures of Seucy and Boto by Loco7 Dance Puppet Theater Company.
The season will include live-streamed productions as well as outdoor events, pop-up performances, and installations in local public spaces like basketball courts, parks, cemeteries, and playgrounds.
"By going beyond La MaMa’s physical campus, we hope to have encounters that welcome new audiences and artists from different contexts into conversations,” La MaMa Artistic Director Mia Yoo said in a statement. “I believe that the creative mesh that results from this engagement can propel the movement we know call[s] La MaMa into the future...Artists are welcomed at La MaMa and lovingly encouraged to experiment. As we have grown over the years, risk-taking and diversity have remained key cultural values.”
Founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, La MaMa was established as a haven for underrepresented artists to experiment with new work, without the pressures of commercial success. The experimental theatre club strives for an environment of uncensored creative freedom, where artists of all backgrounds and identities can develop work that pushes the boundaries of what is possible onstage.
Visit LaMaMa.org for a full lineup of productions.
