La MaMa E.T.C. Announces Live ONLINE HAPPENINGS

La MaMa E.T.C. announced today new live streaming initiatives under the umbrella of Online Happenings. While programming in the theatres is suspended during the COVID-19 crisis, La MaMa is exploring ways to respond creatively to a situation that is potentially changing how we gather as a community. La MaMa is working with CultureHub to provide live streaming of performances, talks, kids events, and more. Watch live performances and events for FREE around the world from the comfort and safety of your home.

"In true La MaMa fashion, our Online Happenings focus on the live experience, exploring the shared space and gathering that happens online," said Artistic Director Mia Yoo. "How can we continue to provide a platform for artists to stay vibrant, creating new encounters and connections in a transformed world?"

La MaMa's weekly live Online Happenings are scheduled as follows.

Tuesdays at 7PM EST

Café La MaMa Live

Weekly live performances that experiment with form. Responding to calls for social isolation, Café La MaMa Live brings La MaMa's 1960s café aesthetic to a virtual platform that links performers and audiences in real time across distance. Guest curators each week give artists a digital platform to share their work with the world.

Tuesday, April 7: Curator Theo Cote creates an evening of music, dance, poetry and short stories!

Artists include Amy Lawless, Rebecca Layton, Evan Gill Smith, Office Culture, Annie Rigney, Jeremy Wiles-Young and Ariel Yelen

Tuesday, April 14: Curator Pearse Redmond hosts an evening of La MaMa staff creations!

Artists include: Clayton Daniel Briggs, Gilberto Diaz Flores, Chris Ignacio, Diana Pau, Molly Reisman and Jane Catherine Shaw

Wednesdays at 6:30PM EST

La MaMa LiveTalks

Weekly conversations with artists, activists, thought leaders from around the country and around the world who join in discussions about art and life in time of crisis.

Wednesday April 8: Shawn Escarciga and Nadia Tykulsker of the NYC Low-Income Artist/Freelancer Relief Fund talk about the biggest challenges facing artists and freelancers during this crisis. NYC Low-Income Artist/Freelancer Relief Fund have currently raised over $74,000 which will be disbursed to artists.

Thursdays at 4PM EST

La MaMa Kids Online

Weekly kids performances and hands-on workshops, timed especially for "after school" viewing.

Thursday, April 9: DIY Mouse Puppet

Puppeteer Z. Briggs will help you make a mouse puppet out of felt or paper using household materials.

Thursday, April 16: The Missing Matzo

Oy Vey! Passover is here but the Afikomen is missing! Join detective Mystery Max as he searches for clues to find whodunit. The audience will sing songs and call out to help Max find the missing matzo and solve the case. Themes include making friends, saying sorry, and the scientific method.

Fridays at 8PM EST

La MaMa and CultureHub present

Downtown Variety

La MaMa and CultureHub team up to create Downtown Variety, a weekly online live performance series that will feature short acts of dance, music, theater, new media, comedy, A/V performance, and more. La MaMa and CultureHub use emerging technologies, including CultureHub's custom-designed live video software, LiveLab, to create an online venue for artistic expression and experimentation that questions how art can function in this current global crisis.

"Downtown Variety is a collaboration between artists and technologists," said Billy Clark, CultureHub's Artistic Director. "In this variety show format, artists and technologists play with new approaches and questions informing an emerging aesthetic."

Downtown Variety: Take 3 (Friday, April 3) artists include Bad Buka, Kendall Cornell John Gutierrez, Tom Lee, Heather Litteer, Tareke Ortiz and Justin Sayre. Video by Daniel Pinheiro.

Downtown Variety: Take 4 (Friday, April 10) artists include: Adham Hafez, Kristin McWharter, Stacey Robinson, Matt Romein and Ali Santana. Videos by Bobbi Jene Smith.

For more information about all of La MaMa's Live Online Happenings and for updates and additional programming go to: LaMaMa.org/Livestreams.

Want to know how to get involved?

Attend one of La MaMa's first ever Virtual Meet-Ups on Wednesday, April 15, 2020. Every year, La MaMa curators open the doors to meet with artists in the fields of Theatre, Dance, Poetry, Art, Puppetry, Kids Performance and Art + Technology. This year, those meet-ups will be held online, for the first time, on April 15 from 3pm - 5pm, in fifteen-minute allotments. To sign up, go to: LaMaMa.org/Meet_Ups