La Mama Theatre, Carlton

The La Mama Theatre is a theatrical venue located at 205 Faraday St, Carlton, Victoria. It opened in a former factory building on July 30, 1967 and still operates today. Carlton is an inner north-east suburb of the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... Emblems: Pink heath (floral)Weedy Seadragon (Aquatic) helmeted honeyeater (bird) Leadbeaters possum (faunal) Motto: Peace and Prosperity Slogan or Nickname: Garden State, The Place To Be, On The Move Other Australian states and territories Capital Melbourne Government Const. ... July 30 is the 211th day (212th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 154 days remaining. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ...

The theatre, an initiative of Betty Burstall, was inspired by the "off-off-Broadway" theatre scene in New York City. Betty and her husband, film maker Tim Burstall, had just returned from a trip to New York and wanted to re-create the vibrancy and immediacy of the small theatres there. La Mama was modelled after a New York venue of the same name. Nickname: Big Apple Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... Tim Burstall (20 April 1927, Stockton-on-Tees, UK – 19 April 2004, Melbourne) was an Australian film director and producer, best known for the motion picture Alvin Purple. ...

"I got the idea for La Mama when we went to New York in the sixties. We were poor. It was impossible to go to the theatre - even to see a film was expensive - but there were these places where you paid fifty cents for a cup of coffee and you saw a performance, and if you felt like it you put some money in a hat for the actors. I saw some awful stuff and some good stuff. It was very immediate and exciting and when I came back to Melbourne I wanted to keep going, but there didn't exist such a place. So I talked around a bit, to a few actors and writers and directors, sounding them out about doing their own stuff, Australian stuff, for nothing ... I decided on Carlton because in 1967 it was a lively, tatty area with an Italian atmosphere and plenty of students ... " (Betty Burstall)

At a time when the production of Australian plays was almost non-existent (and financially risky), La Mama's non-profit organisation provided the venue for the performance of new experimental Australian theatre works.

The first play performed at La Mama was a work by a new Australian writer Jack Hibberd, entitled Three Old Friends. The production of Australian works at La Mama soon became a staple, and within the first two years of its life twenty-five new Australian plays had premiered there.

La Mama also nurtured new works by composers, poets, and filmmakers. The opening of the alternative theatre provided a home base for many important figures in theatre and film including Hibberd and Alex Buzo. It was also regularly used by underground performance troupe Tribe (who later collaborated with Spectrum). The theatre's house troupe, the La Mama Group, established by actor-director Graeme Blundell evolved into the Australian Performing Group. Alex Buzo (23 July 1944 - 16 August 2006) was an Australian playwright and author who wrote 88 works. ... Spectrum was an Australian progressive rock band which formed in Melbourne in 1969 and remained in existence until 1973. ...

La Mama's foundation marked the beginning of the emergence of a distinctly Australian style of theatre. La Mama also fostered a pool of talent that would flow on into many areas of the Australian arts -- playwrights, actors, directors, technicians, musicians, filmmakers, poets and comedians. The theatre regularly screened new works by film-makers such as Bryan Davies, Nigel Buesst, John Carnody, Bert Dehling and John Duigan, and other notable names associated with the theatre include David Williamson, Barry Dickins, Daniel Keene, John Romeril, Tess Lyssiotis, Lloyd Jones, Judith Lucy and Richard Frankland. Bryan Davies (born November, 1939) is a British Labour politician. ... John Lawless Duigan, (born June 19, 1949 in Hampshire, England) is a film director. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Judith Lucy Judith Lucy (born March 25, 1968) is a popular Australian comedienne, known primarily for her stand-up comedy. ... This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ...

It is located in a building which was built in 1883 for Anthony Reuben Ford, a local printer. The building has also served as a boot factory, electrical engineering workshop, and a silk underwear factory. 1883 (MDCCCLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

External links

• La Mama official website
• The New York Citry La Mama Theatre, on which the Melbourne theatre was based

Further reading

• Jones, Liz with Betty Burstall and Helen Garner, La Mama: History of a Theatre (Penguin Books Australia, 1988)
• Robertson, Tim, The Pram Factory: The Australian Performing Group Recollected (Melbourne University Press, 2001)