La MaMa will wrap up its 50th anniversary season with its LA MAMA 50 BIG BASH on Sunday, June 24th with an evening of performances, emceed by longtime La MaMa artist Andre DeShields, at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.
Guests of honor at the event will be Philip J. Smith and Robert E. Wankel, Co-Chief Executive Officers of the Shubert Organization, who will be presented with the Silver Bell Award in appreciation of The Shubert Organization's longstanding support of La MaMa and New York City's theater community. The Shubert Organization has been a leading supporter of La MaMa throughout the theater's 50-year history, dating back to 1961 when the late Ellen Stewart founded La MaMa in the East Village.
The LA MAMA 50 BIG BASH will be co-chaired by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, the Tony Award-winning composers of the musical Hairspray, themselves alums of La MaMa. Tony winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, American Idiot) will direct. Among the La MaMa artists expected to perform at LA MAMA 50 BIG BASH are Tony winner Bill Irwin, Adrian Bailey, Everett Quinton, and renowned composer Tan Dun.
