Irwin, Monk, Kelly And Shaw To Perform at La MaMa's 'Celebrating Ellen' Benefit, 11/1

Tony Award winner Bill Irwin, Meredith Monk, John Kelly and Peggy Shaw will be featured performers at La MaMa's "Celebrating Ellen" fundraising event benefiting the non-profit theater on November 1 in the company's Annex Theatre.

The benefit will honor the theater's founder Ellen Stewart, and begin with a cocktail reception prior to the performance. Scheduled to attend are H.T. Chen, Potri Ranka Manis, Muna Tseng, Lois Weaver, and The Great Jones Repertory.  Additional guests of note will be announced shortly. 

Tickets for Celebrating Ellen are $100 - $1,000. Additionally, individuals may place ads in a commemorative program. For further information, visit: www.lamama.org.

Ellen Stewart is the Founder and Director of the La Mama E.T.C., the theatre that began in October 1961, and to this day continues to be of great importance to world culture. To date, La Mama E.T.C. has presented more than 1,900 productions. Its resident theatre troupes have performed throughout the world including Columbia, Venezuela, Lebanon, Iran, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Scotland, England, Sweden, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Croatia, Korea, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Australia, Greece, Ukraine, Siberia, The Netherlands, and Macedonia. Stewart was instrumental in introducing to America some of the world's most influential artists including Andrei Serban and Tom O'Horgan, and is proud of La MaMa's long heritage as an interNational Theatre, having hosted artists from more than seventy different countries.

Stewart is the recipient of many Honorary Doctorates and awards, among which are the prestigious MacArthur "Genius" Award and the National Endowment for Arts and Culture. She was appointed an "Officer" in the "Odre Des Arts Et Letters" of the Republic of France and received the Les Kurbas Award for "Distinguished Services to Art and Culture" from the Ukraine. In January 1993 Ellen Stewart was inducted into the "Broadway Theatre Hall of Fame" , becoming the first Off-Off-Broadway Producer to ever receive this honor. In December 1994 Ellen Stewart was awarded the "Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Rosette" by the Emperor of Japan. She also received the Human Rights Award of the Philippines from President Corazon Aquino.