High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an off-off Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, and named in reference to her. Located on Manhattan`s Lower East Side, the theatre grew out of Stewart`s tiny basement boutique for her fashion designs; the boutique`s space acted as a theatre for fledgling playwrights at night. La MaMa has evolved during its almost fifty-year history into a world-renowned cultural institution.