[6] Around 1939, Stewart may have become the second wife of Larry Lebanus Hovell (August 10, 1910 – October 1963), a Chicago waiter who was a native of Alexandria, Louisiana, though it is possible they never wed legally.

A major reason she began the theatre was because her foster brother, Frederick Lights, wanted to be a playwright and he was having difficulty getting his work produced.

La MaMa was created as a space for playwrights to experiment with their new work without the influence of critics or commercial interests.

[1] In the early days of La MaMa, Stewart continued designing clothing in order to support the theatre.

[11] In 1969, La MaMa moved to 74-A East Fourth Street, which was built into a 99-seat theatre with the financial support of W. MacNeil Lowry and the Ford Foundation.

In 1974, Stewart converted a former television studio at 66 East Fourth Street into a 295-seat theatre entitled, La MaMa Annex.

[16] Stewart also directed the Great Jones Repertory Company in Mythos Oedipus [17] at the Delphi Stadium during their 1985 tour of Greece.

[20] Her work was produced internationally in Uruguay, Argentina, Austria, Italy, Turkey, the Philippines, Cameroon, Central Africa, Republic, Senegal, Nigeria, Brazil, Haiti, Morocco, Israel, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia.

The New Eastern European Theatre was introduced to La MaMa when Stewart brought Jerzy Grotowski, Ryszard Cieslak, and Ludwig Flaszen to visit the United States with support from Ted Hoffman of New York University.