Located in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, the theater began in the basement boutique where Stewart sold her fashion designs.

Stewart started La MaMa as a theatre dedicated to the playwright and primarily producing new plays, including works by Paul Foster, Jean-Claude van Itallie, Lanford Wilson, Sam Shepard, Adrienne Kennedy, Harvey Fierstein, and Rochelle Owens.

[1] To the present, La MaMa's mission is dedicated to "the people who make art, and it is to them that we give our support with free theatre and rehearsal space, lights, sound, props, platforms, and whatever else we have that they can use to create their work.

"[3] Ellen Stewart is the spirit of La MaMa; she is its guardian, janitor, fundraiser, press agent, tour manager, conceptual leader—she is the guts of the place.

[2] On October 18, 1961, Stewart paid the fifty-five dollar rent on a tenement basement at 321 East Ninth Street to start her boutique and theater.

[6]Not only did Stewart create a nurturing environment for the playwright, but La MaMa's space itself was an appealing blank canvas in its early years.

[2] Stewart said that playwrights who didn't feel they had the experience to make work at Caffe Cino would come to La MaMa instead.

Further provoked by the comings and goings, they accused Stewart of running a bordello—fifteen men in one hour—and asked the health department to issue a summons for prostitution.

Although the neighbors' fears concerning Stewart's supposed brothel had been quelled, fire inspectors often found violations at the theatre, which created serious legal problems.

[4] This was also where Stewart started her tradition of sitting outside on La MaMa's steps during performances to ensure that civic authorities didn't interrupt.

Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead, which needed a stage that could accommodate twenty-five people, and was also the first full-length play written for off-off Broadway, opened at 122 Second Avenue in January 1965.

On April 2, 1969, Stewart purchased the building at 74A East 4th Street using grant money from the Ford, Rockefeller, and Doris Duke Foundations.

In 1970, a decaying seven-story loft building at 47 Great Jones Street was purchased for additional rehearsal space, using money from the Ford Foundation.

Dressing rooms are also expanded, bringing the building "up to the current ADA accessibility requirements while preserving its original facades and historic essence.

Throughout the 1970s, La MaMa's 236 E. 3rd location became a centerpiece of the Loft Jazz movement with dozens of renowned and budding musicians traversing this space to gather and rehearse.

The hallmark of this period was when, in 1979, trumpeter Lester Bowie rehearsed his Sho'Nuff Orchestra[10] in preparing for a onetime performance of a 59-member contemporary jazz collective, a gathering reflective of the “Great Day in Harlem” photoshoot.

[7] Initially referred to as the Annex, 66 E. 4th includes a flexible theatre space with a seating capacity of 299 as well as an upper floor dormitory for visiting artists.

[7] Upon hearing that Danish and other European countries would review most productions seen in their cities, Stewart decided to establish a reputation in Europe so that the United States would take more notice.

The Danish audience was interested in the company's passion and energy, and La MaMa was invited back the following year.

[5] La MaMa Umbria, in Spoleto, Italy, is an artist's retreat and cultural center founded in 1990 by Stewart with her MacArthur Grant money.

Directing over sixty plays, including his all-male version of Jean Genet's The Maids, O'Horgan was crucial to La MaMa's development.

[2] He came to La MaMa from Second City, bringing his interest and knowledge of Viola Spolin and Paul Sills' role-playing theories of human behavior and games adapted for theatre.

O'Horgan's direction included musically driven vocal and movement techniques, which contributed to the distinctive La MaMa genre of theatre.

[2] O'Horgan and Stewart decided to create a workshop to develop the particular type of actors needed for La MaMa's productions.

Howard declared that the La MaMa actors were too inexperienced, which led Stewart and O'Horgan to start the actor-training workshop.

[1] For some of the actors in the La MaMa troupe, O'Horgan's Hair was a "betrayal" and a "crass commercialization of lovingly developed ensemble techniques.

"[1] The success of Hair affected La MaMa's identity, as did O'Horgan's frequent lack of availability to direct later productions.

When approached with the idea of collaboration, Ellen Stewart responded enthusiastically, offering space for students to take classes at 47 Great Jones St.

The Archives has developed a chronological list of productions staged at La MaMa, and in 2014 received a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources to create a [23] searchable digital catalog of its collection.

[24] In 2016, the Archives received a grant from the National Historic Records and Publications Commission[25] to support a collaborative project, with the Bay Area Video Coalition and the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theatre Research, that will result in expanded access to a collection of half-inch open reel videos that document theatrical work performed at La MaMa during the 1970s.