[1] Betty and her husband, film maker Tim Burstall, had just returned from a trip to New York and wanted to re-create the vibrancy and immediacy of the small theatres there.

It was impossible to go to the theatre – even to see a film was expensive – but there were these places where you paid fifty cents for a cup of coffee and you saw a performance, and if you felt like it you put some money in a hat for the actors.

La Mama's list of alumni includes notable Australian theatre artists such as David Williamson, Cate Blanchett, Jack Hibberd, Graeme Blundell, Judith Lucy and Julia Zemiro.

In recent years, La Mama artists such as The Rabble, Daniel Schlusser and Nicola Gunn and many others have gone on to make theatre and film at all levels, all over the world.

In addition access to rehearsal and meeting space, administrative, marketing and technical support and ticketing reduces the barriers posed by a lack of money or infrastructure for artists.

The simple two-storey brick building housing the La Mama Theatre was originally built as a printing works for AR Ford in 1883.