By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
EAST VILLAGE — The street that late theater pioneer Ellen Stewart helped transform into an arts hub when she founded the La MaMa Experimental Theatre 50 years ago will soon bear her name, thanks to a push by the local community board to recognize her contributions to the community.
East 4th Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue — where Stewart lived and operated her influential performance-art space — will become "Ellen Stewart Way" after Community Board 3 voted in favor of the street renaming Wednesday.
Stewart, who died in January at age 91, founded the Off-Off-Broadway theater in 1961 and relocated it to the then-gritty stretch of East 4th Street in 1967.
La MaMa managing director Mary Fulham said she got the board to include the street-renaming request at the last minute this week after gathering nearly 300 signatures from area residents in support of the honor.
"I was one of her babies. Everyone was her baby. She had a lot of children," Fulham said. "She was extraordinary. Never before, never again."
Stewart, originally from Louisiana, was recognized as a force of nature in the theater world for taking chances on performance pieces that refused to adhere to the norm, colleagues said.
She began her career as a fashion designer for Saks Fifth Avenue before buying the rundown building at 74 E. 4th St. building that eventually helped turn the area into a thriving arts community.
"When you look at the block on Fourth Street, you can see perfectly what the arts can do to transform and create an arts district," said Wickham Boyle, the theater's former executive director, following Stewart's death. "And it was all anchored to La Mama."
The theater featured nearly 2,000 productions under Stewart and helped sprout La MaMa satellites from Tehran to Bogota.
The loss of Stewart, who lived above the theater for decades and controlled its programming up until her death, has not detracted from the performance space's work because of her broad influence.
"We're all committed to carrying her mission and vision forward," Fulham said. "She raised us. I think the future for La MaMa is very bright because she was so strong."
