Ellen Stewart is a legend of the American alternative theatre. She has been th running the famous LaMaMa Theatre, in East 4 Street, in New York for years The place won its high reputation thanks to her personality and ability to look for and find what is unique in theatre. In November 2001 her company was th celebrating their 40 anniversary. .Mama – it’s how she is called – has been collecting all kinds of memorabilia, including masks and tickets, thousands of black and white photographs, seven hundred original manuscripts, the score of ‘Hair’, Sam Shepard’s receipt of a scholarship she was paying him so that he could write, a photograph from ‘Gloria and Esperanza’ featuring Robert De Niro… Roman Pawlowski wrote in ‘Wysokie Obcasy’: ‘Employing the right people was Mama’s greatest secret’. Her methods are unconventional. ‘I have never been interested in somebody’s work, but in what kind of a person somebody is – she said. Theatre from Central and Eastern Europe has always been close to her heart. She introduced Jerzy Grotowski and Tadeusz Kantor to the United States. Among recent guests of LaMaMa Company were Gardzienice – Centre for Theatre Practices and Provisorium and Kompania- Teatr