Mama Mia

La Mama is constantly a hub of activity. The sheer volume of work that is produced there and the number of artists that La Mama supports each year is enormous. Liz Jones, Artistic Director of La Mama, curates four whole seasons of work at La Mama each year. “It's wonderful for me to see people like Angus Cerini and Nicola Gunn both working on the Neon season at MTC because they're two people who worked very intensively out of La Mama when they were establishing themselves. As did The Rabble.”

How does the team at La Mama go about choosing the works that goes on there? “My feeling is that La Mama has always reflected rather than directed the artistic thought that is current in Melbourne and Australia and the world. Therefore, the work will always be very diverse, there is no house style – if anything the house style is set by the nature of the venue, and we particularly take pride in nurturing new talent. It's always been an open door nurturing policy with as few rules and regulations as possible.”

Jones illustrates this diversity by looking at some of the work going on there this autumn. “A number of scripted works, some adaptations, a couple of plays that are on the VCE syllabus, we've got the very exciting Mark Wilson bringing back UnSex Me. I'm involved in a work that is directed by my husband Lloyd Jones with a large group of people called When Cream Sinks To The Bottom… a real diversity of form, idea, style, which is what La Mama does; there are no gates closed.”

The continued all round support that La Mama provides to independent and emerging artists is the foundation of the La Mama philosophy. “It isn't just the space, of course we give people upfront financial support and that in itself gives people, who sometimes have no physical means of support, the potential to create a work. I think its probably all the other support – it's the publicity, the advice we can provide, a whole nurturing element which is very hands on, which is high in generosity. That's what sets La Mama apart. While the artists are working at La Mama, it's their home.”

Mark Wilson, the creator and performer of UnSex Me, which he describes as “a performance art drag-show remix of Lady Macbeth”, highlights the indispensable assistance that La Mama provides. “Even just $500 is actually really useful. Because we all have no money and we are all funding the work ourselves so it's hugely useful. But also for me it's the lineage of La Mama, what's gone on there and the kind of people that have gone through it and that real tradition of theatre-making which, when you're at La Mama, you feel like you're part of the history and you're not just making work in isolation which nobody is going to come and see. La Mama is a factory of support for artists.”