Meryl Vladimer
Meryl F. Vladimer (1951-2022) is an artist, theatrical producer and political activist. Born in New York, Vladimer began her career as a noted and critically reviewed sculptor, and was featured on the cover of Artforum Magazine. Disenchanted by the art world, by the late 80's she left art for Multi-Media Design where she worked for Fannon and Osmond, Doug Mesney and the fifth Bartok and Staging Techniques. Still not satisfied artistically she left corporate Audio-Visual to do multi-media design for theater, working first at Theater for the New City and later at La  MaMa Experimental Theatre Club where she tried a variety of fields including stage management. This lead her to Broadway to stage manage "Haarlem Nocturne" a musical review created by André DeShields and arranged and composed by Marc Shaiman. Returning to La MaMa, she resumed stage managing "The Club" cabaret theater created by Ellen Stewart in the style of the original La MaMa Theater, where one was required to become a member. Working there for several years, first under the direction of Rick Richardson and then Liz Dunn, Vladimer received the artistic directorship of The Club upon Dunn's departure. In  1990 while she was artistic director of The Club, Meryl was approached by Ellen Stewart, Founder and Artistic Director of La MaMa E.T.C., and asked if she would join the management staff as associate director of the entire complex after the departure of Wickie Boyle; she accepted. From 1990 to her departure in 1998, she worked tirelessly for La MaMa E.T.C. Through creative fundraising and critical and commercial success producing in The Club, she was able to reduce an over half a million dollar deficit from the previous administration to just over fifty thousand dollars. During her tenure as Artistic  Director of The Club at La MaMa she produced two OBIE Award and ten Bessie Award winning productions, including: