after moving to new york city, leach became the artistic director of la mama experimental theatre club for much of the 1970s. at la mama, he frequently collaborated with john braswell. they directed the etc company, a resident company of la mama, in a repertory that included adaptations of "carmilla", "demon", "the only jealousy of emer", "renard", and "gertrude", a musical about the title character based loosely on gertrude stein.