Let Me Cook for You | April 28 – May 28, 2023

Theaterlab & Cherry Lane Alternative present

LET ME COOK FOR YOU | The Trilogy

Written and performed by Orietta Crispino

Directed by Liza Cassidy

Produced by Molly Shayna Cohen

April 28 – May 28, 2023

Tickets $35-$65 HERE

Please use this link to purchase multiple tickets and activate a bundle discount.

Let Me Cook For You is an epic journey through food, fashion, and fable. It is an invitation to a meal that is life itself, an offering of personal history as its main ingredient, a meditation on a life in service of others and on the kindness of strangers. It is a ritual of repetition and renewal, and a multi-sensory show that asks audiences to examine the stories and objects that make up a life. It focuses on the stories we repeat, the clothes we take from one place to another (in Orietta’s case, from Milan to New York), and the foods that remind us of our childhoods. By sharing a meal, touching fabrics rich with history, and listening closely together, audiences engage with and re-enact the moments of resiliency that define our sense of self.

Let Me Cook for You | April 28 – May 28, 2023

Read what critics have to say…

“[Crispino] is priceless. You fall in love with her beauty, wit, food, clothing, and everything “Orietta.” – Elizabeth Ann Foster, Front Row Center

“Like dinner with an old friend, Let Me Cook For You will leave audiences with a sense of nourishment, connection, and enduring gratitude.” – Emily Cordes, Theatre is Easy

“it’s probably one of the most peaceful experiences I’ve had in a theatre.” – Erin Kahn, StageBuddy

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MEET THE ARTISTS

Orietta Crispino (Playwright and Performer) is the Artistic Director of Theaterlab. Born in Italy, she graduated from the prestigious Piccolo Teatro School in Milan, where she worked with the major Italian directors Giorgio Strehler and Massimo Castri. She later taught acting and directing there. Among her many theatre projects are Passport No. 23.922, a piece she wrote and directed on the life of Tina Modotti; and a three year-project in Trieste directing the plays of Pirandello’s Italian contemporaries. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Ms. Crispino’s acting credits include The Library (Crossing the Line Festival, FIAF); In the House of My Beloved (WP Theater); The Living Room Series (HERE); Dancing, not Dead (The Internationalists); Dante’s Inferno (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), and Snow in the Living Room (Theaterlab). Her most recent productions at Theaterlab are Three Sisters Come and Go; Snow in the Living Room, a retelling of the Brothers Grimms’ Snow White; and Let Me Cook For You, a collage of inherited myths and apocryphal histories, melding the intoxicating act of storytelling with the ritual of preparing food. In addition to her theatre work, Ms. Crispino has done art projects on the body in its performative aspect. Her body research culminated in a performance piece with the photographer Vibeke Jensen, Camera Obscura, shown at PS1 in New York, Bogota, and Trieste.

Liza Cassidy (Director) is an actor, dancer, and visual artist collaborating with Theaterlab since 2005. She co-created Let Me Cook For You at Theaterlab with Barbara Rubin and for the site-specific co-production with PopUP Theatrics Ana Margineanu in Brooklyn. She directed the workshop production of This Would Look Good on You last year at Theaterlab. She has performed in Orietta Crispino’s Snow in the Living Room, and Three Sisters Come and Go for Gia Forakis & Company’s Love In Space-time during a residency at Next Stage in VT, and for the Living Theater and Spoke The Hub Dancing productions. Her film work includes acting for directors Shannon Plumb and Bastein Solignac. As a visual artist, her latest project Women’s Receipts was seen at The Gallery at Theaterlab as part of the Hotel New Work | Open Studio Residency. She has been part of the Gowanus Open Studio tour. Recently, she relocated to Vermont where she continues her studio practice and art teaching.

Molly Shayna Cohen (Producer) is a recent NYC-transplant from Baltimore. She is a freelance director, writer, actor, and producer for theatre and film, and began working at Theaterlab in 2022 as the Programs Associate. Their interactive interview-based multimedia installationWeaving a New Narrativewas the recipient of the Maryland Humanities Major Grant Award and traveled across the state. She is a company member of the award-winning experimental theatre group The Acme Corporation, founding member of film collective Lux Daze Media, and Associate Artistic Director of Theatre of the Electric Mouth. Molly is the proud recipient of the Best Actor of Baltimore Award in 2020.mollyshaynacohen.com

Eric Nightengale (Lighting Designer) is a member of Concrete Temple Theatre and Anthropological Theatricals in New York City, and The Acme Corporation in Baltimore. He served as artistic director of 78th Street Theatre Lab from 1995 thru 2008. He has directed extensively in New York City, Baltimore, and Washington. Chicago credits include work with Victory Gardens Theatre, Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, Steppenwolf, Chicago Dramatists Workshop, and Second City. Radio drama credits include The Chronicles of Wallace Sprague, Dog Psychiatrist, available on all podcast platforms, as well as work broadcast nationally over NPR affiliate stations, and in the UK over BBC channel 4. His work at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has resulted in five Fringe First awards, four adaptations for BBC radio, two Best Ensemble awards, four off-broadway productions and a London transfer. Recent projects include a workshop of a new Arlene Hutton play produced by Washington Stage Guild, an in-process production of Renee Philippi’s HAMLET RIDE produced by Concrete Temple at the Flea Theatre, a Seoul- New York joint creation video performance of The Waitress and the Robber, and a film version of KENNEDY: Bobby’s Last Crusade, filmed at St. Clements Theatre, now available on Broadway On Demand. The Waitress and the Robber premiered at PS21 in Chatham, NY and then transferred in June 2022 for an off-broadway run at Dixon Place in New York City. Upcoming projects include Brecht On Brecht at the Bird Theatre in Tottori, Japan, a South Korean tour of Packrat produced by Yellow Bomb productions, and the premiere of a new opera, The Star Thrower, in Omaha, Nebraska. Member SDC.

Asa Marder (Sound Design) is a graduate of Bennington College in Music and Visual art, lives in Brooklyn producing work across a variety of media, from recording to digital sound making, to oil painting and collage. Marder has composed audio fro theatre, commercial and gallery installations. He deploys his practices as a multi-instrumentalist, visual artists and architecture student, to contemplate the nature of harmony, relationship and shared space.

COVID 19 Policy: Boosters are required to enter the venue. Space capacity has been restricted to 15 seats for this intimate production. Let Me Cook for You is a theatrical experience where the audience consumes food as they consume the larger-than-life story. Guests are invited to take their masks off and participate in this crucial element of the experience. In order to keep everyone safe, we will require a negative COVID test within 24 hours of the performance. You may submit your own COVID test (any kind will work, including at-home rapids); we will also happily offer testing on-site. Those who wish to receive a test from Theaterlab on-site must email theaterlab36@gmail.com and request a test at least 48 hours before the show and arrive 30 minutes before the curtain time.

Sharing space is meant to be joyous and fulfilling, so thank you for respecting our covid testing guidelines to ensure all present can safely enjoy the show.

Allergen note : The meal served is meat, dairy, wheat, gluten, eggs, and nut free. It does contain soy. The dessert served contains wheat, dairy, eggs, and nuts. Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

Let Me Cook for You | The Trilogy is made possible by a generous grant from the Fiordellisi Williams Family Foundation.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Theaterlab’s programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.