Through Theaterlab’s presenting program, we feature select productions exemplary of Theaterlab’s mission and created by Theaterlab’s closest collaborators.
Snow in the Living Room
In Snow in the Living Room, Orietta Crispino presents a visually striking and poetically sensual distillation of the classic Snow White fairy tale. Inert in her crystal coffin, Bianca finds that her liberation will never come from a redeemer outside herself; instead, she must acknowledge her own fractured soul and accept death as a facet of what it means to be fully human. Echoing the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Snow in the Living Room exists in the interstitial space between body and self. It is a dynamic story of fear and desire, told through splintered mirror images and complex soundscapes.
Written & Directed by Orietta Crispino
Performed by Liza Cassidy and Orietta Crispino
Translated by Marco Casazza
Set Installation: Vibeke Jensen
MINIFEST
For an afternoon, MINIFEST takes over the full loft to take a close look at short performances. We meet together for a loose-knit day of tiny delights filled with miniature versions our signature-style snacks and socializing. MINIFEST provides the chance to isolate segments of work, peer at them closely, and reframe our perspectives by magnifying the miniature.
Our first MINIFEST was held on Sunday, March 8 and included work ranging from clown to dance to performance art. Featured artists included: Liza Cassidy and Orietta Crispino, Jed Distler, Bryn Hlava. Michaela Lind, Jack Meriwether, Kat Moore, Jolene Noelle, Maria Scarpini, Jonathan Silver and Lanie Zipoy.
Let Me Cook For You
Let Me Cook For You is a solo series, written and performed by Orietta Crispino. It examines a collage of inherited myths and apocryphal histories, melding the intoxicating act of storytelling with the ritual of preparing food. The piece premiered as part of Theaterlab’s Fall Season – Eat Your Heart Out in 2017, was produced in a site-specific version by PopUP Theatrics in 2018, and returned to Theaterlab for a limited run in 2019.
Director: Barbara Rubin
Assistant Director: Liza Cassidy
PopUP Theatrics Director: Ana Margineanu.Â
Homecoming Season
Homecoming explored the notion of homes, both inherited and created, and examined what it means to return to a seemingly familiar space within an increasingly unfamiliar world. The season was dedicated to Linda Olthof, the brilliant Dutch movement artist who created three pieces at Theaterlab. After her untimely and tragic passing, we honored her artistry and creative work throughout our season.
The season included:
Gabri Christa’s Magdalena
Reut Shemesh’s Leviah
Michaela Lind’s My Birthday
BIRDHOUSE’s The Open Window
David Sauvage’s Empath
Mary Grace McNally’s Not for Picking
Celebrate the Artist
Eat Your Heart Out Season
Theaterlab’s Fall Season 2017 – Eat Your Heart Out – celebrates the ephemeral cycle of performance that echoes itself with each iteration, and feeds the audience something different each time.
After all, you can’t eat the same apple twice.
The season included:
Orietta Crispino’s Let Me Cook For You
Traumaturgy Productions’ Sunset Park
Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup’s A My Name Is
MOTHERS MYTHS MONSTERS
Fall in Love with Solo Season
Fall in Love with Solo presented three solo shows of the highest order by three phenomenal female creators/performers.
The season offered the chance to swoon over solo shows, and also included a panel discussion on “Traveling Solo: Touring Solo Shows Domestically and Abroad” with Orietta Crispino, Tjasa Ferme, Elizabeth Hess, Erwin Maas, Ana Margineanu, Jolene Noelle and Sylvia Milo.
The season included:
Tjasa Ferme’s Wild Child in the City
Megan Metrikin’s Finding Fellini
Christine Renee Miller’s Such Nice Shoes
Remains
Three castaways, strangers made colleagues through necessity, traverse the countryside hoping to grasp some kind of personal opportunity and stability. Adrift on a sea of economic misfortune, the trio finds itself steered into a simmering squall of violent, lingering transgressions. When a vicious crime is left unresolved, more than just guilt remains.
Directed by Jolene Noelle
Written by Stephen Christensen
Cast: Josh Frank, Eliza Greene-Smith, Hardy Pinnell, Iman Richardson, and Brendan Sokler
Lighting Design by Christina Watanabe Â
Scenic Design by D’Vaughn Agu
Sound Design by Jorge Olivo
Fight Choreography by Jason Paul Tate
Stage Management by Kristan Brown
Produced by Traumaturgy Productions, a resident company
Three Sisters Come and Go
Three Sisters Come and Go follows the lives of the three archetypal women of Chekhov’s plays read through the lens of Beckett’s comic take on the existential dilemma, and Julia Kristeva’s insight regarding the transformation of despair and loss into joy and acceptance. Bound to living together, each of the sisters is comically obsessed with being the most unhappy of the group.
“The sisters play the game of theater finding a future in the present of the stage,” explains director Orietta Crispino. “After all, there is life beyond despair.”
Conceived & Directed by Orietta Crispino
Dramaturgy by Marco Casazza
Cast: Liza Cassidy, Claire Helene & Jackie Lowe
Costume Design: Sara Baldocchi-Byrne
Come and Go was performed with permission of the Beckett Estate.
Conway
Imagine spending your whole life crafting a ‘spectacular’ career: photojournalist to photographer, filmmaker to blockbuster filmmaker. And then, in just an instant, someone steals it from you. Someone makes everything you’ve worked so hard for, their own. Or, imagine finding that out three years after they started.
Unsatisfied with the way things are going, Alan Conway assumed the identity of Stanley Kubrick, turning his life, and the lives of those around him, completely upside down. Welcome to the world of Conway, where in this totally ‘true,’ fictionalized story, everything may not be what it seems.
Written and directed by Rory McGregor
Cast: Erin Neufer, Paul Pontrelli, Alex Marz and Gregory Warren
Set Design: Andrew Moerdyk
Lighting & Projection Design: Ted Boyce-Smith
Costume Design Susanne Houstle
Stage Manager: Alexis Nalbadian
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