Orietta Crispino's LET ME COOK FOR YOU Begins Tonight at Theaterlab

Theaterlab will present Let Me Cook For You, written and performed by Orietta Crispino, tonight, October 13, through December 10, 2017 in its Midtown home (357 West 36th Street, 3rd Floor). Barbara Rubin directs and Liza Cassidy serves as the assistant director.

Let Me Cook For You is Ms. Crispino's solo series examining a collage of inherited myths and apocryphal histories, melding the intoxicating act of storytelling with the ritual of preparing food. The piece is part of Theaterlab's Fall Season - Eat Your Heart Out, which 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.

Writer and performer Orietta Crispino 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); Broken City: Wall Street (Pop UP Theatrics); 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 and Snow in the Living Room, a retelling of The Brothers Grimms' Snow White through the Tibetan Bardo. 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 MoMA PS1 in New York, Bogota and Trieste.

Director Barbara Rubin has cultivated a career as an inventive director of contemporary and classical theatre in New York and abroad. She has created work in Europe and in her native South Africa, in regional theaters such as McCarter and the Long Wharf, on Broadway and Off, in venues such as WPP, Second Stage and Signature Theatre. Ms. Rubin is also a sought-after dialect coach for stage, film and television. Known for her longtime collaboration with South African playwright Athol Fugard, she coached all five productions in his Signature Theatre Residency, including the 2016 Tony-nominated revival of Master Harold ...and the Boys. Recent TV credits include NBC's Blindspot and Chicago Med. At The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, Ms. Rubinis the Co-Director of the Academy's third Year Company, where she directs and mentors actors on the brink of launching their professional careers.

Performances of Let Me Cook For You run October 13 through December 10, Friday at 7:00pm and Sunday at 5:00 pm (with no performance Friday, November 24th) at Theaterlab (357 West 36th Street, 3rd Floor, between 8th & 9th Ave.; Subway A/C/E or 1/2/3 to 34th Street). Tickets are $20 and may be purchased in advance at www.theaterlabnyc.com.