Although Mary Lou Sanelli’s one-woman show “The Immigrant’s Table” is based on her 2002 book of the same name, it’s definitively not a reading.

It’s funny, it’s lively, and Sanelli is not afraid to be in her audience’s face.

“I’m Italian. I love to touch people, and to look in their eyes, and to connect with them,” she said.

The writer, dancer and performer didn’t always embrace her ethnic identity this way, and the exploration of her life-long journey from cultural ambivalence to pride forms the basis of “The Immigrant’s Table.”

She’ll bring the show to Bainbridge Performing Arts for one performance only, on Saturday evening.

Sanelli’s parents came from Italy after World War II and settled in lower Manhattan, where although Sanelli knew she was a U.S. citizen, culturally her family maintained its Italian roots – as evidenced in her mother’s cooking.

When Sanelli was six, her father moved the family to “his suburban dream, a split-level house at the end of a Connecticut cul-de-sac,” she writes. There, within weeks, the life and culture of home suddenly became anathema.

Sanelli did everything she could to fit in amidst her white-bread peers.

“There’s a part in the show where I’m showing I had to teach my parents English,” she said. “I was so embarrassed.”

A move to the Northwest after college further complicated Sanelli’s outlook. On the one hand, there was a certain freedom to be had in coming to a pioneering region with a laissez-faire reputation.

“I couldn’t wait to be freed from the religious, and the cultural, and the family expectations,” she said. “Seattle is made up of people who have fled from whatever.”

On the other hand, her proclivity toward big gestures and expressive speech weren’t easily gotten rid of and didn’t quite mesh with Seattle’s low-key vibe. So Sanelli had to grow into an understanding of the beauty and value of her Italian identity.

Working her way back to the passion of her birthright – including the food – is what the show is all about.

And it’s interesting, Sanelli said: of all the shows she’s created from her seven books, Northwest audiences seem to like this one the best.

On the street, her connection-driven style might make people uncomfortable. On stage, they love it.

“It gives them permission to be Italian,” she said.

Sanelli now lives in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood, which has become gentrified over the last two decades but still houses a significant immigrant population. Her neighbors’ stories – the persecution they fled, the freedoms they sought, the challenges they experience daily – can be heavy.

Even her own father’s story was heavy; before coming to America, he was a prisoner of war. Sanelli said many people she talks to don’t realize that Italians were persecuted during World War II, too.

Still, “I don’t want my audience grimacing through my show,” she said.

“It’s just a reminder that my first generation story is the same, no matter what background you came from.”

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Eat her up

Mary Lou Sanelli performs “The Immigrant’s Table” at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at Bainbridge Performing Arts, with a wine reception and book signing to follow. Tickets: www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org.