NEW YORK, NY — This summer, the NYC theater circuit gains a provocative new heartbeat. Diamond Mesh Incorporated — Theatrical Productions is proud to announce the inaugural Diamond Mesh Manifestival, running from July 16th to August 9th at the Paradise Factory Theatre. Harkening to the days of the original off-off Broadway movement, The Manifestival presents a curated slate of explosive productions paving the way for the “Next Great American Drama.”
At its core, the festival functions as an incubator for risk-taking storytellers. Reflecting on the grand scope of the event, festival co-founder Faith Pasch explains:
“The Manifestival is ultimately about why we feel alone — what creates such isolation when, as human beings, we share so many of the same intimate emotional struggles. Club 27 explores the pressure artists face around how they are “supposed” to create, and the dangerous idea that self-destruction is somehow tied to becoming legendary. It examines how we can fall deeper into our vices in order to maintain the image of being chaotic, exciting, and therefore interesting. While that narrative is often associated with artists of the ’70s, it remains just as relevant today. We hope the show resonates with artists, creatives, and anyone navigating their own personal journey. It’s also incredibly rare for a new work to debut with a 16-show run, and this festival has been instrumental in helping us share the show with far more people than we ever could have imagined,” says ManiFestival co-founder, Faith Pasch
The Mainstage Slate
The bedrock of the festival consists of three ambitious, full-run anchor productions challenging contemporary theatrical norms.
The Silly William Gambit
- Written by: Matt Bader
- Schedule: Thursday–Saturday (6:15 PM), Sunday (5:45 PM)
- Eccentric chess prodigy Silly William finds himself on a train bound for hell (or Philadelphia, as it is known in some circles). When a mysterious entity that only plays the 4-move Checkmate Attack hears of Silly William’s skill, it offers him his freedom if he can manage to defeat the entity in a series of chess matches. Silly William then narrates every move of the unfolding seven matches, which are played out on stage in real time, as he sets out to unravel the game, his past, and his very self.
piss.jpg (Working Title)
- Written by: Justin Jager & Michael Gardiner
- Schedule: Thursday–Saturday (8:00 PM), Sunday (7:30 PM)
- Subtitled by its creators as “The Next Great American Drama,” piss.jpg (Working Title) might be described as The Gen Z Waiting for Godot. It might not. There will be no further questions at this time. Co-creator Michael Gardiner remains unflinchingly optimistic about its trajectory:
“First stop: The Manifestival. Next: The Great White Way!” — Michael Gardiner
Club 27: A One Woman Confessional Cabaret
- Written by: Maeve Z. O’Connor
- Schedule: Thursday–Saturday (9:45 PM), Sunday (3:00 PM)
- Join your nameless (and fabulous) host in her liminal rock & roll nightmare as she deftly welcomes you to Club 27. Over the course of her set—and more than one argument with her enigmatic pianist—the host grapples with fame, death, legacy, and what it means to be an artist. When sex, drugs, and rock & roll convene, how do you make it out famous and alive?
The Signature Series
The Signature Series features extended-length independent works exploring deeply human, sometimes surreal landscapes.
FEATURED EVENT: My Ghosts
- Written by: David & Erica Laros
- Schedule: August 3 & 4, August 8 (3:30 PM)
- Step into the haunted clocktower to join us on a madcap journey against time with Cab Curio, famous writer, as he returns to his truest self while fending off his three zany inner critics, Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Jack Wilson, before his time runs out. Lenore, the clocktower ghost, helps Cab along the way as he re-discovers his passion for music. Sing and dance along with catchy, memorable songs and embrace characters you know and love.
The festival has proven to be a profoundly spiritual milestone for its creative team. When asked what the event means to them, co-creator Dave Laros shares: “My Ghosts” has been spiritually guided from the very start. We’re so grateful to be part of Manifestival. To us, Manifestival means complete alignment and true authenticity.
Co-creator Erica Elsa Laros echoes this sentiment regarding the developmental momentum: “Everything about ‘My Ghosts’ has been green light–green light–green light. The music flowed effortlessly after the idea. I had a recurring dream about Manifestival before it happened, then the universe breathed life right into the script. Before it was always just Dave and me. Now we’re building a team of talented and creative minds to collaborate on our show!”
The mirror reality of staging the piece has also fueled deep personal artistic growth. Erica notes:
“Watching my story of the artist and the inner critics come alive on stage, I feel like I am literally watching my own story play out about the crushing nature of self criticism and how it can be changed.”
Dave adds his perspective on pulling double duty behind the scenes and under the lights:
“To me, growing as an artist means exploring the different parts of the self and I’ve been able to do that in preparation for the Manifestival, not only as composer and lyricist but also as a performer in our musical.”
FEATURED EVENT: How Not to Fund a Honeymoon
- Written by: Stephanie Greenwood
- Schedule: July 27 & 28 (7:45 PM), August 1 (2:00 PM)
- The problem: Gwen and Charlie are strapped for cash. Their wedding is coming up and they have no way to pay for the honeymoon of their dreams. The solution: Break into Aunt Robyn’s house and steal the mysterious treasure that she is always bragging about but no one has ever seen. This is how Charlie and Gwen find themselves outside Aunt Robyn’s house holding a rock, wondering if they should throw it through her window and really hoping that she is definitely on holiday.
OTHER EVENTS IN THE SERIES:
The Ballad of Bonder Thrashman Fitzqualudes
- Written by: Fletcher Michael
- Schedule: July 20 (7:45 PM), July 21 (9:15 PM), July 25 (2:00 PM)
- A comedy that follows professional apartment ball player Bonder Thrashman Fitzqualudes as he attempts to navigate his way through an esteemed MFA playwriting program despite never having written a play. After receiving a full scholarship as a prize for winning the apartment ball world championship, Bonder avoids expulsion by agreeing to have his brain swapped with the recovered brain of Renaissance playwright Christopher Marlowe in a plan overseen by a secretly-sinister, Tony Award-winning faculty member who may have sold his soul to the devil.
Fletcher Michael, the founder and artistic director of Infinite Monkey Theater Company, values the festival’s willingness to embrace artistic vulnerability:
“At Infinite Monkey Theater Co., we see the ManiFestival as an opportunity to stage boundary-pushing, genre-defying, original, and truly downtown-y new work that might not otherwise find a home. Our show, The Ballad of Bonder Thrashman Fitzqualudes, required a festival willing to take a chance on what is certainly our most outrageous production to date, and in the ManiFestival, we have found that bold and brilliant support.”
Selkie Woman
- Written by: Zoe Stanton-Savitz
- Schedule: July 27 & 28 (9:15 PM), August 2 (1:00 PM)
- Layla and JJ navigate the complications of girlhood and friendship as they determine what it is to love and be loved. From age twelve to age eighteen, they hurt each other both physically and emotionally while clinging to the love they have for each other and the protection this friendship provides.
A Humorless Exploration of Humanity
- Written by: Ryan Sickles (Contact: rysick05@gmail.com)
- Schedule: August 3 & 4 (6:00 PM), August 8 (2:00 PM)
- A grief-fractured reality star invites cameras into her living room and accidentally lets something else in: an alien. Everyone is watched, no one is understood, and the red light never really turns off. It’s about loneliness. And aging. And maybe coughing.
Playwright Ryan Sickles looks forward to standing alongside his peers in the festival lineup:
“As emerging theater artists, we are very grateful to the Manifestival for the chance to share our work. Alongside the other productions involved, we plan to make this the best first Manifestival ever.”
One-Night-Only Events
The Manifestival packs its calendar with sharp, fast-paced, single-evening engagements that promise high theatrical stakes.
FEATURED EVENT: Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff I’m a Dog
- Written by: Atlas Kazan
- Schedule: July 21 (7:45 PM)
- Plato has a reputation to uphold. As a former student of Socrates, the inventor of Western philosophy, he likes to think he’s as wise, intelligent, and virtuous as his mentor. However, Diogenes disproves that time and time again, humiliating him every chance he gets to show what real virtue and wisdom look like. As Diogenes and Plato squabble, Aristotle and Alexander try to make sense of philosophy itself.
Playwright Atlas Kazan emphasizes that self-producing via the festival layout is a vital tool for independent creatives:
“I had recently come to the conclusion that if I wanted to get my work produced, I gotta do some of the producing myself. I tackle subject matters that are rarely touched upon in contemporary theatre, so I understand why theatre companies would hesitate to produce my work if they don’t know how an audience is going to react to it. Fortunately, I know how an audience is going to react to it. Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff I’m a Dog has gone through a long journey. Audiences went from liking it to loving it, and each time it was presented as a workshop or a reading, I refined it more and more. To me, the ManiFestival means an opportunity for theatre artists to prove to the theatre industry that they have the skill and the motivation to create great art, and in this specific instance, it has given me the opportunity to prove that my work is not only entertaining, but insightful.”
OTHER EVENTS IN THE SERIES:
The Adventures of Leo
- Written by: Dominic Sahagun
- Schedule: July 28 (6:00 PM)This play follows a childless married couple, Leo and Julia, on the Upper West Side. The jokester Leo is a security manager at Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Julia is a burnt-out ER nurse. When Leo’s father suddenly passes away, can he continue his routine? Or is all lost…?
Dominic Sahagun, an Assistant Professor of Voice at Berklee College of Music, found solace in the festival’s welcoming community structure:
“On the first webpage of Diamond Mesh Inc., home of The Manifestival, it reads ‘Why Do We Feel Alone?’ …And I’m not sure I can answer that. But I do know that if I write a play, and then stuff the script into the back of my closet, I sure would feel alone. The Manifestival allows me to do the opposite, present my work ‘The Adventures of Leo’ for the first time, and to just sit back and watch alongside a New York audience. Not alone at all. Thank you, Dominic.”
Songs I Sing in the Shower
- Written by: Danielle MacMath
- Schedule: July 27 (6:00 PM)In this comedic solo show[er], Danielle MacMath
- (Fragments with F. Murray Abraham, SantaCon The Play with Richard Kind, Eric Bogosian’s 1+1 Off-Broadway) manifests her childhood dreams and the catharsis of a hot shower. MacMath notes:
“Songs I Sing in the Shower will premiere at the inaugural MANIFESTIVAL. It’s so exciting to launch this journey with such a vast group of artists!”
Fingers Crossed
- Written by: Stacy Cancelarich | Directed by: Michael Gardiner
- Schedule: July 21 (6:00 PM)
- After a fateful car accident on Thanksgiving Eve, Stacy’s beloved father gets diagnosed with heart failure…. and then lung cancer…. oh, and Alzheimer’s too. Yikes. In this outrageously funny and darkly poignant solo show, Stacy attempts to care for her dying father while colliding with the COVID-19 Lockdown, her severely obsessive-compulsive mother, and her rehabilitated cult-member sister in a rollicking hospice care story. Director Michael Gardiner states:
“Fingers Crossed has been in development for a number of years, and we’re so excited to share with an audience and we couldn’t be in more esteemed company than with our fellow Manifestivalites!”
The March Hare
- Written by: Amanda DeLalla
- Schedule: August 4 (7:45 PM)
- This contemporary fairytale follows the day-to-day of Andra, a neurodivergent woman who works at a Manhattan teahouse. Although her interactions are “by the book,” it becomes apparent that all is not what it seems for the soulful bookworm as she faces a frustrating truth about love and memory. Writer and arts administrator Amanda L. DeLalla celebrates the script’s return to the stage:
“After its debut staging last year, the Manifestival is a terrific avenue for my script to get revived at the Paradise Factory with a brand-new cast and director. This will also be the first production of the play since its publication with 1319 Press, so I’m really excited that the audience can take a piece of The March Hare home from the show.”
Additional One-Night Engagements:
The Rosary Through Which We Talk to the God We (Don’t) Share (Alejandra Cepeda Batiz |
July 20 @ 6:00 PM):
Victoria wrestles with whether to tell her deeply religious grandmother about her sexuality
It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere (Justin Jager & Friends
July 20 @ 9:15 PM:
A staged reading of a collection of one-act plays written by chronic jackass Justin Jager and cohorts while horribly inebriated.
Princess Fantasy! (Alexandra Brokowski
July 26 @ 1:00 PM):
The journey of a long-dormant princess whose kingdom awaits her coronation. Will her fantasies shake her deep sleep, or will she remain our resident sleep paralysis demon?
Occupation Housewife (Abigail Tilly
Aug 3 @ 7:45 PM):
In 1955 Iowa, five housewives meet for their weekly brunch to escape monotony until life-changing news upsets the status quo.
Special Events & Screenings
The Manifestival expands beyond standard live theatre, incorporating mixed-media events, industry-facing showcases, and musical tributes.
- The Vampire (Written by Alec Silberblatt | July 22 @ 7:00 PM): A pulpy horror story mixed with club beats and Adderall-induced fights that serves as a potent metaphor exploring modern masculinity.
- “Interface” Screening with Umami (Justin Tomchuk) (July 29, Time TBD): An intimate screening of the 24-part web series turned 2-hour animated sci-fi epic. Includes an appearance by Tomchuk and a post-screening talkback.
- Front and Center (Aug 5 @ 5:00 PM): A showcase revealing the creative talents of the festival’s box office pros, ushers, and concessions staff working as playwrights and directors.
- Clowning Around (After Hours) (Curated by Faith Pasch Productions | Aug 5 @ 6:30 PM): A lively showcase where past and present clown performers step out of their big shoes to reveal their offstage artistry in dance, music, and theatre.
- Rumours: In the Room (A Fleetwood Mac Tribute) (Produced by Faith Pasch Productions | Aug 5 @ 8:30 PM): An acoustic, theatrical reimagining of the iconic album Rumours, set inside an intimate recording session where personal relationships unravel in real time right in front of the audience.
Ticket & Venue Details
All performances take place at the Paradise Factory Theatre. For performance schedules, full ensemble credits, and box office ticket reservations, visit the official Diamond Mesh Manifestival online portal.
Arts Independent 