Diamond Mesh Inc. Theatrical Productions, a new independent theater company led by producers Matt Bader and Faith Pasch, announced its inaugural Manifestival, a new-works festival the company said will run from July 16 to August 9 in New York City. The company announced the festival in a Feb. 9 statement distributed by Jay Michaels Global Communications.
The company said it is currently seeking digital submissions of new plays running 60 to 75 minutes and designed for intimate, character-driven production. According to the announcement, the festival emphasizes storytelling over spectacle and is meant to strip theater down to what the company called its rawest, most impactful form.
Diamond Mesh said submitted scripts must feature a cast of five actors or fewer and be adaptable to a minimal design that it described as a sparse set of one table and two chairs. The company said selected work would be programmed across two tracks: a Signature Series of productions running a limited three performances during the festival, and a One Night Only Series built around a single-evening performance.
In what it called a rare move for the New York festival circuit, the company said selected productions would keep 100 percent of their ticket sales. The company described its launch around a philosophical inquiry into what it characterized as collective loneliness in an era of digital isolation. “You did not stumble upon these questions. You found them. Just like you found this,” the company said in its statement. “We are Diamond Mesh. We have been looking for you too.”
