Theaterlab Presents:
MINIFEST
October 8th, 3pm and 5pm
Curated by Orietta Crispino
Produced by Molly Shayna Cohen
Theaterlab’s signature festival returns to celebrate the miniature in every form. This year, we’re curating a whimsical lineup of artists to explore magic, illusion, and moments of transformation. Featuring a marionette puppeteer, a opera singer-turned-magician, a poetic and visual generation machine, a transformative ghost lecture, a private mirror installation for one, digital / physical mapping performance, an interactive sculpture, and much more, all culminating in a audience participatory wish making ceremony, this festival will explore the magic of the unknown, the curious, and the remarkable.
Featuring: Mark Mitton, Emmanuel Elpenord, Michaela Lind, Drew Valins, Cinzia Meneghello, Molly Shayna Cohen, L.ily Nguyen, Jolene Noelle, Joseph Medeiros, Ulises Palacio Diez, and Nicole Renaud.
Tickets $20 – Buy HERE
Meet the Featured Artists
Mark Mitton is a professional magician who is fascinated by using magic to better understand how we see the world. In addition to performing at private and corporate events all over the world, and creating magic for film, television, the Broadway stage, and Cirque du Soleil, Mark tirelessly explores the theme of ‘Misdirection’ from an interdisciplinary standpoint. He regularly presents on ‘Perception’ at universities and conferences in North America and Europe, including the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, and has lectured with the late Nobel Laureate Dr. Gerald Edelman of The Neurosciences Institute. Mark was the apprentice to legendary sleight-of-hand master and vaudevillian Slydini, and a long-time student of Ozzie Malini – the son of turn-of-the-century magician Max Malini. He has performed for Mick Jagger, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, John Mayer, Katy Perry, Salman Rushdie, and many others; at festivals in Europe and Asia; at the Olympic Games; in war-torn Liberia; in hospital wards around New York City; and in a Mexican orphanage with members of the band Guster.
Emmanuel Elpenord is an actor, puppeteer, improviser and voice-over artist from Brooklyn, NY. Select credits: original Off-Broadway cast of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh: A New Musical Adaptation, 1st national, international, Off-Broadway cast of The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, World of Eric Carle Youtube Series (Rockefeller Productions); Puppeteer at Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater for over 8 years.
Michaela Lind is a Swedish theater and filmmaker, actor and clown. One of her favorite performances was at Slava Polunin’s yellow mill outside of Paris, France. She is an active member of Clowns Ex Machina, The Drilling Company, and the founder of ARA Theater & ARA Media. She is shooting her short film, 2050 this fall in the Catskills, NY. www.michaelamlind.com
Drew Valins is a native of Tampa Florida, and a NYC based actor and playwright for the past 15+ years. A member of the Drilling Company, producing and acting in many works by Shakespeare in Bryant Park, Drew’s latest play Lakeplay will have its World Premiere in 2024 in NYC (ARA Theater). For a full picture of Drew’s work, visit: www.drewvalins.com
Cinzia Meneghello is a painter, designer, and curator originally from Italy. She creates with a variety of media, from carved textured grounds to soft pastels, watercolors, gouaches, inks, oils, graphite, and more. Her work explores the connection between spirituality and art, psychology and the collective unconscious, prayer and the creative process. It often incorporates themes associated with fairytales and myths. When she is not painting, you can often spot her visiting local bodega cats, looking for wildlife in the parks, creating playful digital illustrations, and collaborating as a web and graphic designer with organizations around the city and beyond. @cinzia_meneghello
Molly Shayna Cohen (she/they) is multi / mixed media theatre artist whose work centers on moments of transformation and the ephemerality in all things. Since moving to New York from Baltimore in 2022, she has worked at The Public, Mabou Mines, Theaterlab, En Garde Arts, New Victory Theatre, and more. Their interactive interview-based multimedia installation Weaving a New Narrative was the recipient of the Maryland Humanities Major Grant Award and traveled across the state. She is the Associate Artistic Director of Theatre of the Electric Mouth, founding member of film collective Lux Daze Media, and company member of the award-winning experimental theatre group The Acme Corporation. Molly was the recipient of the Best Actor of Baltimore Award in 2020, and currently a MFA Directing Candidate (2025) at Brooklyn College. mollyshaynacohen.com
L.ily Nguyen (she/they) is a Chinese-American multimedia artist/designer. While L. works primarily in graphic design and sculpture, her artistic practice also includes set design, installation work, painting, photography and printmaking. Her unique hybrid of mediums and forms manifest themselves as alluring, unconventional, and open-ended experiences for the viewer. Her most recent works revolve around exploring nature as a subject: rendering abstract portraits of both physical and psychological landscapes, and exploring the intersections of nature and culture using analog processes. She is currently a third-year Fine Arts Major studying at The Cooper Union. @lils_nguyen, lilynguyenart.com
Jolene Noelle is a Dramaturg, Theaterlab’s former Program Director, a Believer in Magic, and a Macro fan of MINIFEST. She uses her dramatugical toolbox to examine small stories inside theatrical texts and big stories told by our institutions that shape our collective artistic history. She has worked at theaters in Colorado, Texas, Maryland, and throughout New York, most recently Rattlestick and the New Victory. MFA, Columbia University. @noellejolene on IG
Joseph Medeiros has appeared on Broadway in Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women, Groundhog Day, Matilda, Doctor Zhivago, Wicked, White Christmas, West Side Story, Guys and Dolls, Grease, Big, and Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater, Second Stage, The York Theater Co, and City Center. He is currently running three solo productions in rep. In his original solo piece, The Study, and the first 2 books of the Odyssey. He holds a Graduate Certificate in Classics from Columbia University and a BFA in Musical Theater from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Born in Buenos Aires and based in New York, German Palacio also known as Ulisespal is a musician and visual artist. His work incorporates dark concepts and new technology. Lately, he’s been developing a new visual technique incorporating audio reactivity to his sound and visuals as lights.
Nicole Renaud is a French soprano accordionist at the crossroads of chanson/opera and performance art. She accompanies herself on a transparent luminous accordion designed for her by British artist Paul Etienne Lincoln. Her last multimedia show “Couleurs” an original cycle of songs – a love story seen through colors – was created at Theaterlab in New York and featured at the Limoges Opera (France), the Biennale de la Chanson in Brussels (Belgium), the Goetland Poetry Festival (Sweden) etc … Nicole has sung regularly on Franco German national television ARTE and on French national public radio France Culture. She has composed music for US celebrated independent film animator Bill Plympton and was nominated for the Annie Awards.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Theaterlab’s programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
Please note we will be require masks, in compliance with our COVID policy. Thank you for respecting our policy to keep our artists and audiences safe.