The PRISM Festival of New Queer Musicals is a collaborative development festival dedicated to uplifting and celebrating Queer musical theater artists. Produced in partnership with The Makers' Ensemble, The Brick Theater, Brooklyn Art Haus, and Judson Arts, PRISM creates space for emerging and established Queer artists to develop bold new musicals in community. Centered on process, experimentation, and artistic exchange, the festival fills a vital step in the musical theater development pipeline, offering writers, composers, lyricists, directors, performers, and creative teams the time, resources, and support to deepen and refine their work while engaging directly with audiences. Each year, PRISM showcases a diverse cohort of new musicals that expand the possibilities of the form while reflecting the breadth, complexity, and joy of Queer experience. Through performances, developmental opportunities, and cross-organizational collaboration, PRISM serves as both an incubator for new work and a celebration of the artists shaping the future of musical theater.
One night in two timelines millennia apart, a young writer and the mythical gorgon Medusa pray for a new world where they can live authentically in freedom and safety. Their twin prayers thin the veil that separates space and time, pulling them together on a years-long journey to help each other break free of ancient cycles of violence. THE LAUGH OF THE MEDUSA is a trans coming-of-age musical with a folk-rock score that speaks urgently to the power of artists to forge the path to a better world. Directed by Megumi Nakamura, Music Directed by Déa Thatcher.
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The Rumspringa Project is a music-theatre kaleidoscope of queer coming-of-age stories in America inspired by the Amish tradition, "Rumspringa". Known colloquially as 'jumping the fence', it is not only a threshold, but also exists as the liminal passage between worlds. It culminates in the young person's choice to return to their community (and ultimately get married) or to remain in the secular sphere, knowing, no matter the choice, there is no going back to before you crossed the fence. The Rumspringa Project was conceived by Machel Ross, with book by Bubba Weiler, music by Ellen Winter and Nina Ross, and additional collaboration from Sekai Abeni and Tony Nominee Ellenore Scott. It’s been developed at Mercury Store, Berkeley Rep Ground Floor, and through the Joe’s Pub Working Group. Directed by Machel Ross, Music Directed by Ellen Winter & Nina Ross.
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Piper Hill’s Sims musical — How We Came to Build The House That Looks Like Me — tells the story of the guys that live inside of him, with visuals animated using The Sims 3 & 4. It is very trans and very silly brain. Directed by Emlyn Doolittle, Music Directed by Piper Hill.
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