Alexandra Silber’s AFTER ANATEVKA, PROUD MARYS Included in Prospect Musicals’ IGNITE Concert Festival

Prospect Musicals (Cara Reichel, Producing Artistic Director; Melissa Huber, Managing Director) announced today the return of the IGNITE Concert Festival of work-in-process musicals and related events, launching with musicalized book reading of Alexandra Silber’s After Anatevka, and concluding with a concert of the genre-bending new pop musical Proud Marys, presented in partnership with National Asian Artists Project.

Prospect Musicals’ IGNITE Concert Festival is a three-week celebration creating a platform for sharing new music, new ideas and new creative voices. The 2026 edition of the festival will have its launch event on March 5th, its first performance on March 7th, and run through March 30th at Baruch Performing Arts Center (entrance on East 25th Street, between Lexington & 3rd Avenues).

“We are excited to bring back Prospect’s IGNITE Festival for its second year,” said Producing Artistic Director Cara Reichel, “The 2026 lineup will feature diverse events showcasing new voices, work-in-process musicals, and engage audiences in thinking deeply about the art form of musical theater. Prospect is pleased to continue our partnership with other organizations in fostering new work, including Broadway Barkada and National Asian Artists Project.”

Writers featured in the concert series include Alexandra Silber, Florencia Iriondo, Jaime Lozano, Lizzie Hagstedt, and Jennifer Paz and Anthony Fedorov, with more to be announced!

A detailed schedule of current on sale events is below, with additional events to be announced shortly.

Thursday, March 5, 6-9pm
Open House Launch Event
Free invitation for Prospect Members and Festival Pass Holders. Meet Prospect artists and enjoy select open-mic-style performances on stage.

Saturday, March 7, 7:00pm
After Anatevka - In Concert
performed by author Alexandra Silber
with Music Director Ben Moss
and additional special guest artists to be announced

What happens to the remarkable characters of Fiddler on the Roof after the curtain falls? Broadway performer and author Alexandra Silber shares a musicalized book reading of her novel, After Anatevka, which picks up where Fiddler left off. Hodel takes center stage as she attempts to join her fiancé Perchik in Siberia, facing extraordinary obstacles and finding inner strength. The evening includes beloved songs from the classic musical, alongside original songs inspired by Silber's novel.

Thursday, March 12, 7:00pm
SONG SOCIETY - In Concert
An indie solo musical of selective remembering.
Written & Performed by Florencia Iriondo

Blending original folk-pop music with intimate storytelling, Song Society unfolds as an evening that lives somewhere between theater, truth, and an overthought decision. Award-winning writer and performer Florencia Iriondo invites the audience into an analogue world where an eccentric machine may or may not literally erase what has completed its run. Shortlisted for Best Edinburgh Fringe Show by the West End Wilma Awards, Song Society becomes an anthology of choices around love, friendship, and purpose that somehow get made without trying.

Book, Music & Lyrics: Florencia Iriondo
Direction: Jason Aguirre
Dramaturgy: Adam Mathias
Featuring
Federico Díaz (Guitars & Arrangements)
Agustín Uriburu (Cello & Guitars)

Monday, March 16, 7:00pm
New Musicals from Jaime Lozano – In Concert
composed and performed by Jaime Lozano
with additional special guest artists to be announced

Considered by Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda as the “next big thing” on Broadway, Mexican-born, award-winning, multi-hyphenate musical theater artist and storyteller Jaime Lozano arrives at Prospect's IGNITE Festival with a special concert featuring some of his anticipated new musicals. The concert will include songs from new works-in-process such as Roja, Frida, Desaparecidas, Present Perfect, and others.

Friday, March 27, 7:00pm
Sophie Blanchard’s High-Flyin’ Rock’n’Roll Extravaganza – In Concert
Words/Music/Orchestration by Lizzie Hagstedt
Directed by Céline Rosenthal

Sophie Blanchard’s High-Flyin’ Rock’n’Roll Extravaganza soars through the dazzling life (and fiery end!) of the world’s first professional female aeronaut, Sophie Blanchard. Heard of her? Probably not. Why is that? Part riotous rock concert, part PowerPoint presentation, this electrifying new musical is about learning to embrace your inner weirdo, loving what you love and how you love, and quieting the voice that dares to tell you you’re not enough... and balloons. Lots of balloons.

Sunday, March 29, 3:00pm
Monday, March 30, 7:00pm
Proud Marys - In Concert
a genre-bending new pop musical
Book, story and lyrics by Jennifer Paz
Music and lyrics by Anthony Fedorov
Direction and Dramaturgy by Fran de Leon

presented in partnership with
National Asian Artists Project, as part of NAAP’s Discover Series
and in association with community partner Broadway Barkada

Three daughters shake up the strict traditions of their Filipino-American family when they all get knocked up out of wedlock at the same time. With humor and heart, Proud Marys tackles nuanced conversations about women's physical and mental health through the lens of a devoutly Catholic Fil-Am family... breaking open the myth of the model minority, one pop song at a time.

Tickets are now on sale for the above IGNITE Festival Concerts, as well as the Prospect’s Annual Membership, at www.ProspectMusicals.org. Concert prices are $59 for premium seating locations and $39 for regular seating locations. Prospect Member ticket prices are $42 (premium) and $28 (regular). An annual Prospect Membership is $50 which allows members to purchase multiple discounted tickets to all events. A 3-Show Festival Pass offering one ticket each to three separate events for both premium ($133) and regular ($90) seating locations is also available. Listed prices include all fees.

Baruch PAC is located at 55 Lexington Avenue, with entrance on East 25th Street between Lexington & 3rd Avenues, in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, and is easily accessible via the R/W or the 6 train to 23rd Street.

Prospect Musicals’ IGNITE Concert Festival is made possible in part by support from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

For more information, and for the most up to date information on events and casting, please visit ProspectMusicals.org.

WRITER BIOS

Anthony Fedorov (Proud Marys, Music and Lyrics). Born in Ukraine and raised in the Philadelphia and New York areas, Fedorov got his start performing in Russian restaurants and later became known to over 30 million weekly viewers as the "tracheotomy kid" on "American Idol" (Season 4, top 4). Off-Broadway / Regional: RENT revival, The Fantasticks. Regional: The 12 (Denver Center), Joseph… Dreamcoat (5th Avenue), Love Actually LIVE (The Wallis). In 2014, Paz and Fedorov released indie music ("Every Little Thing" under the duo name Auraganix), earning Tune Core's #BillionsClub status with 28+ million streams, which would serve as the musical beginnings of Proud Marys. As a songwriter and proud member of BMI, Fedorov has written for other artists and has had numerous song placements & syncs alongside frequent collaborator Latin Grammy® Award-winning producing partner Jeeve Ducornet.

Lizzie Hagstedt (Sophie Blanchard’s High-Flyin’ Rock’n’Roll Extravaganza, Words / Music / Orchestration) is an actor/singer/musician/composer from Sayville, New York. Recent musical showings: Oneida (with lyricist/librettist Beth Blatt) at Seven Dials Theatre in London, and Wild West Show (with co-creator Lisa Helmi Johanson) which was the recipient of the Muriel O’Neil American Heritage Commission and received readings at Asolo Rep and New Musicals Lab, and a semi-finalist for the 2025 O’Neill Musical Theatre Conference along with this Sophie Blanchard’s High-Flyin’ Rock’n’Roll Extravaganza which appeared in concert at Center at West Park after a year of development through the Moxie Arts NY Incubator. Follow @sophiebmusical on instagram for more about Sophie and our upcoming concept album!

Florencia Iriondo (Song Society, Book, Music and Lyrics / Performer) is an Argentine writer and performer based in New York City, creating original musicals that center voice, authorship, and intimacy. Her acoustic solo musicals Song Society and Meet Me in Buenos Aires premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival at Underbelly, with Song Society shortlisted for Best Show by the 2025 West End Wilma Awards. Her original musical SOUTH debuted Off-Broadway at Soho Playhouse, earning a Pipeline Arts Foundation First Prize for New Musical Theater and the HOLA Award for Outstanding Performance in Musical Theater, and is a NAMT Festival Committee Recommendation. Florencia is a lyricist at the Tony-honored BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, an artist-in-residence at New York Stage & Film and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, an MTI Broadway Jr bilingual adaptor, and a NYC Department of Cultural Affairs grant recipient. She is also the founding showrunner of LinkedIn Studios. The original cast album of SOUTH is available on Spotify.

Fran de Leon (Proud Marys, Direction and Dramaturgy) is Artistic Director of Theater Mu, the largest AAPI theater in the Midwest. She has performed and directed in all 50 states, primarily with her solo show, Faces of America, and recently as director of Holy Shitake at Manoa Valley, Hawaii. Other directing credits include Pete The Cat (TheaterWorksUSA); God Will do The Rest (Artists at Play/LTC), Into the Woods (Pasadena Playhouse Tony Award Winning Season). Commissions: Center Theater Group, Segerstrom ArtsTeach. Acting: Mariology (CMPG/Boston Court), Ruby, Tragically Rotund, (Playwrights Arena); TV – Brothers Sun, For All Mankind. Fran is a proud member of SDC, SAG-AFTRA, and Actors’ Equity; Core Member of Critical Mass Performance Group, adjunct faculty at USC School of Dramatic Arts, board member of Will & Company, and a Drama League Directing Fellow.

Jaime Lozano (New Musicals from Jaime Lozano, Composer) is a Mexican, multi-award-winning, and multi-hyphenate musical theatre storyteller, considered by Lin-Manuel Miranda as the “next big thing” on Broadway. Jaime received a Pipeline Arts Foundation Award (2025), and has participated in the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (2025), the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals (2025), the 2024-2025 Dramatists Guild Fellowship, the 2023 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts artist-in-residence program, the Joe’s Pub Working Group, The Civilians R&D Group, and was the recipient of the American Theatre Wing’s Jonathan Larson Grant (2022). A prolific composer, Jaime’s works have been produced at venues such as The Public Theater, Lincoln Center, David Geffen Hall, Little Island, the Minskoff Theatre (Broadway), Lucille Lortel Theatre, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, The Juilliard School of Music, MASS MoCA, Merkin Concert Hall, Teatro Benito Juárez (Mexico City) and many other international venues.

Ben Moss (After Anatevka, Music Director / Performer) (he/him). Select theater credits: A Wrinkle in Time (Arena Stage), Octet (Studio Theater), Penelope (Signature Theatre, Helen Hayes Nom.), The Hello Girls (Prospect), Oratorio for Living Things (Ars Nova, Obie Award & Lucille Lortel Award), Heather Christian’s PRIME (Playwright’s Horizons “Soundstage”), Arlington (Vineyard Theatre), Alexandra Silber's After Anatevka (Audible), Salty Brine's Bigmouth Strikes Again (Soho Theatre, UK), Azul (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center), and appearances at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center.

Jennifer Paz (Proud Marys, Book, Story and Lyrics). Born in Manila and raised in the Seattle area, Paz is a writer/producer and recovering dead ingenue who enjoys writing rebellious women-of-color-led stories trying to find their way. Select writing accolades: Eugene O'Neill NMTC Semifinalist 2026, Winner of the Inaugural Outstanding Screenplays TV Pilot Competition 2021, Winner of APAFT (Asian Pacific American Friends of the Theater) Emerging Playwright Award 2024, NAMT Fest Writer Alum 2024, NAMT Frank Young Fund Grantee 2022/23, Relentless Musical Award Honorable Mention 2025, and NBC TV Writers Program Finalist 2025. IG: @jenniferpazofficial

Alexandra Silber (After Anatevka, Writer / Performer). BROADWAY/NYC: Fiddler on the Roof, Master Class, Our Class (Lortel Award), Einstein’s Dreams, Arlington, and Hello Again. LONDON: Indecent, Kiss Me, Kate; Carousel, Fiddler on the Roof, The Woman In White. SELECTED REGIONAL: world premieres of ¡VOS!, Lend Me A Soprano, Murder…Orient Express; and The Music Man (Marriott) and Midsummer (Chicago Shakespeare). Training: Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Grammy Nominee for her West Side Story with the San Francisco Symphony. Her novel After Anatevka, and memoir White Hot Grief Parade are published by Pegasus Books. She is also the book writer for the latest adaptation of Brigadoon making its world premiere next season at Pasadena Playhouse.

ABOUT BROADWAY BARKADA

Founded in 2009, BROADWAY BARKADA is a community dedicated to uplifting Filipino artists by cultivating talent, educating audiences and elevating global impact. With nearly 100 active members working on and off Broadway, Broadway Barkada nurtures and supports artists who believe in the power of cultural awareness and representation. Through art and education, they bring the Filipino experience to diverse audiences, fostering deeper understanding of culture and celebrating the breadth of the community’s artistic voices. Their work has been featured on some of the world’s most prestigious stages, including the White House, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, Lincoln Center and the United Nations. Passionate about developing new works, Broadway Barkada is committed to sharing the rich variety of stories within the Filipino diaspora and amplifying voices that reflect their past, present, and future. At the heart of Broadway Barkada is a responsibility to give back —honoring the communities that shape them and ensuring their artistry uplifts future generations.

ABOUT NATIONAL ASIAN ARTISTS PROJECT

NAAP was founded in 2009 by Baayork Lee, Steven Eng and Nina Zoie Lam. Prominent theater artists in their own right, they joined together in an effort to address what they felt was a significant lack of opportunity for professional Asian American theater artists to practice their craft and contribute on a broader level to the diversity of the American theater. NAAP seeks to showcase the work of professional theater artists of Asian descent through performance, education and outreach. NAAP is a community of artists, educators, administrators, community leaders and professionals who recognize the need to bridge the work of artists of Asian descent to the many communities the work can serve, from under-served primary school students to seasoned arts patrons. For more information about NAAP, visit www.NAAProject.org. Among the many productions NAAP has proudly produced are: Oklahoma, Carousel, Hello Dolly, Oliver, Into the Woods, Cinderella, Pajama Game, Gold Mountain and Honor.

In 2017, NAAP founder Baayork Lee was honored with the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award, presented annually to a member of the theatre community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations. NAAP was proudly cited and showcased as a contributing factor in the award.

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