Taylor Trensch, Heath Saunders, and More Join PRISM Festival of New Queer Musicals
The Makers' Ensemble, The Brick Theater and Brooklyn Art Haus will collaborate on the queer musical theater festival.
The Makers' Ensemble in Partnership with The Brick Theater & Brooklyn Art Haus have announced full cast for PRISM: A Festival of New Queer Musicals premiering September 8-27, 2026
The Makers' Ensemble announces an exciting lineup of Broadway stars, Off-Broadway newcomers, and rising talent for the 3rd Annual PRISM Festival of New Queer Musicals, an exhilarating festival coming to The Brick Theater, The Makers' Space, and Brooklyn Art Haus September 8-27, 2026. Performers include Taylor Trensch (Floyd Collins, Bat Boy), Heath Saunders (Company, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812), and more! Full casting below:
The Laugh of the Medusa
A Musical Becoming
Book, Music, & Lyrics by Thani Brant
Directed by Megumi Nakamura
Music Directed by Dea Thatcher
Cast Includes: Jayae Riley Jr, B Noel Thomas, Zia, & Easton Michaels
September 8-13, 2026 At The Brick 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.
The Rumspringa Project
Book by Bubba Weiler
Music & Lyrics by Ellen Winter & Nina Ross
Directed and Conceived by Machel Ross
Cast Includes: Taylor Trensch, Sahar Milani, Ellen Winter, & Nina Ross
September 8-13, 2026 At The Brick Theater
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.
How We Came to Build The House That Looks Like Me
Created by Piper Hill
Directed by Emlyn Doolittle
Cast Includes: Piper Hill, Brooke Holm, Max Addae, Allie Murillo, Kate Budney, Jacqui Cornetta, Ankita Mishra, and Barnaby Woods
September 16-20, 2026 At The Makers' Space
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.
if you bury me
Book, Music, & Lyrics by é boylan
Directed by Dante Green
Cast Includes: Heath Saunders, Tania Kass, Genesis Adelia Collado, Kai Justice Rosales, Eli Crenshaw-Smith, Anne Miele, Zein Karam, & Centeno
September 22-27, 2026 At Brooklyn Art Haus
Now, in the basement of a small-town parish, a mysterious empty coffin appears. A secret underground society must investigate why; Nightingale hears sounds of the past, while Rook sees visions of the future. Their supervisor, Swallow, needs answers, but the woman who claimed to know everything is missing. if you bury me is a fantasy for queer imaginations, following a group of mystical storytellers as they learn what grows from the dead and what begins in the end.
Mystical Tether
Conceived and Original Music by Britton Smith
Co-Created by Satchel Lee
Directed by Miranda Haymon
Cast Includes: Britton Smith
September 23-27, 2026 At Brooklyn Art Haus
Mystical Tether is an in-development concert experience led by Britton Smith and three musicians, offering audiences a first look into an emerging theatrical song cycle about the spiritual and ancestral bond between a Black queer man and his grandmother. After witnessing his grandmother's transition, a grandson is drawn into an ancestral journey that carries him back to the American South in 1948, where he encounters the family secrets, impossible choices, and forgotten love that shaped generations before him. To break a curse of silence, he must confront an ancient wound before it is inherited once again. The performance holds two sonic worlds at once: the haunting textures of Mississippi Southern Gothic folk and blues, and the pulse of Bushwick's underground dance clubs. Through original music, storytelling, and movement, these worlds collide to create a ritual of memory, grief, joy, and queer liberation.
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