Klea Blackhurst, Gabriel Bernal and More to Star in MIX/MATCH at Prospect Musicals

Prospect Musicals has revealed the full cast and creative team for their 2025-26 Season Musical Theater Lab, titled MIX/MATCH.

This fall, characters mix, mingle, and meet their dramatic match in a matrix of hot-off-the-presses musical shorts exploring interpersonal relationships. For each new musical, writing teams randomly selected a group of relationship descriptors, and were asked to mix and match these characters to create narrative arc, character growth, and discovery – all clocking in at a fast-paced ten minutes or less. This line-up of new short musicals will debut in concert on November 20th & 21st at 7:30pm at Baruch Performing Arts Center.

The cast includes: Gabriel Bernal (The Lightning Thief, National Tour), Klea Blackhurst (Dolly: a True Original Musical), Julia Kim Caldwell (“Gangnam Project”), Karl Josef Co (CSC’s Pacific Overtures), David Foley, Jr. (Funny Girl, National Tour), Gabriela Gomez (Rent, Music Theatre of CT), Arturo Hernandez (The Tale of Moana), Sara James (Charlotte Lucas is 27 and Not Dead), Jadon Lopez (The Names We Gave Him), Gunnar Manchester (Macbeth in Stride at BAM), Zachary A. Myers (A Strange Loop, Broadway), Salma Qarnain (Life of Pi, Broadway), Jamila Sabares-Klemm (Merrily We Roll Along, Broadway), Gordon Stanley (Beauty and the Beast, Broadway), and Anita Welch-Smith (The Oscar Micheaux Project).

The Lab concert is music directed by Chris Gierymski and Minhui Lee. Stage managers are Chris M. Russo and Nina Schatell, assisted by Katie Claire Harrigan. Kate Semmens is artistic associate and Jillian Smith is production assistant. Prospect’s Associate Artistic Director, Dev Bondarin, directs.

As previously announced, the writer cohort includes Shaina Ahmed & Miu Sato, Hannah Bakke, RJ Christian & Cameron Reese, Jacinth Greywoode & AriDy Nox, Howard Ho, Sair Kaufman & George Luton, Thalia Ranjbar & Kat Cartusciello, Adam J. Rineer, and Felipe Segovia Sanhueza & Maiga Vidal.

Each year, Prospect's Musical Theater Lab brings together a cadre of up-and-coming writing teams to create short musicals in response to a curated assignment. The 6-week program features in-person writer meetings, workshop rehearsals, and culminates in a public presentation of the new works generated through the lab process. The program is co-curated by Dev Bondarin and Producing Artistic Director Cara Reichel.