Deadline: November 18th at 11:59pm
Prospect Musicals seeks applicants to participate in the 18th installment of its annual Musical Theater Lab program.
Each year, Prospect's Lab brings together writing teams to create short musicals in response to a curated assignment. The 6-week program culminates in a public presentation of the new works generated through the lab process. The 2025 Lab features in-person writer meetings, rehearsals, and concert performance.
As Prospect is in the midst of celebrating the company’s 25th year of producing new work, this year's Lab — titled JUMP CUT — will have a central theme of time, and how change occurs over time. From dawn to dusk, the Renaissance to the Roaring 20s, or 11:01 to 11:30, each writing team will randomly be assigned a length of time and asked to create a short piece which jumps through time to create narrative arc, character growth, and discovery. We look forward to exploring all facets of this theme in our curatorial process with the selected writing teams.
Each selected Lab writing team will create a short (8-10 minute) musical sparked by the writing prompt, to be performed by a cast of 2-4 performers. Works generated in the Lab will be presented in a one-night-only, concert-style public performance on Thursday February 20, 2025 @ 7:30pm at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway, NYC) in the Peter J. Sharp Theater.
Selected Lab writers will be invited to pitch three show concepts. With curatorial input, writing teams will select one of these ideas to develop into an 8-10 minute long musical. The short, new works will be written between Jan. 6 - Feb. 1, and then workshopped and rehearsed between Feb. 4 - 19, and presented as a single evening's concert. The culminating Lab presentation will be directed by Dev Bondarin, Prospect's Associate Artistic Director.
Writers receive a modest honorarium for their participation in the Lab.
Writers retain all copyright/ownership of their work.
Writers who have previously participated in the Lab are welcome to re-apply, but not in the session immediately following their participation. (Ie: Writers may not participate in two back to back Labs, they must take one year off before re-applying.)