Premiere Stages at Kean University Seeking Submissions to Annual Play Festival

Premiere Stages, the professional theatre company in residence at Kean University, is accepting submissions for the 20th annual Premiere Play Festival beginning Sunday, September 1. This yearly competition for unproduced scripts offers developmental and production opportunities to up to four playwrights with strong ties to the greater metropolitan area (New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware). Previous winners of the Premiere Play Festival have included Dominique Morisseau, Vincent Delaney, Tammy Ryan, Guillermo Reyes, Keith Josef Adkins, Kathyrn Grant, Craig Garcia, Erik Gernand, Gino Diiorio, Erin Breznitsky and Scott Organ, whose production of Diversion begins performances on Thursday, September 5.

“As we embark on our twentieth year of supporting playwrights, we look forward to continuing to develop and produce topical plays that provide unique and compelling stories about our rapidly changing world,” stated John J. Wooten, Producing Artistic Director of Premiere Stages.

Premiere will accept submissions September 1 through November 1, 2024, and select four finalists in Spring 2025; any submissions received before or after this submission window will not be considered. In an effort to streamline the process and make it more user-friendly, Premiere will accept all submissions electronically through Submittable at premierestagesatkean.submittable.com/submit/ (this link is also available through Premiere’s website). There is no fee to enter the competition. Complete submission guidelines are available at premierestagesatkean.com/play-festival/guidelines/. 

All finalists will receive one-day developmental readings, scheduled for Spring 2025 with a winner and runner-up to be announced in Fall 2025. The festival winner will be awarded a $3,000 advance and receive a full Equity production in either July or September 2026; another finalist will be awarded $1,500 and an Equity 29-hour staged reading. The remaining finalists will each receive an award of $1,000. In 2023, Premiere Stages received 760 submissions to the 2024 Festival. 48 Semi-Finalists were announced in April 2024 and four finalists went on to have staged readings at the Bauer Boucher Theatre Center in June 2024.

Through the uniquely accelerated Play Festival process, Premiere Stages provides an encouraging and highly focused environment in which playwrights can develop their work. Premiere Stages also actively advocates for Festival writers by reaching out to other theatres to secure subsequent productions, and partners with other organizations and theatres to extend the profile and life of the works developed.

In the nineteen seasons since its founding, the Premiere Play Festival has received over 7,950 submissions and developed more than ninety plays. Multiple plays produced at Premiere have been honored by the American Theatre Critics Association, selected for agency representation, and/or been published by TRW Plays, Concord/Samuel French, Dramatists Play Service, Dramatic Publishing Company, Playscripts, and Broadway Play Publishing. A number of Play Festival winners and finalists have subsequently been produced in New York, internationally and at regional theatres across the country. 

All 2025 Premiere Play Festival entries will be evaluated by a panel of theatre professionals in consultation with Premiere artistic staff. Agents and theatre professionals with an affiliation to Premiere Stages may submit full scripts; playwrights may submit a synopsis and script sample directly. Premiere Stages will request full scripts to read from samples and synopses that suggest the play is viable for the upcoming season. All samples and synopses are considered; the winners of the 2022 and 2023 Premiere Play Festival were first submitted as samples.

Premiere Stages is committed to supporting a diverse group of writers; playwrights of all backgrounds, ages, and experience levels are encouraged to submit. All entrants are encouraged to review Premiere Stages’ production history, which is also posted on the website, premierestagesatkean.com.