Premiere Stages At Kean University Announces 2022 Premiere Play Festival Finalists

Premiere Stages, the professional theatre company in residence at Kean University, has selected its four finalists for the 2022 Premiere Play Festival. Now in its 17th year, the Festival is an annual competition for unproduced scripts that offers developmental opportunities to playwrights with strong affiliations to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware. This year's finalists were selected from 655 submissions.

This year's finalists are: Satellites by Erin Breznitsky, an O'Neill Playwrights Conference semi-finalist; Classic Six by Leigh Flayton, a 2021 National Playwrights Conference finalist; a home what howls (or the house what was ravine) by Matthew Paul Olmos, a three-time Sundance Institute Fellowship/Residency recipient; and The Gift of BS by Dave Osmundsen, a recipient of the Blank Theatre and Ucross Foundation's inaugural Future of Playwriting Prize.

In Ms. Breznitsky's Satellites, married couple Katherine & Mike are each on a mission to save the world. She's a scientist studying climate change; he's an astronaut exploring the unknown. When Mike's shuttle vanishes in outer space, Katherine forges ahead alone, raising their children and continuing her life's work until Mike suddenly reappears without explanation. As the couple struggles to adjust to his strange return, they're forced to reexamine their entire relationship-while also facing an uncertain future.

In Ms. Flayton's Classic Six, Frances Nolan works as a live-in nanny/researcher in Frank and Patricia McGuire's Classic Six Manhattan apartment. Twenty-five years later, Frances returns to the apartment and faces questions about her motives: Is Frances merely curious to revisit the place where she learned hard truths about marriage, power and accountability? Or does she plan to expose long buried secrets?

In Mr. Olmos's a home what howls (or the house what was ravine), the Vargas Family is displaced from their home. As parents Abrana and Manuel try to live off the land, the fear of the outside world becomes a never-ending nightmare. Meanwhile, daughter Soledad attempts an uphill battle to save the family's legacy, pitted against the powerful gears of progress.

In Mr. Osmundsen's The Gift of BS, William Johansson, age 46, is not exactly living his best life. On top of his wife leaving him, his father dying, and being fired from his job, he also realizes that he is Autistic. When he reconnects with a former student who is also Autistic, he embarks on an emotional journey of self-acceptance.

All finalists will receive professional readings, as part of Premiere's 17th annual Spring Reading Series April 21-24, and will be considered for expanded development in Premiere's mainstage season. One of the four plays will be selected for an Actors' Equity Association (AEA) 29-Hour Reading and the most promising play will be awarded a full AEA production as part of Premiere's 2023 season. All finalists receive cash awards ranging from $1,000 to $3,000. Readings are offered by invitation only. To request admission to any of the readings, please call Premiere's Administrative Office at 908-737-4077 or email premiere@kean.edu

This year's submissions were evaluated through a process coordinated by Premiere Stages' Play Festival and Educational Manager Nick Gandiello and Literary Associate Danielle Feder, in partnership with esteemed panelists William Eddy, Erik Gernand, Marshall Jones III, Claudia Nolan, Lysna Marzani, Carole Shaffer-Koros, Annie Wang and Ernest Wiggins.

The following semifinalists were also honored in this year's competition: The Difference Between Big Girls and Little Girls by Serena Berman, I Got You by Suzanne Bradbeer, The Beautiful Things Are Gonna Kill You by Amara Brady, Dupe by Adrienne Dawes, Homesick by Ryan Drake, Landscape by Emma Durbin, Speak Freely by Andrea Feist Stein, Cataract by Dominic Finocchiaro, If Nobody Does Remarkable Things by Emma Gibson, The One, Percy Ent by Tariq Hamami, The Flower and The Fury by Alexa Jordan, Ravage by Nina Ki, Eelpout by Paul Kruse, Wyrd by Mat Minnicino, The Savior and The Queen of Uruk by Michael Monroe, Lilith : Maria by Laura Neill, Juggernaut by Ciara Ni Chuirc, The Dust by Brian Otaño, Stay Safe by Stav Palti-Negev, The Varieties of Religious Experience by Brendan Pelsue, Black Doves by Reynaldo Piniella, The Agency by Lia Romeo, Take My Hand and Wave Goodbye by Tammy Ryan, Diaspora by Phaedra Michelle Scott, I Love Television by Matthew Paul Smith, Joseph Cook by Jeff Talbot, The Buzzer by Chandra Thomas, Ashland: A Shakespeare Play by Melissa Toomey, Laws of the Universe by Suzanne Trauth, Half of Chopsticks by Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters and Jay and the Contest by Matt Webster.

In the seventeen seasons since its founding, the Premiere Play Festival has received over 6,500 submissions and developed more than eighty plays. Multiple plays produced at Premiere have been honored by the American Theatre Critics Association, selected for agency representation, and/or been published by Concord, 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.

Masks are currently optional for the campus community and patrons visiting the Kean University campus for most events. Kean University reserves the right to amend this policy at any time.

Premiere Stages offers affordable prices, air-conditioned facilities and free parking close to the theatre. Premiere Stages also provides free or discounted tickets to patrons with disabilities. All Premiere Stages facilities are fully accessible spaces, and companion seating is available for patrons with disabilities. Assistive listening devices and large print programs are available at all times; publications in alternate formats are available with advance notice. Sign-interpreted and audio described performances are available by request, at least two weeks in advance. For more information, please visit Premiere Stages online at premierestagesatkean.com.

The 2022 Play Festival Spring Readings will be produced in part by Carole Shaffer-Koros and Robert Koros and ExxonMobil Foundation. Premiere Stages is also made possible in part through funding from W. John Bauer and Nancy Boucher, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Dubose and Dorothy Heyward Foundation, The Northfield Bank Foundation, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, The Union Foundation, E.J. Grassmann Trust, The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, Investors Foundation, The Union County HEART Grant and through the generous support of individual patrons and local organizations. Discover Jersey Arts is our marketing partner. Visit www.JerseyArts.com for more information about other arts programming happening around the Garden State.

Premiere Stages is committed to producing topical plays and interactive programs that reflect people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds, national origins, nationalities, ancestry, religious groups, gender expression or identities, sexual orientation, political beliefs, ages, abilities and disabilities.

Created in 2004, Premiere Stages is the professional Equity theatre in residence at Kean University. Through its unique partnership with Kean, Premiere's play development programs, educational initiatives, and professional development opportunities actively embrace the university's academic curriculum while expanding the scope, accessibility, and prestige of the professional programming on campus. For more information, please visit Premiere Stages online at premierestagesatkean.com

Founded in 1855, Kean University is one of the largest metropolitan institutions of higher education in the region, with a richly diverse student, faculty and staff population. Kean continues to play a key role in the training of teachers and is a hub of educational, technological and cultural enrichment serving more than 16,000 students. The University's six undergraduate colleges offer more than 50 undergraduate degrees over a full range of academic subjects. The Nathan Weiss Graduate College offers six doctoral degree programs and more than 80 options for graduate study leading to master's degrees, professional diplomas or certifications. With campuses in Union, Toms River, Jefferson and Manahawkin, New Jersey, and Wenzhou, China, Kean University furthers its mission by providing an affordable and accessible world-class education. Visit kean.edu.

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