Submissions For The Premiere Stages 2025/2026 Liberty Live Commission Open In November

Premiere Stages, the professional theatre in residence at Kean University, will be accepting submissions for the 2025/2026 Liberty Live Commission, a biennial commissioning program for New Jersey playwrights in partnership with Kean's Liberty Hall Museum beginning Friday, November 1.

Now in its eighth incarnation, Liberty Live typically culminates with a professional Equity production of a new play that celebrates New Jersey history. Past winners include Talking to Westfield by E.M. Lewis (2012), At Liberty Hall by James Christy (2013/2014), My Lord, What a Night by Deborah Brevoort (2015/2016), Black Tom Island by Martin Casella (2017/2018), Robey by Joe Sutton (2019), Certain Aspects of Conflict in the Negro Family by TyLie Shider (2021/2022) and Still by Benjamin V. Marshall (2023/2024).

Playwrights are invited to submit proposals for new plays about New Jersey history to Premiere Stages. Submissions for the Commission will be accepted on a rolling basis throughout the calendar year rather than on a deadline.  Premiere Stages may also directly contact playwrights to explore potential Commission topics. All playwrights who are residents of New Jersey are eligible.

A shortlist of the submitted proposals will be selected as finalists and playwrights will be interviewed. The winning proposal will be selected by April 2025, and that playwright will be commissioned to write a play based on the submitted proposal. Upon completion of the first draft, the playwright will receive a $3,000 award. The winning play will be developed from April 2025 through October 2025 and will include three staged readings in October 2025 at Premiere Stages.

Over the life of the commission cycle, Premiere Stages will work with the playwright to continue to develop the play. Upon completion, the play will also be considered for a full production at Premiere Stages in 2026.

Please visit premierestagesatkean.com/play-festival/liberty-live/ or email pfsubmit@kean.edu for full guidelines. All entries are evaluated by a panel of theatre professionals and historians in consultation with Premiere's Producing Artistic Director, John J. Wooten.

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