Premiere Stages at Kean University Announces Semi-Finalists for 2024 Play Festival

(UNION, NJ) -- Premiere Stages, the professional theatre company in residence at Kean University, has announced the 2024 Premiere Play Festival Semi-Finalists.

The Play Festival panel and literary staff reviewed 760 submissions before choosing the 48 Semi-Finalists. From those 48 Semi-Finalists, four Finalists will be chosen in May for public readings. The readings will be held June 6-10, 2024 at the Bauer Boucher Theatre Center (Vaughn-Eames Hall, 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJ). One Finalist will be awarded a full production in Premiere Stages’ 2025 season.

“The semi-finalists explore an impressive array of contemporary issues” stated producing artistic director John J. Wooten “Kudos to Nick Gandiello, the literary team and our panel of readers for their careful consideration as they took on the difficult task of narrowing down a particularly impressive pool of 760 submissions to 48.”

In the nineteen seasons since its founding, the Premiere Play Festival has received over 8,000 submissions and developed more than 85 plays.

Multiple plays produced at Premiere have been honored by the American Theatre Critics Association, selected for agency representation,  and/or been published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide, 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.

48 SEMI-FINALISTS FOR THE 2024 PREMIERE PLAY FESTIVAL

• BEFORE THE THAW by Dan Aibel


• THE FAMILY SAVES A LIFE by jose sebastian alberdi


• LEMURIA by Bonnie Antosh


• MURDER GIRL by Heidi Armbruster


• SNOBS VS THE UNDERDOGS by Kia Barbee


• THE WORLD I HAVE KNOWN by Kari Bentley-Quinn


• LAND OF NO MERCY by Rae Binstock


• I GOT YOU by Suzanne Bradbeer


• THE OFFSEASON by Jonathan Caren


• THE MALLARD by Vincent Delaney


• ZIONISTA RISING by Alexa Derman


• ON THE DOCKET by Bryan Dykstra


• ANONYMOUS SKIN by Cris Eli Blak


• SCRIBE, OR THE SISTERS MILTON, OR ELEGY FOR THE UNWRITTEN by L Feldman


• GOOD TO GO by Craig Garcia


• YELLOW LIGHT by Justine Gelfman


• THE TOTALITY OF ALL THINGS by Erik Gernand


• CASTLING by Anthony Goss


• BELOVED SON by Matthew Greene


• THE ANCESTRY DOT COM PLAY by Alyssa Hadad-Chin


• DOGS by Hanna Kime


• TOMORROW AND TOMORROW by Matthew Libby


• KINGDOM OF WONDER by Shayan Lotfi


• APE by Dano Madden


• FIFTEEN HUNDRED by Gloria Majule


• STRAW POLL by Nicholas Malakhow


• THE COUSINS by Benjamin V. Marshall


• CATCH by Lara Miller


• FISH MEAT by Esme Ng


• (I AM [MY MOTHER)'S DAUGHTER] by Bianca Nkwonta


• THE DECOYS by Greg Pierce


• THE NEREIDS by Brian Quirk


• A GOOD GUY by David Rambo


• WET by Aurora Real de Asua


• DISPERSION OF LIGHT by Rich Rubin


• MARKED GREEN AT BIRTH, MARKED FEMALE AT BIRTH by Sophie Sagan-Gutherz


• GOOD HAIR by Phaedra Michelle Scott


• AN INVITATION TO ANNA'S WEDDING by Parade Stone


• LAERTES DIES TOO by Rachel Luann Strayer


• IDEE FIXE by Joe Sutton


• FAKE LAUGHTER by Rob Ulin


• WEREWOLVES: A PLAY ABOUT MONEY by Liba Vaynberg


• THIS IS A PLAY ABOUT BUTTONS by Emily Wanamaker


• ANAPHORA by Mallory Weiss


• WHEN GOLD TURNS BLACK by Ron Wilks


• OUR FATHER by Amy Witting


• GREAT WHITE by Deborah Yarchun


• NIGHTWATCH by Max Yu

Premiere Stages is 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, Carole Shaffer-Koros and Robert Koros and ExxonMobil Foundation, The Dubose and Dorothy Heyward Foundation, Blue Foundry Charitable Foundation, The Northfield Bank Foundation, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, The Union Foundation, E.J. Grassmann Trust, The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, The Union County HEART Grant and through the generous support of individual patrons and local organizations. Discover Jersey Arts is our marketing partner. Visit 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.

Kean University, New Jersey’s urban research university, is a national institution of higher education recognized for its diversity, innovation and the social mobility of its graduates. Founded in 1855 as a teachers college, Kean has evolved into a thriving research university that supports students as they persist to graduation, give back to their communities and launch successful careers. Kean’s six colleges offer more than 50 undergraduate programs, six doctoral degree programs and more than 70 options leading to master’s degrees, professional diplomas or certifications, across a full range of academic subjects. With campuses in Union, Toms River and Manahawkin, New Jersey, and Wenzhou, China, as well as Kean Online, the University provides students of all backgrounds an affordable and accessible world-class education.

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