(UNION, NJ) -- Premiere Stages, the professional theatre company in residence at Kean University, is pleased to announce the 2025 Premiere Play Festival Semi-Finalists. The Play Festival panel and literary staff reviewed 805 submissions, an increase of 45 submissions from the previous year, before choosing the 78 Semi-Finalists, representing an eclectic mix of plays, that explore a wide range of topics.

For the complete list of the Semi-Finalists, click here.

“We were thrilled to read the work of over 800 playwrights,” stated Nick Gandiello, Premiere’s Managing Director who supervised the submission process “Our literary team and panel were honored to review each submission to choose these 78 Semi-Finalists. The selected plays showcase the vibrancy of American playwriting.”

From those 78 Semi-Finalists, four Finalists will be chosen for readings in June. The staged readings will be held June 19 through June 22 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’ 2026 season.

In the twenty seasons since its founding, the Premiere Play Festival has received over 8,800 submissions and developed more than 100 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 Theatricals, Dramatists Play Service, Dramatic Publishing, 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.

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 Shubert Foundation, Carole Shaffer-Koros and Robert Koros and ExxonMobil Foundation, The Northfield Bank Foundation, Blue Foundry Charitable Foundation, Union County Savings Bank Charitable 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 their 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. Designated an R2 research university by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, Kean ranks among the top eight percent of U.S. universities for research and doctorate production. 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.