Art design by Yadira Hernandez
(UNION, NJ) -- Premiere Stages at Kean University presents the premiere production of The Mallard by Vincent Delaney from July 17-August 3, 2025 in Kean University's Bauer Boucher Theatre Center. The Mallard was the winner of the 2024 Premiere Play Festival. Directed by Premiere Stages Producing Artistic Director John J. Wooten, the cast features Eddie Gouveia Blackman, Susan Ferrara, Jennifer Leigh Houston, Victoria Pollack and Woodrow Proctor.
In this new comedic play, Freya and Gillian are teachers who have offended their school board and lost their jobs. Davis and Reagan are yard sale fanatics in search of a priceless antique duck decoy, the Horace Crandall Mallard. What follows is a fierce, funny and escalating battle over a symbol that has wildly different meanings- intersecting the couples in a journey that far surpasses the quest for treasure.
The Mallard runs July 17-August 3 in the Bauer Boucher Theatre Center (Vaughn Eames Hall, 1000 Morris Avenue) on the Kean University main campus in Union, New Jersey. The performance schedule is Thursday, July 17 at 7:30pm, Thursdays, July 24 and 31 at 1:00pm, Fridays at 7:30pm, Saturdays at 3:00pm & 7:30pm, and Sundays at 3:00pm.
Tickets for the Opening Night of The Mallard are $100. Tickets for all other performances are $40.50 standard, $30.50 for senior citizens and Kean alumni and staff, $25.50 for patrons with disabilities and $18 for students, inclusive of any fees. Significant discounts for groups of ten or more apply. Tickets are available for purchase online or by calling the box office at 908-737-7469.
Celebrate the kick-off of Premiere Stages’ 20th Season at the Opening Night of The Mallard on Friday, July 18. Join Premiere Stages for a pre-show cocktail party with live music at the historic Kean Hall at Kean University. Following the performance, mingle with the cast in the theatre lobby while enjoying champagne and dessert.
Vincent Delaney’s plays have been produced, commissioned and developed at the Guthrie, Humana Festival, Florida Studio Theatre, LAByrinth, New Harmony Project, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Florida Stage, the Children’s Theatre Company, the Magic, Woolly Mammoth, Shakespeare and Company, Pittsburgh Public, the Lark, PlayLabs, Capital Rep and Orlando Shakes, among many others. His play Las Cruces was the winner of the 2016 Premiere Stages Play Festival and had its world premiere in September 2016.
Director John J. Wooten has been nominated as Best Director multiple times by the Newark Star-Ledger and has staged numerous productions that have been honored by the American Theatre Critics Association. As a playwright, John’s widely published work has been produced commercially in New York, internationally and in regional theatres across America. He was awarded the New Jersey Theatre Alliance Star Award in 2023 and his second fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in 2021.
The cast of The Mallard (left to right): Susan Ferrara, Woodrow Proctor, Jennifer Leigh Houston, Eddie Gouveia Blackman, Victoria Pollack
The accomplished cast includes Eddie Gouveia Blackman, whose theatre credits include Certain Aspects of Conflict in the Negro Family (Premiere Stages) and Chicken & Biscuits (Crossroads Theatre); Susan Ferrara, an award-winning actor-writer whose work includes the Onion News Network and the award-winning web series Then We Got Help; Jennifer Leigh Houston, star of the hilarious indie comedy/horror movie Evil Sublet, Victoria Pollack, whose theater credits include “The Girl” in the UK premiere of Minetti (Barbican, London; Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh), and Woodrow Proctor, who most recently appeared in The 39 Steps at Virginia Theater.
Understudies for the production are Kean Theatre Conservatory alumni Kara Groom and Ken Macalos.
The professional design team includes Set Designer Bethanie Wampol-Watson, Costume Designer Karen Lee Hart, Lighting Designer Zack Gage, Sound Designer Tyler Sautner and Props Master and Scenic Artist Michael Brinskele. Casting is by Stephanie Klapper, CSA. Dale Smallwood is the Production Stage Manager. Roe Manzo is the Assistant Stage Manager.
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 three weeks in advance. Please call 908-737-4077 or email [email protected] to request these services.
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.
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.
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 our marketing partner.Visit JerseyArts.com for more information about other arts programming happening around the Garden State.
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.
