Premiere Stages

Premiere Stages is a professional equity theater company in residence at Kean University. Their primary goals are the development of new plays and the theatrical education of local youth. Premiere sponsors the Premiere Play Festival, a source for developing new plays. The winner of the festival receives a full-scale production as part of Premiere's season. The second-place finisher receives a staged reading to contribute to its further development. Apart from the festival winner, Premiere produces new works by established playwrights as well as established plays such as the 2006 Pulitzer Prize winning play Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire. Premiere's presentation of Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods, by Tammy Ryan was produced in collaboration with the Kean Human Rights Institute and Newark's Darfur Rehabilitation Project.