2023 Premiere Play Festival finalists are announced

Premiere Stages, the professional theater company in residence at Kean University, has selected its four finalists for the 2023 Premiere Play Festival. Now in its 18th year, the festival is an annual competition for unproduced scripts that offers developmental opportunities to playwrights with strong affiliations to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware. This year’s finalists were selected from 701 submissions.

This year’s finalists are: “Diversion,” by Scott Organ, whose work has been commissioned by The Atlantic Theater Company and developed by The Barrow Group and Page 73; “The Fertile River,” by Vincent Terrell Durham, a Samuel French Short Play Festival winner and an O’Neill semi-finalist; “Flowers for Men,” by Christian Mendonça, a 2018 finalist for the Goldberg Play Prize; and “Uhuru,” by Gloria Majule, an inaugural recipient of Atlantic Theater Company's Judith Champion Launch Commission.

In “Diversion,” Emilia is a devoted nurse in an ICU unit, highly regarded by her boss, Bess, and her peers: Amy, Mike and the new hire, Mandy, who Emilia has taken under her wing. When it’s discovered that someone on the unit is stealing medicine, the nurses are unsettled, particularly when an outsider shows up, effectively placing them all under a microscope. When the culprit is finally revealed, the nurses must fight to save themselves and the integrity of the unit.

In “The Fertile River,” it’s the summer of 1958 and Mrs. Sarah Woods has been visiting colored families in a small rural North Carolina community on a mission from the state. Cora Lee Burden is the latest to receive an appointment notice from Mrs. Woods. The 64-year-old grandmother of a mentally challenged child has no idea what a white social worker from the government would want with her family. But being a colored woman of the south, she knows the visit is a call for caution.

In “Flowers for Men,” Henri, a social worker, gets funding to test out his pilot program. “Flowers for Men,” a five-week healing journey that asks men to nourish a flower into blossoming and to heal a relationship in their personal lives. Easi- er said than done. Will this group of six men make it out of this program ready to grow, or will they be hell-bent on selfdestruction? A review of toxic masculinity, machismo, forgiveness, and the grace and self-love that men often fail to afford themselves and others.

In “Uhuru,” Mshale, a Mount Kilimanjaro tour guide, dreams of marrying a white woman and moving to the west. Sprite sets out to decolonize what he deems “his mountain.” Henry and Frannie are white missionaries who claim to be Tanzanian. As the four journey up to the roof of Africa, the looming ghost of colonialism dictates who gets to reach the peak and who gets left behind.

All finalists received professional readings, as part of Premiere’s 18th annual Play Festival Finalists Reading Series from Thursday, June 8, through Sunday, June 11, at Enlow Recital Hall, and will be considered for expanded development in Premiere’s mainstage season. One of the four plays will be selected for an Actors’ Equity Association 29-Hour Reading in November and the most promising play will be awarded a full AEA production, as part of Premiere’s 2024 season. All finalists receive cash awards ranging from $1,000 to $3,000. Readings are offered by invitation only. To request admission to any of the readings, call 908-737-4077 or email premiere@kean.edu.

This year’s submissions were evaluated through a process coordinated by Premiere Stages’ Play Festival and Education Manager Nick Gandiello, Literary Associate Emily Dzioba and Literary Assistant Jessica DeLuca, in partnership with esteemed panelists Erin M. Callahan, Gino Diiorio, William Eddy, Benjamin Marshall, Lysna Marzani, Claudia Nolan, Matthew Paul Olmos and Ernest Wiggins.

The following semi-finalists were also honored in this year’s competition: “Killer,” by Steve Apostolina; “thou shalt be healed,” by Benjamin Benne; “M-Theory,” by Jami Brandli; “The Reservoir,” by Jake Brasch; “#BecklandisCancelled,” by Alicia Carroll; “The Seekers,” by Jeesun Choi; “backstroke boys,” by Xavier Clark; “Hotel Limbo,” by Alice Cohen; “The Fertile River,” by Vincent Terrell Durham; “Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves,” by Gina Femia; “Stay Up and Keep Rolling,” by Maximillian Gill; “Order My Steps,” by Kathryn Grant; “Motherland,” by Allison Gregory; “Sunny Days,” by Reina Hardy; “Invasive Species,” by Tori Keenan-Zelt; “Sisters,” by Matthew Libby; “Uhuru,” by Gloria Majule; “The High Priestess,” by Andrew Martini; “Flowers for Men,” by Christian Mendonça; “For the People,” by Carol Mullen; “Pearl Dust from a Gun,” by Esmé Maria Ng; “La Potencia,” by Mel Nieves; “Diversion” by Scott

Organ; “Saturday Mourning Cartoons,” by Iraisa Reilly; “Jesus Plays Basketball on a Hot Night in Iraq,” by Tyler Rivenbark; “Color Boy,” by Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel; “Stockade,” by Andrew Rosendorf; “Confirmation,” by Madeline Rouverol; “Take My Hand and Wave Goodbye,” by Tammy Ryan; “An Interpretation of Anna,” by Natalie Sacks; “The Caldera,” by Sarah Saltwick; “Labor,” by TyLie Shider; “Who’s Yehoodi?” by Jerry Slaff; “Breakfalls,” by Gina Stevensen; “Brother Johnny’s Homestyle BBQ,” by Parade Stone; “Into the Side of A Hill,” by James Anthony Tyler; “The Halal Brothers,” by Alaudin Ullah; “The Matriarchs,” by Liba Vaynberg; “Come to Me, Cling to You,” by Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters; and “Luminescence,” by Emily Welty.

In the 18 seasons since its founding, the Premiere Play Festival has received more than 7,200 submissions and developed more than 80 plays. Multiple plays produced at Premiere have been honored by the American Theatre Critics Association, selected for agency representation and/or been published by 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 theaters across the country.