Premiere Stages will be accepting proposals on a rolling basis. Playwrights can send their submissions to pfsubmit@kean.edu.

No. There is no application fee for any Premiere Stages program.

The Liberty Live Commission is intended to support completely new works that are developed with the support of Premiere Stages; we discourage playwrights from submitting proposals for scripts that they have also developed elsewhere.

The Liberty Live Commission is not currently accepting proposals for works of musical theatre. Plays that include music as part of the action (music played or sung by characters onstage, for example) are permitted. 

Absolutely! The recommended submission topics are ideas to prompt writers to start thinking about New Jersey’s dramatic history. We are always happy to read proposals for other exciting topics of which we’re not yet aware. 

All of the submitted proposals are reviewed by a panel of theatre and history professionals. This panel submits their recommendations to the Producing Artistic Director and staff of Premiere Stages, who select the list of finalists based on those recommendations and awards the commission after interviewing finalists. 

The finalist interview is a chance for us to get to know playwrights better than we can through their submission packet. We want to hear about your work as a playwright and this historical event in personal terms – what excites you about the story, what you’re eager to try as a writers, and what you think the challenges will be – as well as getting a chance to walk through the schedule and hear how you would plan to tackle the two-year writing process. 

Premiere Stages has supported seven writers in two-year cycles through the Liberty Live Commission: Benjamin V. Marshall, TyLie Shider, Joe Sutton, Martin Casella, Deborah Brevoort, James Christy, and E.M. Lewis. For a full list with play descriptions, visit the history page.