Premiere Stages, the professional Equity theatre in residence at Kean University, is pleased to recognize Poor Edward as a Semi-Finalist for the 2025 Premiere Play Festival. Poor Edward rose through a competitive selection conducted by Premiere staff and a panel of professionals to become distinguished among 805 submissions. The panel was impressed by the vivid and fleshed-out characters who grapple with imminent and heartbreaking destruction. Our congratulations and thanks to Jonathan.

It is the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's pleasure to recommend Jonathan Payne and their play Poor Edward as a finalist for our 2016 National Playwrights Conference. The play rose through a competitive, anonymous, multileveled selection process that took nearly nine months to execute. As one of 54 finalists out of more than 1,450 submissions, the strength of its writing has allowed this work to prosper in such a competitive selection process. Our readers especially appreciated the unique, specific, mysterious characters and the way they related to each other.