Premiere Stages, the professional theater company in residence at Kean University, has named alumnus Tariq Hamami ’06 as the winner of the 2019 Bauer Boucher Playwriting Award. The $2,000 award is made possible by a sustaining gift from donors W. John Bauer and Nancy Boucher.
In addition to the cash prize, Hamami also received two professional public readings of his play at Kean University in Union and Lantern Hill Retirement Community in New Providence. Based on a true story, the play, “Smail,” dramatizes one man’s imprisonment and persecution during the Algerian Civil War.
Hamami’s full-length plays include “White Picket Fences” at the Access Theatre and “Spite” at the Cherry Lane Theatre in the New York International Fringe Festival. His work has also been developed and/or produced at the Horace Mann Theatre, Playsmiths, and Wide Eyed Productions. A graduate of Kean and Columbia University, Hamami teaches at The City College of New York and the Borough of Manhattan Community College. He won the inaugural Bauer Boucher Playwriting Award in 2014 for his play, “The One, Percy Ent.”
“I’m very thankful for the opportunity to develop ‘Smail’ with Premiere Stages,” Hamami said. “The play is in its early drafts and hearing it out loud is vital in order to move forward with the development process. Contrary to what some might think, it’s hard to find a company willing to work with new plays in its early stages. The opportunities Premiere Stages provides are vital and I’m very thankful for the help they’ve given me to move forward with the play.”
The Bauer Boucher Playwriting Award recognizes the work of one playwright each year from the Kean University student and alumni community. The selected play is directed by John J. Wooten, producing artistic director of Premiere Stages, and is performed by a cast of professional Actors’ Equity Association actors.
“Doing readings and workshops of new plays like this one is so essential because it’s the foundation for getting these works out there to a wider audience,” said Abraham Makany, who played the title character Smail. “That’s how you get new, vital stories and voices like Tariq’s out into the world."
“And the reading is only a part of it,” Wooten added. “Through John and Nancy’s incredible generosity, budding Kean University writers are also afforded enhanced visibility, dramaturgical feedback, and financial recognition of their work.”