Department of Theatre Facilities and Production History
Get to know the spaces where we build and produce our work.
In the over 90 year history of theatre at Kean, productions have been mounted in several spaces on campus. The Department's main home is the Bauer Boucher Theatre Center, housed in the Vaughn-Eames building. As a result of a major naming gift to Premiere Stages in 2018, the Theatre wing of Vaughn-Eames received a facelift and accessibility upgrades. The two theatre spaces, the costume shop, scene shop, technical classrooms, lobby and box office are collectively known as The Bauer Boucher Theatre Center.
Similar to the Zella Fry Theatre, the Murphy-Dunn, named for retired faculty James Murphy and Peggy Dunn in 2004, is a flexible black box space with seating for ~99. The Murphy-Dunn is also used for some course work and is Kean Theatre Council’s primary producing space.
This space was dedicated to Professor Zella Fry in 1978, just a couple years after opening. Professor Fry oversaw the development of the first formal degree programs in theatre at Kean and contributed to the original design of the two theatre spaces in the Lenore Vaughn-Eames building. The Zella Fry Theatre is a flexible black box space with seating for up to ~120 depending on configuration and remains one of the department's primary MainStage performance spaces, as well as the main home of Premiere Stages. (Pictured: The set of Blood Wedding in the Zella Fry Theatre, 2018-2019, set and photo by David Barber.)
Opened in 1968, and named in honor of former president Eugene Wilkins, this 902 seat Proscenium style space is where the department produces one to two productions in the MainStage season. (Pictured: The set of Alice by Heart in the Wilkins Theatre, 2024-2025, set and photo by David Barber.)
Opened in 2010, this 302-seat state-of-the-art recital hall is where the department produces the annual musical theatre workshop production and conducts end of semester voice juries for voice studio students and musical theatre majors.
The Scene shop, completed as part of the expansion of the Vaughn-Eames building in the 2010s, provides technical support and building space for all Kean Department of Theatre and Premiere Stages Productions.
The Costume shop, completed as part of the expansion of the Vaughn-Eames building in the 2010s, provides technical support and building spaces for all Kean Department of Theatre and Premiere Stages Productions.
The new addition to the Vaughn-Eames in the 2010s expanded Theatre’s dedicated learning spaces. In addition to the scene shop and costume shop, the department gained dedicated costume storage, a design lab, a lighting/makeup lab, a smart lecture/conference room, and a Dance Studio that serves as the Department's and Premiere Stage’s main rehearsal space. These are complemented by other dedicated theatre spaces like the acting studio and smart lecture style classrooms on the third floor of the Vaughn-Eames building.
Kean University Department of Theatre has a rich production history stretching back to the earliest days of theatre as an extracurricular on campus in 1931. For those interested in our full production history, please click the link below. Check back soon for photo galleries of some of our production highlights.