Event Description

A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition.^[1] A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first presentation in each country, and an online première^[2] (the first time it is published on the Internet).

When a work originates in a country that speaks a different language from that in which it is receiving its national or international première, it is possible to have two premières for the same work in the same country—for example, the play The Maids by the French dramatist Jean Genet received its British première (which also happened to be its world première) in 1952, in a production given in the French language. Four years later, it was staged again, this time in English, which was its English-language première in Britain.