A world class panel of judges including Pulitzer, Tony and Emmy award winners and Nobel Laureate scientists will select the best play from a shortlist of three scripts. The winner will be announced in July. A few months later, in October, the winning playwright will be awarded a $10,000 cash prize and their play will have a staged reading with professional Irish actors at the Samuel Beckett Theatre at Trinity College Dublin.

STAGE – Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating Exploration - is housed at the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and comes to Dublin as a result of the efforts of CRANN, the Science Foundation Ireland funded nanoscience institute at Trinity College Dublin.

Of the over 200 scripts submitted to the competition from around the world, the three shortlisted scripts are:

• Ear to the Edge of Time, by Alana Valentine, a playwright from Sydney, Australia, which focuses on astronomical physics and the culture of scientific discovery
• Sequence, by daytime eye doctor/night time playwright Arun Lakra of Calgary, Canada, which explores the need for order in all of our lives
• This Rough Magic,by New York advertising executive turned playwright Richard Manley, which examines the solutions that technology provides in increasingly solitary lives.

Judges include Dr. Robert C. Richardson and Dr. Frank Wilczek, Nobel Laureates in Physics; Tony Kushner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, Olivier Award and Emmy Award, among others; David Lindsay-Abaire, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright; Dr. David Wineland, winner of the USA Benjamin Franklin Medal and National Medal of Science; and Donald Margulies, Pulitzer Prize and Obie Award-winning playwright.

Ireland was chosen as a venue because of our artistic heritage and scientific successes. Commenting on Ireland’s hosting of STAGE, Dr. Diarmuid O’Brien, Executive Director of CRANN said, “We are delighted to bring the STAGE competition to Ireland.  STAGE is the perfect fusion of art and science and the fact that Dublin was chosen to host the winning performance is a real celebration of our successes in these areas. The Dublin City of Science Festival aims to promote people’s awareness and understanding of science and STAGE is a great way to bring this message to the wider public.”

Details about obtaining tickets to the award ceremony and special performance of the STAGE Competition winning play will be made available later in the year.

The Dublin City of Science 2012 programme was developed to mark the honour of hosting one of the most prestigious international science events, the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) 2012, the largest general science event in Europe, taking place in Dublin on 11th – 15th July.  This important gathering will provide a platform for debate, as well as for influencing policy and strengthening the links between science and society.

For more information, please visit www.dublinscience2012.ie, www.esof2012.org, and www.stage.cnsi.ucsb.edu.

About CRANN:

The Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN) is Trinity College Dublin’s largest research institute and a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded Centre for Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET), which partners with University College Cork (UCC). CRANN is focused on delivering world leading research and innovation – through extensive proactive collaborations with industry and through commercialisation of intellectual property.  Since its foundation, CRANN has obtained €200M of competitive funding from Government, Industry, the European Union and Philanthropy.  CRANN is comprised of a team of over 300 researchers, led by 18 Principal Investigators (PIs), each of whom is an internationally recognised expert in their field of research. It is interdisciplinary working in partnership with the Schools of Physics, Chemistry, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science, Medicine and Engineering based at Trinity College Dublin as well as the School of Chemistry at University College Cork. CRANN is also co-host to CCAN, the Competence Centre for Applied Nanotechnology which facilitates industry collaboration to develop nano-enabled solutions for Irish-based companies.

About STAGE:

The STAGE International Script Competition, now in its fifth cycle, awards a $10,000 USD prize for the best new play about science and technology in content and/or form.

STAGE – Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating Exploration – a unique collaboration between art and science, is housed at the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara. STAGE is engaged in two primary activities:

• The STAGE International Script Competition (www.stage.cnsi.ucsb.edu/competition), that awards a $10,000 prize to the best new play about science and technology; and
• The STAGE Collaboratory (www.stage.cnsi.ucsb.edu/collaboratory), a developmental lab where professional artists create multi-media theatre pieces in which science and technology play prominent roles in content and/or form.

STAGE endeavours to cultivate appreciation and collaboration between the two cultures of science and art; Catalyse the development of art that depicts the technological age in which we live; Promote understanding of the sciences in the public arena; Foster new and imaginative voices and methods of storytelling; Accomplish all of the above within an international community.

See www.stage.cnsi.ucsb.edu for more information.

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