Prestigious STAGE International Script Competition Now Accepting Scripts

December 1, 2011 is the upcoming deadline for submitting a play to the 5th STAGE International Script Competition. In just five years, the award has become one of the most respected and prestigious prizes in playwriting. STAGE - Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating Exploration - gives a $10,000 prize for the best new script about science and technology.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire will be one of the five judges to choose the winning script. The remaining panel of award-winning playwrights and Nobel Laureate scientists will be announced after the first of the year.

Each cycle of the biennial competition has been juried by an impressive team of gifted artists and scientists. Pulitzer, Tony, Olivier and Nobel winners David Auburn, David Lindsay-Abaire, John Guare, Dr. Alan Heeger and Sir Anthony Leggett selected The Altruists, by British playwright Craig Baxter, as the winner of the 4th Competition. In the preceding cycle, this same stellar jury named Anna Ziegler's Photograph 51 as the winner. Photograph 51 is currently being produced as a feature film by Academy Award-nominated director Darren Aronofsky (BLACK SWAN), Academy Award-winning Actress Rachel Weisz, and Ari Handel. Ms. Ziegler is adapting her play for the screen.

As the STAGE Competition has risen in stature, it has also expanded its international reach. The winner of the 5th cycle will first be announced to the public in mid-July in Dublin, the 2012 European City of Science. Later in the year, in October, the playwright will receive their $10,000 prize from a science Nobel Laureate at an award ceremony in Dublin. In tandem with the ceremony, there will be a staged reading of the winning play, performed by professional Irish actors in one of Dublin's attractive theatrical venues. It is expected that some prominent actors will be among the cast. Nancy Kawalek, Founder/Director of STAGE, will direct the reading.

Plays written in English, including translations, may be submitted to this global competition from anywhere in the world. In addition to the generous financial award, the winning playwright receives access to advice and guidance from accomplished theatre, media, science, engineering and technology experts. Other development opportunities for the winning script are often possible.

STAGE began as a unique collaboration among artists and scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The program, which is housed at the campus' esteemed California NanoSystems Institute, develops theatre that depicts the technological age in which we live, fosters new and imaginative voices and methods of storytelling, and promotes understanding of the sciences in the public arena.

For more information:
STAGE: www.stage.cnsi.ucsb.edu
California NanoSystems Institute: www.cnsi.ucsb.edu

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