The CRANN building at the Trinity College Dublin campus
Trinity College Dublin’s CRANN is preparing to host the STAGE International Script Competition during Dublin’s tenure as City of Science this year, with a prize of US$10,000 for the best new play about science and technology.
The Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN) managed to edge ahead of international competition to bring the STAGE International Script Competition to Ireland during a special year of science and innovation for the country.
The competition judges in Dublin will include a Pulitzer Prize winner and a Nobel Laureate, whose names have not yet been disclosed.
Judges for the last STAGE cycle were Pulitzer Prize and Tony-Award winning playwright David Auburn; Tony, Olivier and Obie Award-winning playwright John Guare; Nobel Laureate Alan Heeger; Nobel Laureate and KBE Sir Anthony Leggett; and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire.
STAGE itself, which is an acronym for Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating Exploration, began as an alliance between the Professional Artists Lab and the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), which has locations at UCLA and UC, Santa Barbara. CRANN has fostered a good relationship with CNSI around nanotechnology.
Speaking this morning, Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, CRANN’s executive director, said the competition reflects a “perfect fusion” between science and art.
“As part of Dublin City of Science 2012, we hope to promote the understanding of the sciences among the general public, and STAGE will be instrumental in doing so,” he said.
Dublin will host Europe’s largest science conference, the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) 2012 from 11-15 July 2012. To coincide, the winner of the 5th STAGE International Script Competition will first be announced to the public.
Later in the year, STAGE and CRANN will host the award ceremony, at which the winning playwright will receive his or her STAGE Award from a science Nobel Laureate. There will be a staged reading of the winning play.
Last year’s winner from the British playwright Craig Baxter, The Altruists, depicted London during the ‘Swinging Sixties’ and featured insights on scientific research into evolutionary biology during the Sixties and Seventies.
