Ear to the Edge of Time, by Australian playwright Alana Valentine, is the winner of the STAGE International Script Competition for the best new play about science and technology. The play will be performed as a staged reading at Trinity College Dublin’s Samuel Beckett Theatre on the 21st of October 2012.

STAGE - Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating Exploration - housed at the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, runs every two years and aims to identify the best new play about science and technology worldwide. STAGE comes to Dublin as a result of the efforts of CRANN, working in collaboration with Nancy Kawalek, Director of STAGE. 

 “Ear to the Edge of Time” is a story about the fascinating intrigues of astronomical physics and the dilemmas, compromises and culture that are part of scientific discovery.

Ms Valentines script was chosen from over 200 entries from a dozen different countries by a distinguished panel of judges including Dr. Robert C. Richardson and Dr. Frank Wilczek, Nobel Laureates in Physics;  Tony Kushner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Tony Awards, Olivier Award and Emmy Award among others; David Lindsay Abaire, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Dr David Wineland, Nobel Laureate and winner of the USA Benjamin Franklin medal and National Medal of Science and Donald Margulies, Pulitzer Prize and Obie Award Winning playwright. The top honour is coveted among playwrights for the prestige and opportunities it brings, as well as for its sizeable $10,000 prize.

The staged reading was performed by professional Irish actors on Sunday, the 21st of October in the Samuel Beckett Theatre in Trinity College. Before the reading the prize was awarded to Ms Valentine  by Nancy Kawalek and Prof David Awshalom.