Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating Exploration

Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating Exploration (STAGE) was created in 2005 to encourage collaboration between artists and scientists. Originally, it began as a partnership between the Professional Artists Lab and the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara. STAGE, which is housed at California NanoSystems Institute, hosts a biennial international script competition and a Collaboratory.

The founder and director of STAGE is Nancy Kawalek, a Studio Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Script Competition
The STAGE International Script Competition awards a $10,000 prize to the best new play about science and technology.

Past Judges
A panel of artists and scientists serve as jurors for each cycle of the competition. Judges have included
 * Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning playwright David Auburn
 * Tony-, Oliver-, and Obie Award–winning playwright John Guare
 * Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire
 * Nobel laureate in physics Sir Anthony Leggett, KBE
 * Nobel laureate in chemistry Alan Heeger
 * Nobel laureate in physics David Gross

Past winners
Playwrights who have won the competition include
 * Jamie Pachino for Splitting Infinity
 * Elyse Singer for Frequency Hopping
 * Anna Ziegler for Photograph 51
 * Craig Baxter for The Altruists

The Collaboratory
In 2009, STAGE launched The Collaboratory, an artistic laboratory for the development of theatrical works that have a multi-media component and that feature science and technology. The first play being created in The Collaboratory is The Brain Project.

The Brain Project
Participants of The Brain Project include


 * Alyssa Anderson
 * Dwier Brown
 * Michael Gazzaniga, PhD
 * Angela Goethals
 * Scott Grafton, MD
 * Geoffrey Grinstein, PhD
 * Nancy Kawalek
 * Kenneth Kosik, MD
 * James Lashly
 * Maurizio Seracini, PhD
 * Deb Norton