The three finalists are Alana Valentine's Ear to the Edge of Time; Arun Lakra's Sequence; and Richard Manley's This Rough Magic.

The judges for the competition are playwrights Tony Kushner, David Lindsay-Abaire, Donald Margulies, along with Nobel Laureate's Dr. Robert C. Richardson and Dr. Frank Wilczek, and Dr. David Wineland, winner of the National Medal of Science and the Benjamin Franklin Medal.

For more information, www.stage.cnsi.ucsb.edu.