Funds from this grant provide three years of continued support to New York City’s Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) for the creation and development of new American plays that explore scientific or technological themes or feature scientists, engineers, or mathematicians as major characters. EST will commission between ten and twenty new plays per year from emerging and established playwrights, stage a production of a science-themed play annually, and host the First Light Festival, an annual month-long celebration of science-themed plays that includes panels, workshops, and staged readings of plays in development.