Presented by DTLA Film Festival (Los Angeles)

Ben Everhart’s original screenplay “The Creator” – the story about the making of the original “Star Trek: TV series – will come to life as a taped-to-live table read, featuring a cast of 30 players. The table read will be followed immediately by a live chat Q&A with the screenwriter, director and cast.

The screenplay is the winner of DTLA Film Festival’s 2020 International Screenplay Competition.

Directed by Colleen Davie Janes, the table read production will feature Michael Bakkensen (“The Americans,” “Madame Secretary”) and Risa Benson (“Home Cooked News,” “Rescue Me”) in the starring roles of struggling screenwriter Gene Roddenberry and Hollywood icon Lucille Ball, whose production company Desilu took the chance on producing the first-ever prime-time science-fiction for network television.

The production will co-star Denver Taylor (“Salt-N-Pepa”) and Anthony Robert Grasso (“Jessica Jones” )as Desilu production executives Herb Solo and Oscar Rudin, Shauna Pinkett (“Forefathers”) as actress Majel Barret, who starred in the “Star Trek” TV series’ original pilot episode and would later become the second Mrs. Gene Roddenberry, Nick Moss (“The Cobblestone Corridor”) as both William Shatner and Harlan Ellison, Ken Perlstein (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel!”) as Leonard Nimoy, Nihara Nicelle as Nicelle Nichols (“Vanished”) and Omar Pelaez (“Ride The Wave”) as Desi Arnaz.

Also co-starring are Derek Anthony (“Bosch”), Meredith Handerhan (“The King of Staten Island”), Mara McCann (“The Killer In The House”), Jared P. Smith (“FBI”), Jo-anne Lee (“Blue Boods”), Elisha Lawson (“Blue Bloods”), Samarah Conley (“Last Vermont Christmas”), Jim O’Hare (“Bull”), Garrett Lee Hendricks (“Law & Order: SVU”), Phillip James (“Decoy”) and Chad Anthony Miller ("Criminal Minds").

DTLA Film Festival is a 501(c)(3), IRS-tax-exempt nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting diversity in film and television. Your donation is tax-deductible. Thank you for your support!

Digital art credit @artsbysosa