George Takei is making a rare appearance on the boards for six weeks in Downtown L.A. He is performing the lead role in "Equus," the disturbing tale of a teenager who pokes the eyes out of horses, and the psychiatrist exploring the boy's psyche. Takei plays the latter character, named Martin Dysart. The show is produced by the East West Players at a theatre in the Little Tokyo district of downtown. There will be five performances every weekend starting tonight through December 4.

Takei spoke about the role in an interview with Los Angeles Downtown News. "Hopefully I'll be able to persuade you to believe I'm this very constrained but emotionally turbulent character on stage," Takei says. "I know that Star Trek fans might come, but I hope with that first speech, I'll be able to persuade them to forget George Takei and see Martin Dysart." In this interview, Takei also speaks at length about his childhood memories of living in an internment camp. Click here for that article.

For more information about the show, visit EastWestPlayers.org. For tickets, click on the "tickets" button along the top of their Web page, or call (213) 625-7000. You can also visit GeorgeTakei.com.

Shatner, Dawson in Halloween Radio Shows

If you're in one of the 15 cities with a radio station carrying the Mark & Brian morning show, you'll have a chance to hear some familiar Star Trek voices perform classic radio plays that are in keeping with the season.

Tomorrow morning, Friday the 28th, Roxann Dawson joins a cast of celebrities performing two episodes of The Witch's Tale. The first, "Devil Hands," will play at 7:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time; the second, "The Tenant," will run at 9:00 a.m.; each is 45 minutes long. Bill Mumy ("The Siege of AR-558") is also in the cast, along with Julie Hagerty, Judd Nelson and others. This is a replay of a recording made in 1998 at the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills.

Then on Monday morning — Halloween — William Shatner performs the radio script of "War of the Worlds" as originally read by Orson Welles on October 30, 1938. Shatner is joined by Paul Sorvino ("Homeward") and others in a replay of a 1997 broadcast. It will run from approximately 7:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. (Remember to set your clocks back Saturday night!)

The Mark & Brian show is based in Los Angeles on 95.5 FM. They are also heard in Sacramento on 96.9; Portland, Ore., on 92.3; portions of Nevada and Arizona on 97.9; Hawaii on 100.3; etc.

"Trek Life" Cartoonist Featured

David Reddick, who draws the "The Trek Life" comic strip featured exclusively on STARTREK.COM, is the focus of a feature article in The Clinton Herald of Clinton, Iowa. The article describes an interactive "Garfield" site which Reddick has developed, then talks about his other projects.

Of his "Trek Life" strip, Reddick says, "It's a perfect merger of my love of Star Trek and my cartooning. It's a total blast. I love it. I can finally put all this knowledge I have about Star Trek to use."

The full article can be found here.

Billingsley in Nip/Tuck

John Billingsley will appear in Nip/Tuck next Tuesday, November 1, playing the title role in an episode called "Ben White." On JohnBillingsley.net, the Enterprise actor writes, "I play Ben White, a successful architect who has BIID, Body Integrity Identity Disorder — Ben wants to have his leg amputated so he 'can finally feel whole.'"

Nip/Tuck airs on the FX network Tuesday nights at 10:00 p.m. PT/ET, and repeats several times during the week. Check your local listings.

Billingsley's site also reports that his wife, Bonita Friedericy ("Regeneration"), will appear in an upcoming episode of Over There, the Stephen Bochco show about Iraq on FX, and she also just completed work on the ABC sitcom Rodney.