McAnuff Announces Cast of Sorkin's The Farnsworth Invention

La Jolla Playhouse Artistic Director Des McAnuff has announced the cast of his upcoming Page To Stage Workshop Production of The Farnsworth Invention, written by Aaron Sorkin. Headlining the cast are Jimmi Simpson as Philo T. Farnsworth and Stephen Lang as David Sarnoff.

The play centers on the bitter conflict that pitted Philo T. Farnsworth, a boy genius who invented television as a high school student in 1927, against David Sarnoff, the head of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). The legal battle between Farnsworth and RCA would later become known as one of the great, tragic examples of legal and industrial force combining to crush a rightful patent owner.

The Farnsworth Invention marks Jimmi Simpson's second time working with Des McAnuff and La Jolla Playhouse, having played Orgou's son Damis in Tartuffe. Other theatre credits include four seasons with Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Rainmaker on Broadway, and Assassins and A Midsummer Night's Dream with Bloomburg Players. His television credits include roles on "24," "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," "My Name is Earl," "Carnivale," "Cold Case," "NYPD Blue" and Stephen King's "Rose Red." He has been seen in the feature films Patriotville, Seraphim Falls, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Stay Alive, D.E.B.S., Slo-Mo, Loser, and the upcoming Zodiac.

Steven Lang has worked previously with Sorkin on the premiere of his play A Few Good Men. Other premieres include Defiance by John Patrick Shanley, The Speed of Darkness by Steve Tesich and Finishing the Picture by Arthur Miller. His own solo play, Beyond Glory, has toured all over the world, including critically-acclaimed runs in Arlington, VA and at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Lang's film credits include Last Exit To Brooklyn, Tombstone and Gods and Generals. Slated for 2007 release are two films, Save Me and From Mexico with Love, and a mini-series, "The Bronx Is Burning." He has received multiple nominations and awards including Helen Hayes, Joseph Jefferson, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and Tony Awards®, as well as the Grace Prize. Lang is Co-Artistic Director of The Actors Studio.

Alexandra Wilson will play Pem Farnsworth, the wife of the inventor, in her La Jolla Playhouse debut. She is a recent graduate of the American Conservatory Theater's M.F.A. program where her favorite roles included May in Once in A Lifetime (directed by Megs Booker) and Pitty in Female Transport (directed by Anne Kauffman).

Amongst the rest of the ensemble are Nadia Bowers, who last appeared at La Jolla Playhouse as Mariane in the McAnuff-helmed Tartuffe, and on Broadway in Doubt; University of California, San Diego M.F.A. candidate Amy Ellenberger in her La Jolla Playhouse debut; Kyle Fabel, whose credits include Private Fittings at La Jolla Playhouse; Maurice Godin, who garnered critical acclaim at Stratford Theatre Festival for his roles in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and King Lear; Brian Howe, whose film credits include The Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith, Déjà Vu with Denzel Washington and Catch Me If You Can with Tom Hanks; Bruce McKenzie, whose credits include The Tempest, Wintertime and the La Jolla Playhouse Page To Stage productions of Paris Commune and Current Nobody; Spencer Moses, most recently seen at the Playhouse in the McAnuff-helmed world premiere musicals Zhivago and Palm Beach; Jim Ortlieb, whose credits include Picasso at the Lapin Agile and The Man Who Came to Dinner at Steppenwolf; Michael Pemberton, who was most recently seen as Ariel in The Pillowman at The Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia and on Broadway in I'm Not Rappaport, Not About Nightingales, Picnic and Hedda Gabler; Katharine Powell, whose Off Broadway credits include The Voysey Inheritance (Atlantic Theater Company), The Water's Edge (Second Stage Theatre) and Smashing (Play Company); Steve Rosen, who originated the roles of Dennis' Mother, Sir Bedevere and Concorde in the Broadway production of Monty Python's Spamalot and James Sutorius, whose Broadway credits include Conversations with My Father, Hamlet and The Cherry Orchard, as well as the recent Lincolnesque at The Old Globe.

Local actors A.J. Ditty (Young Sarnoff) and Morgan Thomas Hollingsworth (Young Philo) play the two visionaries as adolescents.

Understudies are Jennifer Austin and Ryan Drummond.

The riveting new drama, which uncovers the story behind one of the world's most powerful inventions, is a part of the Page To Stage New Play Development Program, La Jolla Playhouse's signature program in which audiences experience the "birth" of a play, taking part in its shaping as playwright and director make constant changes in response to audience reactions and feedback.

The Playhouse began Page To Stage in 2001 to facilitate the development of new plays and musicals, offering audiences the rare opportunity to experience the "birth" of a play and take part in its evolution. As a Page To Stage workshop, this production will feature minimal sets and costumes, and will be revised throughout its entire process, including performances. After the performance, audience feedback sessions will provide insight and suggestion for both the creative team and the actors.

In the five years since the program began, two Page To Stage Productions have gone on to win Tony Awards®. Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Awards® for Best Play and Best Leading Actor in a Play (Jefferson Mays); and Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays, a 2004 Page To Stage Production, won the 2005 Tony Award® for Special Theatrical Event.

For more information, visit at www.lajollaplayhouse.com