Noah Wyle will step into Captain Kirk's chair — at least for one night. The star of The Pitt is leading a live table read of "The Man Trap," the first Star Trek episode to air, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Writers Guild Foundation. The event is set for 30 August at 7 p.m. at the Lodge Room in Highland Park, Los Angeles Deadline.

Joining Wyle on stage are his The Pitt castmates Katherine LaNasa, Fiona Dourif, Taylor Dearden, Shabana Azeez and Ayesha Harris. Wyle will read the role of Captain James T. Kirk. The script comes from the foundation's own Shavelson-Webb Library, which holds more than 50,000 screenplays open to the public, as part of its "Retro Reads" strand Deadline.

The pairing of Star Trek and the foundation is not a random fit. Both were born in 1966: Star Trek premiered on NBC that September, and the Writers Guild Foundation — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that operates independently from the Writers Guild of America West — was created the same year. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry sat on the foundation's board in its early years, linking the two from the start Deadline.

The reading will feature live scoring by Philip Krohnengold. "Retro Reads" is produced by Ben Blacker and Heath Corson. A livestream, produced by Drew Spears' DSPStudioLA and distributed by Third Best Comedy, will be available for those who cannot attend in person Deadline.

Proceeds from the event support the foundation and its public programmes, including the Shavelson-Webb Library, the Veterans Writing Project, Writers Access programmes and public education events Deadline.

The Writers Access Support Staff Training Program — one of the initiatives the reading helps fund — is also marking a milestone year. The foundation announced 18 candidates for its 2026 session: Caroline Hoover, Chase Finney, Chris Dang, Enrique Cruz Torres, Francis Fuster, Frankie Infante, Iman Ahmed, Jackson DeLoach, Juliette Lin, Kenya Robinson, Lei White, Leo Laing, Maame Addae, Matthew Nicholson, Rina O'Malley, Shirley Yip, Victor Adame and Zaelyna "Zae" Beck Writers Guild Foundation.

The 12-week course, which begins each January, trains writers from underrepresented backgrounds — including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled and over-50 writers — for roles as writers' assistants and script coordinators on television staffs. Founded in 2021 by Tanya Saracho, Mike Royce and Liz Hsiao Lan Alper, the programme is taught this year by Debbie Ezer and Clay Lapari. An admissions committee of more than 66 television creators, showrunners and writers reviews applications Writers Guild Foundation. Amazon MGM Studios supports the programme through a renewed partnership.

For fans of The Pitt, the reading offers a chance to see a cast now familiar from one of television's most-watched medical dramas take on characters written nearly 60 years ago. For the foundation, it is a fundraiser that draws on its own collection — the script pulled from a shelf, the actors gathered for one night, and a story that first aired in 1966 read aloud again.