The Rivalry will be broadcast through L.A.T.W.'s nationally syndicated radio theatre series "The Play's the Thing" Oct. 31-Nov. 2 on public radio stations and on XM Satellite radio. Beginning Nov. 2, The Rivalry will be available for download for one week by visiting LATheatreWorks. Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Eric Simonson directed the play that centers on the Lincoln-Douglas presidential debates of 1858. The Rivalry played a limited engagement at the Skirball Cultural Center Oct. 15-19.

Actors Lily Rabe and James Gleason also took part in the production, which re-created "the face off between Abraham Lincoln (Straithairn), rising Illinois legislator and abolitionist candidate of the newly formed Republican party, and Senator Stephen A. Douglas (Giamatti), the Democratic incumbent and champion of states' rights… Their battle comes to life through the eyes of Adele Douglas (Rabe) wife of candidate Stephen Douglas. Challenged by the charming man from Illinois, she reexamines her basic beliefs about the American concept of freedom."

In addition to the radio broadcast, the L.A. Theatre Works audio theatre collection is available in bookstores, libraries, as well as digitally on itunes, overdrive.com, audible.com, and on the L.A. Theatre Works website at www.latw.org.