This reading by the author Anjelica Huston from her memoir A Story Lately Told is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Family Matters,” hosted by Jane Curtin.
↧
A Famous Family
↧
Smoking with Mom
This story, “Indulgence,” by Susan Perabo is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Family Matters,” hosted by Jane Curtin. The reader is Hope Davis.
↧
↧
Selected Shorts: Compulsions and Obsessions
Guest host John Lithgow introduces two stories about compulsion.
W.W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw” has been keeping readers up at night since it was first published in 1902. The tale of a sinister relic brought from the mysterious East to a cozy suburban bungalow may have some period touches, but is every bit as gripping as it was for its original audience. Host John Lithgow is also the reader, and says he remembers his father reading him the story when he was nine years old, “my first introduction to the exquisite pleasure of being absolutely terrified!”
William Wymark Jacobs was a prolific short fiction writer whose collections of stories reflect his childhood on the River Thames. They include Many Cargoes, The Skipper’sWooing, and Sea Urchins, but it is this one Dickensian tale that has secured him a place in literary history.
The monkey’s paw was a malevolent, enchanted object, but sometimes words alone can cast a spell. Our next story is Isabel Allende’s lyrical “Two Words.” In it, a resourceful young woman born into a family too poor to name their children reinvents herself as a broker of words. As her fame spreads, she attracts the attention of a guerilla leader who wants to reinvent himself.
This idea of storytelling as a way to make your way in the world is key for Allende, SHORTS literary commentator Hannah Tinti notes. It was the subject of her first novel, Eva Luna, published in 1987. And her next book, The Stories of Eva Luna, models itself on the classic Scheherazade legend. It features Eva Luna telling a group of tales to her lover in bed. “Two Words” is the first of those stories. It’s read by the author and actor Lisa Fugard, daughter of playwright Athol.
“The Monkey’s Paw,” by W.W. Jacobs, performed by John Lithgow
“Two Words,” by Isabel Allende, performed by Lisa Fugard
(This is a repeat broadcast)
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/genres/seriesPage.php?seriesId=71&genreId=4
Information about the 2014 Stella Kupferberg Short Story Prize Competition is available now: http://www.selectedshorts.org/extras/writing-contest-2/
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
And for more thoughts on the stories in SHORTS, check out literary commentator Hannah Tinti’s site at http://hannahtinti.com
↧
Beware of What You Wish For
This reading by John Lithgow of the classic horror yarn “The Monkey’s Paw,” by W.W. Jacobs, is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Compulsions and Obsessions,” hosted by John Lithgow.
↧
For Your Ears Only
This reading by Lisa Fugard of Isabel Allende’s story “Two Words” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Compulsions and Obsessions,” hosted by John Lithgow.
↧
↧
Selected Shorts: Pushing the Limits
Guest host John Lithgow raises the curtain on five comic tales, classic and cutting-edge.
First, New Yorker magazine writer and Algonquin Round Table regular Dorothy Parker describes the hangover from hell in “You Were Perfectly Fine.” First published in 1929, this hilarious tale of a young man waking up from a bender wears well, and gets new polish from readers David Furr and Aya Cash. Next, Simon Rich brings his “Saturday Night Live” prankishness to a traditional coming-of-age story—with a twist. Comic Wyatt Cenac, late of “The Morning Show,” reads. Alec Baldwin gives a great performance of a James Thurber classic, “The Day the Dam Broke.” Thurber, another New Yorker contributor, wrote a string of stories for his mock memoir My Life and Hard Times that only slightly exaggerated the winsome strangeness of small town life.
Simon Rich is back with “Center of the Universe,” a story that imagines what God would have done on the seven days of Creation if his girl friend had complained. SHORTS’ late host and founder Isaiah Sheffer was the reader. Finally, more spiritual high jinks from Ron Carlson—could there be a tablecloth of Turin? Reader Edi Gathegi’s television and film credits include alluring roles in “House,” “Gone Baby Gone,” “Twilight, and “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” but here he makes a very convincing ex-insurance investigator who has seen the light.
“You Were Perfectly Fine,” by Dorothy Parker, performed by Aya Cash and David Furr “Unprotected,” by Simon Rich, performed by Wyatt Cenac
“The Day the Dam Broke,” by James Thurber, performed by Alec Baldwin
“Center of the Universe,” by Simon Rich, performed by Isaiah Sheffer
“The Tablecloth of Turin,” by Ron Carlson, performed by Edi Gathegi
(This is a repeat broadcast)
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/genres/seriesPage.php?seriesId=71&genreId=4
Information about the 2014 Stella Kupferberg Short Story Prize Competition is available now: http://www.selectedshorts.org/extras/writing-contest-2/
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
And for more thoughts on the stories in SHORTS, check out literary commentator Hannah Tinti’s site at http://hannahtinti.com
↧
Leftover from The Last Supper?
This reading by Edi Gathegi of Ron Carlson’s lighthearted take on sacred relics, “The Tablecloth of Turin,” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Pushing the Limits,” hosted by John Lithgow.
↧
Growing Up
This reading by Wyatt Cenac of Simon Rich’s coming-of-age story with a twist, “Unprotected,” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Pushing the Limits,” hosted by John Lithgow.
↧
God, Get Over Yourself
This reading by Isaiah Sheffer of Simon Rich’s comic look at God’s dating problem is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Pushing the Limits,” hosted by John Lithgow.
↧
↧
Run for the Hills!
This reading by Alec Baldwin of James Thurber’s tale of a small town losing its mind, “The Day the Dam Broke,” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Pushing the Limits,” hosted by John Lithgow.
↧
Hangover from Hell
This reading by Aya Cash and David Furr of Dorothy Parker’s hilarious hangover tale “You Were Perfectly Fine” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Pushing the Limits,” hosted by John Lithgow.
↧
Selected Shorts: Complicated Relationships
Marriages, love affairs, and other complicated relationships in four stories by Sherman Alexie, Kate Chopin, and Joe Meno, hosted by Jane Curtin.
First, two works by a SHORTS stalwart—Sherman Alexie. A woman confesses to a long-ago affair with haunting consequences in “Scenes from a Life.” In “The Vow,” a married couple renegotiate the terms of their contract—Alexie says the idea for this brief piece came from his realization that long marriages (like his own) are marked by shared memories and jokes that become a kind of code. Cynthia Nixon performed “Scenes from a Life.” Amber Tamblyn, making her SELECTED SHORTS debut, performed “The Vow.” Her work on television includes roles on “House,” “Joan of Arcadia” and “The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.”
SHORTS literary commentator Hannah Tinti says that Joe Meno’s “unique and playful style” reminds her of Wes Anderson or Haruki Murakami. She’s published him in One Story (issue #122, “Children are the Only Ones Who Blush”) and he’s also the author of six novels and two story collections. The story on this program, “People are Becoming Clouds” appeared in Meno’s collection Demons in the Spring, which was a finalist for The Story Prize. The woman in the story transforms into a charming array of clouds every time her husband touches her—we’ll leave it to you to decide if Meno’s gentle fantasy has a subtext.
The reader is Kirsten Vangsness, a star of the television series “Criminal Minds.”
Guest host Jane Curtin completes this program with a steamy read of Kate Chopin’s languorous tale “The Storm.” Chopin’s novel “The Awakening” is an iconic feminist proto-text, and she is just as subversive in this short tale of a romantic encounter in bad weather. “The Storm,” which is set in the Creole community in Louisana, was written in 1898 but wasn’t published in Chopin’s lifetime, appearing first in The Complete Works of Kate Chopin, published in 1969.
“Scenes from a Life,” by Sherman Alexie, performed by Cynthia Nixon
“The Vow,” by Sherman Alexie, performed by Amber Tamblyn
“People Are Becoming Clouds,” by Joe Meno, performed by Kirsten Vangsness
“The Storm,” by Kate Chopin, performed by Jane Curtin
(This is a repeat broadcast)
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/genres/seriesPage.php?seriesId=71&genreId=4
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
And for more thoughts on the stories in SHORTS, check out literary commentator Hannah Tinti’s site at http://hannahtinti.com
↧
Steamy and Stormy
This reading by guest host Jane Curtin, of Kate Chopin’s provocative glimpse of a tryst in the Bayou, is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Complicated Relationships.”
↧
↧
My Wife is a Cloud
This reading by Kirsten Vangsness of Joe Meno’s whimsical love story “People are Becoming Clouds” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Complicated Relationships,” hosted by Jane Curtin.
↧
A Test of Married Love
This reading by Amber Tamblyn of Sherman Alexie’s “The Vow,” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Complicated Relationships,” hosted by Jane Curtin.
↧
Haunted by a Bad Choice
This reading by Cynthia Nixon of Sherman Alexie’s confessional tale “Scenes from a Life,” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Complicated Relationships,” hosted by Jane Curtin.
↧
Parents and Children, Dreamers and Doubters
Adult children untangle their pasts in two stories about fateful marriages and what comes down from parents to children. Jane Curtin hosts.
Delmore Schwartz’s classic “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities” established his reputation as a new literary voice when it was published in 1937 in The Partisan Review. Written on his 21st birthday, it describes a surreal dream in which his parents’ courtship is viewed as an old-time movie. SHORTS’ literary commentator Hannah Tinti says that this is an irresistible narrative, because we are all fascinated with our parents’ lives and “how we began.” The powerful read is by Leonard Nimoy.
The narrator of Tess Gallagher’s “The Lover of Horses” tells of family with a wild streak—the men are gypsies and horse whisperers and cardsharps; the women are the skeptical, stable centers of the home. "It's not something they do, but something they are," notes guest host Jane Curtin in a conversation with SHORTS' literary commentator Hannah Tinti. But in this moving story of “being stolen by things” the heroine has a profound change of heart. Reader Kate Burton’s many credits include her critically acclaimed performance in Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler,” and roles in the television series “Grey’s Anatomy,” Grimm," and “Scandal.”
“In Dreams Begin Responsibilities,” by Delmore Schwartz, performed by Leonard Nimoy
“The Lover of Horses,” by Tess Gallagher, performed by Kate Burton
(This is a repeat broadcast)
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/events/series/71/selected-shorts
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
And for more thoughts on the stories in SHORTS, check out literary commentator Hannah Tinti’s site at http://hannahtinti.com
↧
↧
Wild at Heart
This reading by Kate Burton of Tess Gallagher’s story “The Lover of Horses” is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Parents and Children,” hosted by Jane Curtin.
↧
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities
This reading by Leonard Nimoy of Delmore Schwartz’s classic coming-of-age story is part of the SELECTED SHORTS program “Parents and Children,” hosted by Jane Curtin.
↧
Selected Shorts: Love, Cake, and Kites
If there were a recipe for this program, presented by guest host Parker Posey, it would say “just add happiness, and stir.” Novelist Michael Chabon is the author of such sprawling and convoluted entertainments as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (an excerpt will be featured on a forthcoming SELECTED SHORTS radio program) and The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, but his short essay “Art of Cake” offers a sweet tribute to his Mom’s cooking. It also recalls his own youthful adventures in the kitchen, from his first solo attempt (“Velvet Crumb Cake”) to his eventual role as the family chef. Chabon’s most recent novel is “Telegraph Avenue,” but his website says he’s busy cooking potato latkes.
“Art of Cake” is performed by David Furr. Recent work includes “The Explorers Club” at Manhattan Theatre Club, “As You Like It” with Shakespeare in the Park, and roles in “Killing Lincoln,” “Elementary,” and “NCIS: Los Angeles.”
“Art of Cake” was such a celebration of home cooking, and the importance of the family legacy of recipes, that we decided to visit two local home-taught cooks, and ask them if Chabon’s memoir struck a chord. Emily and Melissa Elsen are the owners of the Brooklyn-based pie shop and café Four & Twenty Blackbirds. They gave us a tour, and talked about how Chabon’s Bisquick box—and his cookbook collection—struck a chord. The sisters are also the authors of the cookbook The Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book: Uncommon Recipes from the Celebrated Brooklyn Pie Shop.
You can hear some of our interview with the Elsens in this week’s program; and you can listen to the complete version below (“Pies Rule!”).
Food isn’t the only thing to cause great hunger. There’s also love. Tony-winner Robert Sean Leonard (“The Invention of Love”) is gripped by fatal attractions in Mark Strand’s “True Loves”. According to the narrator, t he story is “a confession” of the number of times he’s been in love—and in and out of marriage.
Our program ends with a touching rite-of-passage story by Justin Torres —“Trash Kites." Its teenage protagonists don’t have much, but they are rich in imagination and yearning. The reader is Colman Domingo, a Tony-Award nominee for his performance in “The Scottsboro Boys”; other theater work includes Athol Fugard’s “Blood Knot,” and “Passing Strange.” He’s appeared in the films “Lincoln,” “The Butler,” and “Lucky Dog.”
“Art of Cake,” by Michael Chabon, performed by David Furr
“True Loves,” by Mark Strand, performed by Robert Sean Leonard
“Trash Kites,” by Justin Torres performed by Colman Domingo
(This is a repeat broadcast)
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is David Peterson's “That's the Deal,” performed by the Deardorf/Peterson Group.
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit http://www.symphonyspace.org/events/series/71/selected-shorts
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
And for more thoughts on the stories in SHORTS, check out literary commentator Hannah Tinti’s site at http://hannahtinti.com
↧