Selected Shorts is an event at New York's
Symphony Space on the
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
, in which screen and stage actors read classic and new short fiction before a live audience. The stage show began in 1985 and continues today at Symphony Space's Peter Jay Sharp Theater.
The annual season of the live events at Symphony Space begins in the mid-fall and ends in mid-spring. There is a theme to each Selected Shorts episode and performance. Several stories are presented around each theme. The stories are always fiction, sometimes classic, sometimes new, always performed by actors from stage, screen and television who bring these short stories to life. Evenings are often co-hosted by writers, literary producers, and other interesting characters.
Selected Shorts was originally created by
Kay Cattarulla, who in 1995 went on to create another successful literary program in Dallas, Arts & Letters Live, which is sponsored by the Dallas Museum of Art.
Symphony Space's Artistic Director
Isaiah Sheffer
Symphony Space, founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (also called Pe ...
formerly hosted the live events, although many Selected Shorts also feature guest hosts, often well-known writers, who also choose which stories will be read. Mr. Sheffer died on November 9, 2012, at age 76. Actor
BD Wong acts as the host of the live events since the fall of 2012.
The readings are recorded live and become the basis of a one-hour radio program, hosted by actors, authors, and entertainers such as
David Sedaris,
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program '' The Colbert Report'' from 2005 t ...
,
Cynthia Nixon,
Wyatt Cenac,
Jane Kaczmarek, and
Meg Wolitzer, with literary commentator
Hannah Tinti of
One Story Magazine, and are produced in conjunction with
WNYC. The programs are distributed by
Public Radio International and air on PRI-affiliated public radio stations in the United States. The radio program airs weekly throughout the year.
Originally, the program was distributed by
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from othe ...
. However, in October 2007, it moved its distribution to PRI,
Public Radio International.
The program's theme is David Peterson's "That's the Deal," performed by the Deardorf/Peterson group. Until 2011, the radio show began and ended with the piano and cello duet "Come to the Meadow" by
Roger Kellaway.
External links
Selected Shortsofficial website
Symphony Spaceofficial website
Selected Shorts Program Archive at WNYC
Public Radio International programs
American radio dramas
1985 radio programme debuts