Description
Selected Shorts comes to the Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University with stories about reconciliation and forgiveness. A father- and daughter-in-law come to terms with their relationship as they struggle to save their home. A Black man turns a symbol of oppression on its head. And just in time for the holidays, a married couple finds their way back to each other in a most unusual way. Join actors Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), Jason Dirden (American Soul), and Kimberly Guerrero (Reservation Dogs) for an afternoon of dazzling short stories about the messy, heartbreaking, and hilarious ways we manage to come together.
THE PROGRAM
Hosted by Jane Kaczmarek
The Appropriation of Cultures by Percival Everett
Performed by Jason Dirden
Paradise by Maya Yxta Murray
Performed by Kimberly Guerrero
Negative Equity by Lionel Shriver
Performed by Jane Kaczmarek
THE ARTISTS
Jason Dirden has appeared on Broadway in two Tony Award winning productions, A Raisin in the Sun and Fences, opposite Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. In 2017, he starred in the West Coast revival of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, directed by Phylicia Rashad, for which he was honored with an Ovation Award. He starred as Pastor Basie Skanks in OWN’s original drama series Greenleaf and created the character of Gerald Aims in BET’s drama American Soul, the story of Don Cornelius and Soul Train. Additional works include Lifetime’s Mahalia, opposite Danielle Brooks, and the CBS procedural crime dramas Elementary and Hawaii Five-0.
Percival Everett is the author of 20 books, including Wounded, which won the 2006 PEN USA Literary Award; Erasure, winner of the Academy Award for Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Big Picture, winner of the PEN/Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature; Zulus, winner of the New American Writing Award; and the story collection Damned If I Do. His latest books are the novel I Am Not Sidney Poitier, winner of the 2010 Believer Book Award, and the collection of poetry Swimming Swimmers Swimming. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California.
Kimberly Guerrero is a contemporary Native American storyteller who works in film, television, and theater. Her recent acting credits include Cherokee Chief Wilma in Julie Taymor’s Gloria Steinem biopic The Glorias; Catch the Fair One, winner of the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award; and The Dark Divide starring David Cross and Debra Messing. Guerrero can currently be seen in the Taika Waititi/Sterlin Harjo hit comedy Reservation Dogs on FX and Hulu, Rutherford Falls on Peacock, and The Wilds. On stage, she originated the role of “Johnna” in Tracy Letts’ Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play August: Osage County, and also starred in Manahatta at The Public Theater in New York and The Frybread Queen with Native Voices in Los Angeles. She was recently named Artistic Director at UC Riverside, where she is an Associate Professor in the Theater, Film, and Digital Filmmaking Department. Guerrero is an enrolled member of the Colville Tribes and also has Salish-Kootenai heritage.
Jane Kaczmarek is best known for her role as Lois on Malcolm in the Middle, for which she received 7 consecutive Emmy nominations as well as nominations for the Golden Globe and SAG Awards. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Yale School of Drama, Kaczmarek made her television debut on The Paper Chase and Hill Street Blues and most recently can be seen on The Big Bang Theory, This Is Us, and Mixed-ish. In New York, Kaczmarek has appeared on Broadway and off at the Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage, The Public Theatre, New York Theater Workshop, and 6 seasons at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her recent theater credits include in Long Day's Journey Into Night with Alfred Molina, Our Town with Deaf West Theatre, and The Year to Come at La Jolla Playhouse. Kaczmarek’s favorite job is raising her three kids and reading/hosting Selected Shorts across America.
Yxta Maya Murray is a writer and law professor living in Los Angeles. Her novels include The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Kidnapped, The King’s Gold: An Old World Novel of Adventure, The Queen Jade: A Novel, and others. She has won a Whiting Award and an Art Writers Grant, and she has been a finalist for the ASME Award in Fiction. Her art criticism can be found in Artforum, ARTnews, Artillery, and other periodicals.
Lionel Shriver’s novels include the National Book Award finalist So Much for That, the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World, and the international bestseller and Orange Prize-winning We Need to Talk About Kevin. Her journalism has appeared in TheGuardian and The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. Her most recent novel, Big Brother, was critically acclaimed and named a Waterstones Book Club choice in 2014.
Selected Shorts is supported by the Dungannon Foundation, creator of The Rea Award for the Short Story. Support is also provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation, the NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund in The New York Community Trust, The Shubert Foundation, the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, the Charina Endowment Fund, The Achelis and Bodman Foundation, the Henry Nias Foundation, the Consolidated Edison Company of New York, the Vidda Foundation, the Axe-Houghton Foundation, the Lemberg Foundation, and The Grodzins Fund. Selected Shorts is also made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts, and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Symphony Space thanks our generous supporters, including our Board of Directors, Producers Circle, and members, who make our programs possible with their annual support.
Actors subject to change.
Expected Run Time is 90 minutes
