Selected Shorts: Little Rebellions

THE ARTISTS (in alphabetical order)

Nate Corddry is an actor, comedian, and writer who has recently been featured on the television series Fosse/Verdon, Mindhunter, For All Mankind, and Perry Mason. Additional film and television credits include Studio 60on the Sunset Strip; United States of Tara; Harry’s Law; Childrens Hospital; TRON: Uprising; St. Vincent; The Heat; Mom; The Hindenburg Explodes!; The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; The Circle; New Girl; Ghostbusters; Standing Up, Falling Down; and as a correspondent on The Daily Show.

Ann Dowd won the 2017 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance on Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale. For her work on the show, she also won a Critics’ Choice Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, as well as multiple Screen Actors Guild awards. Dowd previously received an Emmy nomination for her role on the beloved HBO series The Leftovers. On the big screen, Dowd was honored with a Best Supporting Actress Award from the National Board of Review for her performance in the psychological thriller Compliance, and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and Critics' Choice Award. Additional film credits include Hereditary, Philadelphia, Captain Fantastic, Marley & Me, The Manchurian Candidate, and the upcoming Rebecca. Dowd’s television career highlights include an acclaimed performance in Olive Kitteridge, recurring roles on Good Behavior, Masters of Sex, Quarry, Nothing Sacred, Judging Amy, Third Watch, Freaks and Geeks, and memorable appearances on True Detective, Louie, Girls, House, Chicago Hope, The X-Files, and NYPD Blue. She has portrayed nine different characters in the Law & Order franchise. In 2019, Dowd co-starred in the Foxtel series Lambs of God. The show, which will air in other parts of the world this year, was nominated for 18 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, including a lead actress nod for Dowd.

Amelia Gray is the author of the short story collections AM/PM, Museum of the Weird, Gutshot, and the novels THREATS and Isadora. She has written for the television series Mr. Robot and Maniac. Her fiction and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Tin House, Granta, and VICE, among other publications. Her work has been honored with the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award, the Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Award, with nominations for the WGA Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Jane Kaczmarek is best known for her role as Lois on Malcolm in the Middle, for which she received seven 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, Carol's Second Act, 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 six seasons at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her recent theater credits include in Long Day's Journey Into Night, 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.

Haruki Murakami is the author of numerous best-selling novels, short story collections, and works of nonfiction, including The Elephant Vanishes, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Underground, Kafka on the Shore, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, 1Q84, Men Without Women, and most recently, Killing Commendatore. His stories have appeared in English in The New Yorker, Granta, and numerous other publications. He has been honored with the Franz Kafka Prize, the Jerusalem Prize, the World Fantasy Award, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award, among others. Murakami’s work has been translated into 50 languages.

Randall Park is an actor, writer, director, and producer best known for his leading role on Fresh Off the Boat, for which he was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. Additional film and television credits include The Interview, Veep, Trainwreck, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Aquaman, and Always Be My Maybe, which he also wrote and produced. Park recently launched the production company Imminent Collision. He will appear in the forthcoming Marvel Studios series WandaVision.

Robert Sheckley (1928 - 2005) was a science fiction and fantasy writer. He published numerous novels and short story collections, and his work has been featured in science fiction magazines including Galaxy, Imagination, Weird Tales, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, among other publications. Sheckley collaborated with many writers throughout his career and briefly served as the science fiction editor of OMNI magazine. Several of Sheckley’s novels and short stories have been adapted as films and television movies, such as The 10th Victim, which was based on the story “The Seventh Victim.” In addition to his original work, Sheckley wrote adaptational novelizations set in the Alien, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Babylon 5 universes.

Elizabeth Winthrop (www.elizabethwinthrop.com) is the author of more than sixty works of fiction for all ages. Her award-winning titles for children include The Castle in the Attic series, Counting on Grace, and the picture books Shoes and Dumpy La Rue. Her short story “The Golden Darters” was a selection of American Short Fiction and Best American Short Stories. She has recently completed a memoir entitled Daughter of Spies: Wartime Secrets, Family Lies about growing up in the politically charged atmosphere of Cold War Washington. The daughter of the political journalist Stewart Alsop, she divides her time between New York City and the Berkshires.

CREDITS

“Thank You” by Amelia Gray, from Gutshot (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015). Copyright © 2015 by Amelia Gray. Used by permission of the author.

“On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning” by Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin, from The Elephant Vanishes (Knopf, 1993). Story copyright © 1981 by Haruki Murakami. Translation copyright © 1993 by Jay Rubin. Used by permission of ICM Partners.

“The Golden Darters” by Elizabeth Winthrop, from The Best American Short Stories 1992 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1992). First appeared in American Short Fiction (1991). Copyright © 1991 by Elizabeth Winthrop. Used by permission of the author.

“The Accountant” by Robert Sheckley, from Store of the Worlds (NYRB Classics, 2012). Previously collected in Citizen in Space (Ballantine, 1955) and Is That What People Do? (Henry Holt and Company, 1984). First appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (July 1954). Copyright © 1954 by Robert Sheckley. Used by permission of The Estate of Robert Sheckley.

Selected Shorts is produced by Symphony Space and broadcast on more than 150 stations around the country. The series began in 1985 and enjoys sold-out performances to this day. Selected Shorts was conceived with a simple premise: take great stories by well-known and emerging writers and have them performed by terrific actors of stage and screen. Featuring stories around a lively theme, the favorite works of a guest author, or a special collaboration, each Selected Shorts event is a unique night of literature in performance.

Recent readers include Ellen Burstyn, Kate Walsh, Bebe Neuwirth, Claire Danes, Michael Shannon, Kyle Maclachlan, LeVar Burton, Jane Curtin, Danielle Brooks, Cynthia Nixon, Rainn Wilson, Holly Hunter, Hugh Dancy, Joan Allen, Josh Radnor, Tony Shalhoub, Maggie Gyllenhaal, BD Wong, and more.