“She was not the woman he expected to meet.”
--Aimee Bender, “The Meeting.”
Two odd couples struggle with love, and a contemporary comic fable provides a wry twist on family devotion.
Books by Aimee Bender available for purchase at Amazon.com
An international trio of tales reflects on love and family. First, Aimee Bender’s quirky take on first impressions, “The Meeting,” is preceded by a brief interview with this contemporary mistress of the unexpected. Bender is the author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt—one of Isaiah Sheffer’s favorite book titles—the novel An Invisible Sign of My Own, and most recently the story collection Willful Creatures. She has published in Granta, Harper’s and McSweeney’s, among other journals, and has been heard on This American Life. Reader Paul Hecht has performed in every SELECTED SHORTS season since the series began; his theatre work includes Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Tony nomination); The Invention of Love; 1776; Noises Off and Pirandello’s Henry IV, for which he won an Obie Award. He has appeared as various unsavory characters in most daytime dramas and Law and Order, the show that employs many SHORTS actors when they are not reading stories.
From a strange meeting in America, to a strange marriage in Iran. “Mrs. Farrokhlaqa Sadraldivan Golchehreh” was presented as part of an evening recognizing work by censored writers and dissidents, in collaboration with The Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Author Shahrnush Parsipur now lives as a political refugee in the United States, after being jailed in Iran because of the controversial nature of such works as Women with Men, and Touba and the Meaning of Night. Her poignant story of failed marriage and lost love was read by Frances Sternhagen, two time Tony Award winner for her performances in The Good Doctor and The Heiress. Other stage credits include On Golden Pond; Driving Miss Daisy, and A Perfect Ganesh. She has appeared in such films as Starting Over; Bright Lights, Big City, and Independence Day, and on television in a host of prime time dramas including ER, and, of course, Law and Order.
The SELECTED SHORTS production team fondly imagines a meeting between Israeli writer Etgar Keret and Aimee Bender—both favorite authors with fantastical senses of both humor and the human. Keret’s story “Pride and Joy” features the usual overachieving child, and doting parents, but with a twist. He is one of the leading voices in Israeli literature and cinema, the author of five books of short stories and the film Malka Red-Heart. His collection The Nimrod Flipout has been most recently translated into English. Reader Robert Sean Leonard was up to the challenge of this tale, demonstrating the versatility that had him appearing on stage in Tom Stoppard’s The Invention of Love (Tony Award) and The Music Man in the same season. Film credits include Much Ado About Nothing, The Age of Innocence, and Dead Poets’ Society.
The Meeting by Aimee Bender, read by Paul Hecht
Mrs. Farrokhlaqa Sadraldivan Golchehreh by Shahrnush Parsipur, read by Frances Sternhagen
Pride and Joy by Etgar Keret, read by Robert Sean Leonard
--Aimee Bender, “The Meeting.”
Two odd couples struggle with love, and a contemporary comic fable provides a wry twist on family devotion.
Books by Aimee Bender available for purchase at Amazon.com
An international trio of tales reflects on love and family. First, Aimee Bender’s quirky take on first impressions, “The Meeting,” is preceded by a brief interview with this contemporary mistress of the unexpected. Bender is the author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt—one of Isaiah Sheffer’s favorite book titles—the novel An Invisible Sign of My Own, and most recently the story collection Willful Creatures. She has published in Granta, Harper’s and McSweeney’s, among other journals, and has been heard on This American Life. Reader Paul Hecht has performed in every SELECTED SHORTS season since the series began; his theatre work includes Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Tony nomination); The Invention of Love; 1776; Noises Off and Pirandello’s Henry IV, for which he won an Obie Award. He has appeared as various unsavory characters in most daytime dramas and Law and Order, the show that employs many SHORTS actors when they are not reading stories.
From a strange meeting in America, to a strange marriage in Iran. “Mrs. Farrokhlaqa Sadraldivan Golchehreh” was presented as part of an evening recognizing work by censored writers and dissidents, in collaboration with The Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Author Shahrnush Parsipur now lives as a political refugee in the United States, after being jailed in Iran because of the controversial nature of such works as Women with Men, and Touba and the Meaning of Night. Her poignant story of failed marriage and lost love was read by Frances Sternhagen, two time Tony Award winner for her performances in The Good Doctor and The Heiress. Other stage credits include On Golden Pond; Driving Miss Daisy, and A Perfect Ganesh. She has appeared in such films as Starting Over; Bright Lights, Big City, and Independence Day, and on television in a host of prime time dramas including ER, and, of course, Law and Order.
The SELECTED SHORTS production team fondly imagines a meeting between Israeli writer Etgar Keret and Aimee Bender—both favorite authors with fantastical senses of both humor and the human. Keret’s story “Pride and Joy” features the usual overachieving child, and doting parents, but with a twist. He is one of the leading voices in Israeli literature and cinema, the author of five books of short stories and the film Malka Red-Heart. His collection The Nimrod Flipout has been most recently translated into English. Reader Robert Sean Leonard was up to the challenge of this tale, demonstrating the versatility that had him appearing on stage in Tom Stoppard’s The Invention of Love (Tony Award) and The Music Man in the same season. Film credits include Much Ado About Nothing, The Age of Innocence, and Dead Poets’ Society.
The Meeting by Aimee Bender, read by Paul Hecht
Mrs. Farrokhlaqa Sadraldivan Golchehreh by Shahrnush Parsipur, read by Frances Sternhagen
Pride and Joy by Etgar Keret, read by Robert Sean Leonard
About Selected Shorts
Selected Shorts features some of the finest artists of the American theater reading contemporary and classic short fiction-the most distinguished works of the early masters such as Chekhov, Maupassant, Malamud and dozens of others.
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