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Unlikely Situations

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Sunday, September 27, 2009

From an eccentric governess to a May/December romance, strange situations come to life in this quartet of stories.
Once upon a time, New York City had a Sixth Borough. You won’t read about it in any of the history books, because there’s nothing - save for the circumstantial evidence in Central Park - to prove that it was there at all…—Jonathan Safran Foer, “The Sixth Borough.”
From an eccentric governess to a May/December romance, strange situations come to life in this quartet of stories.


“Careful the things you say, children will listen,” cautions the witch in Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.” In a classic by the humorous English writer H.H. Munro (pen name, “Saki”), a governess uses unusual teaching methods to puncture the pretensions of her employers. Marian Seldes reads “The Scharz-Metterklume Method.”

We continue with another bold premise, by the always audacious T.C. Boyle. “I Dated Jane Austen” is read by SHORTS host Isaiah Sheffer. And from strange people, we move to strange assertions. Jonathan Safran Foer, author of the wild novel EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED and most recently an intriguing investigation of our eating habits, EATING ANIMALS wishes us to believe that once upon a time New York City had a “Sixth Borough,” which floated away and exists now in faint traces and uncertain memories. This bitter-sweet fantasy is read by Broadway director Jerry Zaks.

The program concludes with another sweet improbability—the love of a young man for a much older woman. Author Arturo Vivante, who died in 2008 at the age of 84, was a longtime contributor to The New Yorker and his sensitive, atmospheric, stories often depict the delicate relations between men and women. Vivante lived in the town of Wellfleet on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and this story was part of an evening celebrating Cape Cod authors, as part of the opening festivities of the beautiful home of WHAT, the Wellfeet Harbor Actors’ Theatre. The reader of Vivante’s story “To Mock the Years” is WHAT Artistic Director Jeff Zinn.

“The Scharz-Metterklume Method,” by Saki, read by Marian Seldes
“I Dated Jane Austen,” by T.C. Boyle, read by Isaiah Sheffer
“The Sixth Borough,” by Jonathan Safran Foer, read by Jerry Zaks
“To Mock the Years,” by Arturo Vivante, read by Jeff Zinn

For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit Symphony Space

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