Staff Bios

Isaiah Sheffer

Isaiah Sheffer is co-founder and artistic director of Symphony Space and director and host of Selected Shorts live and on radio. His radio, television, theatre, and film credits are extensive and include work as a commentator on the arts for WNYC's weekly radio column Around New York; producer/writer for The Road to the White House, a 20-minute public affairs series for NBC-TV (Emmy Nomination); and writer/director, The Last Chapter, award-winning historical documentary film on 1,000 years of Polish-Jewish history. Mr. Sheffer wrote the book and lyrics for the musicals Yiddle with a Fiddle and The Rise of David Levinsky. His latest play is Dreamers and Demons: The Three Worlds of Isaac Bashevis Singer. He is currently creating the libretto for a modern-baroque opera-ballet about the making of the American Constitution, A More Perfect Union.

Producer of Literary Programs, Symphony Space, Ms. Minton joined Symphony Space's staff in 1990. She produces all Selected Shorts live programs and manages the independent production, marketing and distribution of the Selected Shorts on Audiocassette series.

Ms. Minton produces all Selected Shorts' annual tours to the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, the University of Texas at Austin, and Town Hall, Seattle, and a host of special events around the country, including four special Selected Shorts events in conjunction with Whitney Museum of American Art exhibitions, including Edward Hopper and the American Imagination, NYNY : City of Ambition, Unknown Terrain: The Landscapes of Andrew Wyeth, The American Century: Art and Culture 1900 - 2000, and 2000 Biennial Exhibition. She created and produces the Thalia Book Club, a new series which was launched by Symphony Space in spring 2002. Each program focuses on a single book, and includes an actor.

An award-winning producer/director with over a decade of experience in public radio as well as dramatic documentary and spoken word programming. Now in her six year as producer of Selected Shorts, Ms. Montaue has also produced other nationally distributed NPR series, including The Radio Stage, Jazzplay, Visit New Grimston, Anyway and Little Chills (co-producer). Additionally, she is the creator or co-creator of such NPR-disbributed arts specials as Shakespeare's Sisters: A Celebration of the Art and Mind of Virginia Woolf, In the Devil's Footsteps: Bats and Vampires and Titanic: Unsinkable Myth. Ms. Montague is a former board member of the Association of Independents in Radio, and the National Audio Theatre Festivals, for which she is also faculty member. She has been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. Awards she has earned include recognition from the International Radio Festival and National Federation of Community Broadcasters. Ms. Montague was also a 1994 Harvestworks Artist in Residence.

The radio bug bit Irene Trudel in the 70's while she attended Morristown High School, which owned a 10-watt student-run station (WJSV). Around that same time Irene made her first tentative steps toward becoming a recording engineer by recording local folk singers for later broadcast. Years later, following an unsatisfying start in the commercial broadcast world, she realized her heart was in public radio. In 1986 Irene joined the DJ staff at WFMU, where she hosts a show that often features live music. In the summer of 1994 she began working at WNYC Radio as a broadcast/concerts engineer, and she is now a senior staff member. One of her many tasks at WNYC, besides setting up for New Sounds or other live music broadcasts and recordings, troubleshooting equipment problems, and an assortment of wiring projects, happily includes putting together Selected Shorts programs. Ms. Trudel lives in New York City with husband Peter Keepnews and kitties Nolan, Gracie and Nica.