Selected Shorts at the Bardavon

Short Stuff

by Sparrow, February 25, 2010

Isaiah Sheffer’s mellifluous, slightly quizzical voice is known to NPR listeners of “Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story,” now in its 26th season. Born in the Bronx to Russian immigrant parents in 1935, Sheffer performed in the Yiddish theater as a child, and went on to a varied career as a playwright, librettist, director, producer and Yiddishist. He wrote the book and lyrics for the off-Broadway musical “Yiddle with a Fiddle” and the English version of Sholom Aleichem’s comic play “Hard to Be a Jew.”

In 1978, Sheffer rented the Symphony Theater on West 95th Street in Manhattan with his partner, the conductor Allan Miller, to transform the building into a community arts center. Six years later, Sheffer started “Selected Shorts.” Almost immediately, the show began touring, and in 1990 “Selected Shorts” inaugurated a yearly residency at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Sheffer also coordinates the yearly “Bloomsday on Broadway” celebration on June 16, when as many as 100 actors read from James Joyce’s Ulysses—which is set on that day, in 1904. At the end of this year, Sheffer will step down as artistic director of Symphony Space but will continue hosting “Selected Shorts.” He spoke with me from his office at the theater, looking back at the success of his literary series with awe.

On Saturday, March 13, at 8pm, “Selected Shorts,” featuring Jane Curtin, David Strathairn, and host Isaiah Sheffer, will appear for the first time at the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie. (845) 473-2072; www.bardavon.org.

Who came up with the name “Selected Shorts”?
Well, I did. Symphony Space exists in what was once a regular neighborhood movie theater, the Symphony Theater. It was down and out, defunct as a movie theater, when my partner and I took it over 32 years ago, to make into a performing arts center. The idea of “selected shorts” was that there used to be—you’re probably too young to remember—when you went to movies in the old days, you saw a double bill, a newsreel, a cartoon, coming attractions, and “selected short subjects.” And that phrase stuck in my mind. So it was an echo of the fact that we were once a movie theater.

What percentage of new stories do you read?
My guess would be that 80 percent are new stories, and 20 percent are classics. Sometimes I like to take a story that everybody knows very well, and find great discoveries in it.

Can you give an example of an old-time short story you revived?
One that just leaps to mind is Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” which everybody knows from their high school anthology. But when you hear it read by a good actor, carefully rehearsed and crafted, it’s a revelation.

Who was the reader?
Marian Seldes.