Selected Shorts

erforming rts enterC A P

university at albany State University of New York

2022-23

Cover photo: Urban Bush Women’s “Give Your Hands to Struggle” | Photo by Ian Douglas

Photo this page: UAlbany Performing Arts Center | Photo by Patrick Ferlo

Program

Hosted by Teagle F. Bougere

The Last Customer by Robin Hemley

Performed by Jane Curtin and Mike Doyle

The Thief’s Tale by Meron Hadero

Performed by Teagle F. Bougere

The Toynbee Convector by Ray Bradbury

Performed by Mike Doyle

The Feather Behind the Rock by Anne Tyler

Performed by Jane Curtin

Credits

“The Last Customer,” by Robin Hemley, from The Big Ear (John F. Blair, 1995). Copyright © 1995 by Robin Hemley. Used by permission of the author.

“The Thief’s Tale,” by Meron Hadero, from A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times (Restless Books, 2022). Copyright © 2022 by Meron Hadero. Used by permission of the author.

“The Toynbee Convector,” by Ray Bradbury. First published in Playboy © 1983 by Ray Bradbury. Read and performed with the permission of Don Congdon Associates, Inc.

“The Feather Behind the Rock,” by Anne Tyler, as published in The New Yorker (August 4, 1967). Copyright © 1967, 1970 by Anne Tyler. Used by permission of Salky Literary Management.

Selected Shorts is supported by the Dungannon Foundation, creator of The Rea Award for the Short Story. Support is also provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, The Achelis and Bodman Foundation, the Henry Nias Foundation, the Charina Endowment Fund, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Michael Tuch Foundation, the Vidda Foundation, the Axe-Houghton Foundation, and The Grodzins Fund. Selected Shorts is also made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. Symphony Space thanks our generous supporters, including our Board of Directors, Producers Circle, and members, who make our programs possible with their annual support.

Teagle F. Bougere recently portrayed James Baldwin in The American Vicarious production of Debate: Baldwin vs. Buckley, in New York City and London. He co -starred with Catherine ZetaJones in the television series Queen America. Bougere's Broadway credits include The Crucible, A Raisin in the Sun , and The Tempest. He was featured in The Public Theater’s productions of Socrates and the much- acclaimed production of Coriolanus in Central Park. His most recent New York stage appearance was the world premiere of The New Englanders at Manhattan Theater Club. Additional theater credits include Is God Is at SoHo Rep, Beast in the Jungle, the title role in the stage adaptation of Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man at The Court Theater in Chicago, The Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., and The Huntington in Boston, Julius Caesar and Cymbeline for The Public Theater in Central Park, A Soldier’s Play at Second Stage, A Fair Country at Lincoln Center, Last Dance for Sybil (with Ruby Dee) at the New Federal Theatre, An Iliad (one- man show) at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and Blue Door at Berkeley Rep. His film and television credits include Hill ‘n’ Gully, The Path, The Mist, Good Friday, Conviction, Cosby, The Job, Third Watch, Murder in Black and White, A Night at the Museum, The Imposters, The Pelican Brief , Two Weeks Notice, What the Deaf Man Heard, and Bull, as well as seven episodes for the Law & Order franchise.

In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury (1920 - 2012) inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrate d writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He wrote the screenplay for John Huston's classic film adaptation of Moby Dick and was nominated for an Academy

Award. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's The Ray Bradbury Theater and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree . Bradbury was the recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, among many honors.

Jane Curtin has appeared on Broadway in Noises Off , Candida, and Our Town. Her off-Broadway work includes Love Letters and the musical revue Pretzels, which she co -wrote. She starred in the television series 3rd Rock from the Sun and won back-toback Emmy Awards for her role on Kate & Allie. She is an original cast member of Saturday Night Live and also starred in the television film series The Librarian and its spin-off, The Librarians. Her film credits include Coneheads; Antz; I Love You, Man; I Don’t Know How She Does It; The Heat; The Spy Who Dumped Me; Can You Ever Forgive Me?; Ode to Joy; Godmothered; and Queen Bees. She starred on the television series Unforgettable and has had guest appearances on The Good Wife, 48 Hours ’til Monday, The Good Fight, Broad City, and United We Fall. Upcoming projects include the film Jules, opposite Sir Ben Kingsley.

Mike Doyle has appeared on screen in New Amsterdam, City on a Hill, The Romanoffs, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Accidental Wolf, Narcos: Mexico, Jersey Boys, The Invitation, and Green Lantern, among others. His stage credits include The New Century at Lincoln Center and Betrayed with the Culture Project. Doyle wrote and directed the feature film Almost Love starring Kate Walsh, Patricia Clarkson, and Scott Evans. He is currently working on his n ext film, Passing Through.

Meron Hadero is an Ethiopian American who was born in Addis Ababa and came to the U.S. via Germany as a young child. Meron's short stories have won the 2021 Caine Prize for African Writing, shortlisted for the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing, and appear in Best American Short Stories, Ploughshares,

McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Zyzzyva, The Iowa Review, Missouri Review , 40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology, and others. She's also been published in The New York Times Book Review, the anthology The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives, and the anthology Letter to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us. A 2019-2020 Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University, and a fellow at Yaddo, Ragdale, and MacDowell, Meron holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan, a JD from Yale Law School, and a BA in history from Princeton with a certificate in American studies. Her collection A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times was published in 2022.

Robin Hemley has published 15 books of fiction and nonfiction. His most recent books are the autofiction Oblivion: An AfterAutobiography (Gold Wake, 2022), The Art and Craft of Asian Stories: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology, co-authored with Xu Xi (Bloomsbury, 2021) and Borderline Citizen: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood (Nebraska, 2020, Penguin SE Asia, 2021). He has previously published four collections of short stories, and his stories have been widely anthologized. His widely-used writing text, Turning Life into Fiction, has sold over a hundred thousand copies and has been in print for 25 years. His work has been published and translated widely and he has received such awards as a Guggenheim Fellowship, a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation, three Pushcart Prizes in both nonfiction and fiction, The Nelson Algren Award for Fiction and The Independent Press Book Award for Memoir, among others.

Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the author of more than twenty novels. Her twentieth novel, A Spool of Blue Thread, was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2015. Her eleventh novel, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. Tyler is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her latest novel, French Braid, was published in 2022.

Symphony Space Staff

Executive Director: Kathy Landau

Founding Artistic Director: Isaiah Sheffer*

Managing Director: Peggy Wreen

Director of Literary Programs: Jennifer Brennan

Lead Producer of Literary Programs: Drew Richardson

Producer of Literary Programs: Vivienne Woodward

Consultant for Literary Programs: Matthew Love

Literary Assistant: Magdalene Wrobleski

Program Assistant for Literature: Mollie Gordon

Literary Intern: Gabriela Parra Lambis

Literary Intern: Madeleine Hearn

*In memoriam

Sponsors

Tonight’s performance is presented by the UAlbany Performing Arts Center and NYS Writers Institute

UALBANY PERFORMING ARTS CENTER PAC 266

518-442-3995

www.albany.edu/pac

NEW YORK STATE WRITERS INSTITUTE Science Library 320

518-442-5620

www.nyswritersinstitute.org

Funding support provided by the University at Albany Foundation and University Auxiliary Services

UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY FOUNDATION University Administration Building 226

518-437-5090

www.albany.edu/uafoundation

UNIVERSITY AUXILIARY SERVICES Campus Center B52

518-442-5950

www.albany.edu/uas

The UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s six theatres, three lounges and other spaces are available for rental.

The UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s six theatres, three lounges and other spaces are available for rental.

erforming rts enterC A P

HOUSE POLICIES

Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the management and its staff.

The use of photographic or recording devices of any kind during this performance is strictly prohibited.

There is no food or drink allowed in the theatres, nor is smoking allowed in UAlbany buildings.

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To avoid disrupting the performance, kindly disable any noise making electronic devices you may have with you.

Please take time to note the location of the fire exits nearest to you. In the event of an emergency, an announcement will be made from the stage. Please proceed to the nearest exit in an orderly fashion.

The UAlbany Performing Arts Center is no longer operating a box office. All ticketing is done on-line and can be easily navigated from the web site provided through the QR code above or address below.

www.albany.edu/pac