State University of New York university at albany erforming rts enterC A Performing rts enter at State University of New York
2023-24
www.albany.edu/pac
www.albany.edu/music
www.albany.edu/theatre
The University atAlbany sits at the confluence of the Hudson andMohawkriversonthetraditionallandsoftheKanien’keháka and Muh-he-con-neok people, who stewarded this land for generations before the arrival of European colonists.The Kanien’keháka (People of the Flint) and Muh-he-con-neok (PeopleoftheWatersthatareNeverStill)aremorecommonly knowntodayastheMohawkHaudenosauneeandStockbridgeMunsee Band of Mohicans. Despite the similarity of their westernized names, the Mohawk and Mohican were culturally and linguistically distinct.
The UAlbany community recognizes that we live and work on the homelands of sovereign Indigenous nations with rich histories and cultures that continue today – both within NewYork and beyond.
As an institution devoted to teaching, scholarship, and service, we strive to understand and learn from our history and to affirm Indigenous rights and issues.To this end, we are committed to cultivating reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities focused on equity, social justice, and sustainability – and dismantling legacies of colonization.
Visit the UAlbany Performing Arts Center website at www.albany.edu/pac for a full listing of this season’s events.
Photo: Dayton Contemporary Dance Company
Program
Hosted by Joanna Gleason
The Luck of Others by Ben Philippe Performed by Joanna Gleason
Somebody’s Daughter by Amy Silverberg Performed by Hettienne Park
A Sacrifice by Simon Van Booy Performed by Joanna Gleason
The Acorn by Elizabeth Stix Performed by Dylan Baker
Credits
“The Luck of Others,” by Ben Philippe. Commissioned by Symphony Space. Copyright © 2023 by Ben Philippe and Symphony Space.
“Somebody’s Daughter,” by Amy Silverberg. Commissioned by Symphony Space.
Copyright © 2023 by Amy Silverberg and Symphony Space.
“A Sacrifice,” by Simon Van Booy, from The Sadness of Beautiful Things (Penguin Books, 2018). First appeared in The Irish Times (December 23, 2017). Copyright © 2017 by Simon Van Booy. Used by permission of the author.
“The Acorn,” by Elizabeth Stix, from Things I Want Back from You (Black Lawrence Press, 2024). First published in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern (Issue 57, October 2019).
Copyright © 2019 by Elizabeth Stix. Used by permission of the author.
Selected Shorts is supported by the Dungannon Foundation, creator of The Rea Award for the Short Story. This program is also made possible by the generous support of Susan Bay Nimoy, Estate of Douglas M. Matheson, Seedlings Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, MacMillan Family Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, Charina Endowment Fund, Henry Nias Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, PECO Foundation, Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina, Mustang Foundation, Michael Tuch Foundation, Axe-Houghton Foundation, Jody and John Arnhold and the Arnhold Foundation, The Grodzins Fund, The Isambard Kingdom Brunel Society of North America, and Theatre Development Fund. Symphony Space thanks its generous supporters, including the Board of Directors, Producers Circle, and members, who make its programs possible with their annual support.
The Artists
Dylan Baker is an actor whose many film and television credits include The Resort, Inside Man, Hunters , Happiness, The Hot Zone: Anthrax, The Good Fight and The Good Wife, Homeland, Little Women, Spider-Man 2 & 3, Selma, Confirmation, Kings, Damages, and The Americans. His extensive theater credits include La Bête, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award, Corruption at Lincoln Center, The Audience with Helen Mirren, the Broadway revival of The Front Page, Bernhardt/Hamlet, and Medea at BAM. In addition to his acting credits, he directed the 2014 film 23 Blast. Baker is also an audiobook narrator and was honored with the Audie Award for his reading of Jonathan Franzen’s novel The Corrections and is the voice of Doctor Doom in Marvel’s Wastelanders: Doom. Baker can currently be seen in Dream Scenario and LaRoy, Texas.
Joanna Gleason won a Tony for her portrayal of the Baker’s Wife in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into The Woods. Her other Broadway and off-Broadway credits include The Normal Heart; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, for which she received a Tony nomination; I Love My Wife; Happiness; Joe Egg, for which she received a Tony nomination; Sons of the Prophet; and The Real Thing; to name only a few. Her television credits include The West Wing, The Newsroom, Love and War, Bette, and many more. Films include Hannah and Her Sisters, Boogie Nights, Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Skeleton Twins, and many more. She has written and directed two films: a short, Morning Into Night, which debuted at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival and was selected for the Cambridge Film Festival; and a feature, The Grotto, which won the Best Narrative Feature premiere at the Heartland International Film Festival in 2022. She has been reading stories for Selected Shorts for 35 years.
Hettienne Park is best known for her role as Beverly Katz on Hannibal and Tamika Collins on Stephen King's The Outsider. Additional screen credits include Don’t Look Up, Gossip Girl, The OA, Blacklist, High Maintenance, Bride Wars, Damages and more. Park appeared on Broadway in Seminar with Alan Rickman and off-Broadway in Tony Kushner's The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, earning her a Theatre World Award for her debuts both on and off Broadway. Park currently guest-stars as front-running presidential candidate, Felicity Walker, in HBO Max's The Girls On The Bus, inspired by the book Chasing Hillary by NEW YORK TIMES journalist Amy Chozick.
Ben Philippe is a Haitian-Canadian author and television writer. His debut novel, The Field Guide to the North American Teenager, was honored with the 2020 William C. Morris Award. Also in 2020, Philippe published the novel Charming As a Verb, followed by the 2021 memoir Sure, I'll Be Your Black Friend, which was named one of Canada's best nonfiction books by CBC. In January 2022, Philippe was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Television for his work on Only Murders in the Building.
Amy Silverberg is a writer and comedian based in Los Angeles. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing & Literature from USC, where she currently teaches. Her fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, the Paris Review, TriQuarterly and elsewhere. As a stand-up comedian, she has appeared on Comedy Central, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Silverberg is currently at work on a novel.
Bay Area native Elizabeth Stix writes and edits in Berkeley, California. Her stories have appeared in McSweeney’s, Tin House, Boulevard, The Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, and elsewhere. She has contributed to numerous anthologies,
including Best Microfiction 2019, Drivel, and 642 Things About You (That I Love). Her work was performed live at the New Short Fiction Series in LA, and her story “Alice” was optioned by Sneaky Little Sister Films. In the early 2000s, she founded the vanguard lit zine The Big Ugly Review. Her stories have won the Katherine Manoogian Scholarship Prize and the Bay Guardian Fiction Prize and have been finalists or semi-finalists for the Disquiet Prize, Glimmer Train Fiction Open, Boulevard Emerging Writers Contest, Sherwood Anderson Prize, and others.
Elizabeth has a BA from Brown University and an MA and MFA from San Francisco State. When she’s not writing, she can be found staying up way too late doing The New York Times Spelling Bee. Her debut short story collection, Things I Want Back from You, will be published in June 2024 by Black Lawrence Press.
Simon Van Booy has written more than a dozen works of fiction, including Night Came with Many Stars and The Presence of Absence, and is the editor of three volumes of philosophy. Raised in rural North Wales, Simon currently lives between London and New York, where he is a volunteer EMT for Central Park Medical Unit and RVAC. His latest novel, Sipsworth, will be published in May.
Symphony Space Staff
Jennifer Brennan - Director of Literary Programs
Drew Richardson - Lead Producer of Literary Programs
Vivienne Woodward - Producer of Literary Programs
Mary Shimkin - Director of Broadcast & Literary Initiatives
Sarah Montague - Selected Shorts Radio Producer
Jenny Falcon - Selected Shorts Radio Producer
Miles B. Smith - Selected Shorts Recording Engineer
Matthew Love - Consultant for Literary Programs
Magdalene Wrobleski - Literary Assistant
Mollie Gordon - Program Assistant
Sophia Raimondi - Literary Intern
Lulu Chatterjee - Literary Intern
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
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 most performances is strictly prohibited.
There is no food or drink allowed in the theatres, nor is smoking allowed in UAlbany buildings.
. 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.
