Symphony Space Convenes Celebrated Broadway Performers For SELECTED SHORTS: BACK TO SCHOOL

Symphony Space, a home for unforgettable events that happen one time only and only at Symphony Space, today announces the lineup for Selected Shorts: Back to School, produced Wednesday, September 28, at 7pm EST for in-person audiences at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater and viewers tuning in worldwide via live-stream. In this first Selected Shorts evening of the 2022-23 season, a cast of beloved Broadway performers will bring to life hilarious and moving short fiction exploring the secret lives of teachers and students.

Hosted by bestselling author Tara Westover (Educated), Selected Shorts: Back to School features Santino Fontana (Tootsie), Nikki M. James (The Book of Mormon), Katrina Lenk (Company), and Maulik Pancholy (Grand Horizons) reading stories by Patricia Marx, Tom Perrotta, and other writers about first-day jitters, all-night cram sessions, unrequited crushes, and awkward school dances.

Selected Shorts, Symphony Space's best-known series, was conceived over 35 years ago with a simple premise: take great stories by well-known and emerging writers and have exceptional actors perform them live. Whether featuring short fiction around a lively theme, the favorite works of a guest author, or a special collaboration, each Selected Shorts event is a unique evening. The series has welcomed guest hosts such as Roxane Gay, LeVar Burton, Cynthia Nixon, and David Sedaris, and performers including Stephen Colbert, Morgan Freeman, Greta Gerwig, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Zosia Mamet, John Cameron Mitchell, Anthony Ramos, Anika Noni Rose, and Meryl Streep, to name just a few. Selected Shorts has spawned a weekly radio show now heard on over 130 stations nationwide and a podcast that has subscribers around the world. Author Meg Wolitzer (The Wife, The Interestings) hosts the broadcast and podcast.

The 2022-23 Selected Shorts season also includes an evening devoted to unpacking the art of friendship hosted by Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle) and Jane Curtin (SNL, 3rd Rock from the Sun), with Roy Wood Jr. (The Daily Show) and other guests (October 19); an engagement with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Andrew Sean Greer (Less, The Story of a Marriage), celebrating the acclaimed The Best American Short Stories 2022 edition (November 16); and a centennial celebration of writer and activist Grace Paley, hosted by Lauren Groff (Matrix, Fates and Furies) (December 7). These programs arrive after a momentous Spring 2022 season of Selected Shorts in which Symphony Space presented the series as a Wall to Wall marathon program featuring 35 new commissions, which comprise the book Small Odysseys: Selected Shorts Presents 35 New Stories, published last year by Algonquin Books. In February of this year, Symphony Space announced bestselling author Meg Wolitzer (The Wife, The Interestings) as the new host of the Selected Shorts broadcast and podcast.

In-person tickets for Selected Shorts: Back to School are $32 ($29 for members, and $17 for those 30 and under), and live-stream tickets are $25 ($23 for members). They can be purchased at symphonyspace.org.