Selected Shorts
Better Together
Message from the Director
Welcome to Montalvo!
I’m so glad that you are able to be with us tonight. Whether it’s your first time here, or your fiftieth—welcome! I am thrilled to welcome you to another season of Montalvo’s Carriage House Performing Arts Series.
As a multidisciplinary arts center, there’s even more to enjoy at Montalvo in addition to the world-class talent found in the Carriage House. We are a public park and arboretum open year-round for picnics, hiking, and leisurely strolls, as well as a vibrant cultural producer supporting an artist residency, vital arts education programming, and so much more.
Montalvo is a nonprofit organization—as such, we rely on the support of patrons like you in order to continue serving our Silicon Valley community. If you have not yet considered becoming a donor, I’d like to personally invite you to engage in a deeper relationship with our dynamic institution. After all, there’s something for everyone at Montalvo!
Enjoy the show and thanks again for joining us tonight,
Angela Torre McConnell
Executive Director
About the Show
Selected Shorts, Better Together
Hosted by Kirsten Vangsness
Men on Bikes by Roxane Gay
Performed by Richa Moorjani
Hoodie in Xanadu by Ann Beattie
Performed by Kirsten Vangsness
INTERMISSION
In the Company of Truckers by Rachel Kushner
Performed by Richa Moorjani
Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King
Performed by Justin Kirk
The Artists
Ann Beattie has been included in five O. Henry Prize Collections, The Best American Short Stories, and The Best American Short Stories of the Century. She is the recipient of the PEN/Malamud Award for achievement in the short story. In 2005, she received the Rea Award for the Short Story. The former Edgar Allan Poe Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Virginia, she is a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her most recent collection, Onlookers, was published in 2023.
Roxane Gay is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and author of the books Ayiti; An Untamed State; the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist; the nationally bestselling Difficult Women; the New York Times bestselling Hunger; and Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People’s Business. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is at work on television and film projects. Gay also has a newsletter, The Audacity, and her most recent work, How to Be Heard, was published in December 2024.
Lily King is The New York Times bestselling author of five novels: The Pleasing Hour, The English Teacher, Father of the Rain, Euphoria, and Writers & Lovers . Her first story collection, Five Tuesdays in Winter, was published in 2021. Her work has won numerous prizes and awards, including the Kirkus Prize, the New England Book Award for Fiction (twice), The Maine Fiction Award (twice), a Whiting Award, and the Barnes & Noble Discover Award. King has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway.
Justin Kirk is best known for his roles on the television shows Succession, Perry Mason, Weeds, Jack & Jill, and the miniseries Angels in America. Additional screen credits include Modern Family, The Blacklist, Wayward Pines, You’re the Worst, Ghostbusters (2016), APB, Molly’s Game, Vice, and Kidding. He has appeared on Broadway in Any Given Day, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Other Desert Cities, and at the Geffen Playhouse in Old Wicked Songs and These Paper Bullets! Kirk can currently be seen on AMC’s Interview with the Vampire.
Rachel Kushner is the author of the New York Times bestseller and Booker shortlisted novel Creation Lake, her acclaimed essay collection The Hard Crowd, and the internationally bestselling novels The Mars Room, The Flamethrowers, and Telex from Cuba, as well as a book of short stories, The Strange Case of Rachel K. She has won the Prix Médicis and been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Folio Prize, and was twice a finalist for the Booker Prize as well as the National Book Award in Fiction. Kushner is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and the recipient of the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her books have been translated into twenty-seven languages.
Bay Area native Richa Moorjani is an actor, producer, and activist who made her series lead debut in Mindy Kaling’s groundbreaking Netflix series Never Have I Ever, winning over a global audience with her portrayal of Kamala. As a first-generation Indian American artist, Richa showcases her versatility through a wide range of comedic and dramatic roles, including Officer Indira Olmstead in the critically acclaimed fifth season of FX/Hulu’s Fargo, which recently garnered 15 Emmy nominations. Her ability to portray complex female characters and her commitment to authentic representation have earned her significant praise from fans and critics alike.
Kirsten Vangsness is best known for playing the bespectacled tech kitten Penelope Garcia on Criminal Minds, which is on its 18th season for Paramount+ and as Bigelow McFigglehorn on the new Wizards Beyond Waverly Place on Disney. Kirsten has just penned her third solo piece, Outdated, which will be opening early 2025, and she is the host of BITS, a monthly performance salon in Hollywood. She LOVES reading for Selected Shorts.
Credits
“Men on Bikes,” by Roxane Gay, as published in McSweeney’s (2017). Copyright © 2017 by Roxane Gay. Used by permission of the author.
“Hoodie in Xanadu,” by Ann Beattie, from The Accomplished Guest (Scribner, 2017). First published in The Paris Review (Issue 193, Summer 2010). Copyright © 2010 by Ann Beattie. Adapted version of the text used by permission of Janklow & Nesbit.
“In the Company of Truckers,” by Rachel Kushner, as published in The New York Times Magazine (February 19, 2014) and collected in The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 (Scribner, 2021). Copyright © 2014 by Rachel Kushner. Used by permission of the author.
“Five Tuesdays in Winter,” by Lily King, from Five Tuesdays in Winter (Grove Press, 2021). First published in Ploughshares (Vol. 31, No. 2/3, Fall 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Lily King. Adapted version of the text used by permission of the author.
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
Miles B. Smith Selected Shorts Recording Engineer
Matthew Love Consultant for Literary Programs
Magdalene Wrobleski Literary Assistant
Leigh Reid Literary Intern
Mia Testa Literary Intern
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, Seedlings Foundation, Howard Gilman 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, 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 our generous supporters, including our Board of Directors, Producers Circle, and members, who make our programs possible with their annual support.
Exclusive management for Selected Shorts:
Alliance Artist Management 5030 Broadway, Suite 812, New York NY 10034
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