Produced by New York's Symphony Space and hosted by Isaiah Sheffer, Selected Shorts is an annual series featuring actors from stage, screen, and television reading classic and new short fiction. The series is held each spring at the Getty Center.

All performances take place in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium at the Getty Center. Parking $15; $10 after 5:00 p.m.

The hit public-radio series returns for its annual weekend of live performance at the Getty. A great lineup of actors from stage and screen read funny, passionate, and mysterious classic and modern tales about objects of desire. Historical, religious, magical, humorous, beloved, or bewitched—every object tells a story.

Stuff Happens
Saturday, March 3 at 3:00 p.m.

"The Bureau" by J. Robert Lennon, performed by Kirsten Vangsness

"The Empty Room" by Jonathan Lethem, performed by Tate Donovan

"Why Don't You Dance?" by Raymond Carver, performed by Corey Stoll

"In the Reign of Harad IV" by Steven Millhauser, performed by Leonard Nimoy

The Lives of Things
Saturday, March 3 at 7:00 p.m.

"Rocking Chair" by Abigail Thomas, performed by Kate Burton

"The Counterfeit Secret Circle Member Gets the Message, or The Asp Strikes Again" by Jean Shepherd, performed by Isaiah Sheffer

"The Sofa" by Maeve Brennan, performed by Brian F. O'Byrne

"To the Measures Fall" by Richard Powers, performed by Christina Pickles

Lost and Found
Sunday, March 4 at 3:00 p.m.

"The Book" by Ben Loory, performed by Jane Kaczmarek

"Counting the Ways" by Susan Perabo, performed by Robert Sean Leonard

"The Tablecloth of Turin" by Ron Carlson, performed by Edi Gathegi

"Americca" by Aimee Bender, performed by Jane Levy

Selected Shorts 2011: Delicious Fictions
March 26 and 27, 2011
Leonard Nimoy, Tim Curry, Denis O'Hare, and Josh Radnor lead this year's lineup of terrific actors reading luscious tales of food and passions, politics, mystery, and deep-sea adventure. Classic and new, the stories are set in diverse locales: a shabby Brooklyn kitchen, a submarine off the West African coast, a fancy Manhattan society dinner party, Don Quixote's Karaoke Bar in Oklahoma City, and beyond.

Selected Shorts 2010: At Home
May 1 and 2, 2010
The annual literary series returned in 2010 with a weekend of stories about home. Moving, comical, romantic, heart wrenching, heartwarming, and thought provoking, these readings examined the way we live. Featuring readings by René Auberjonois, Kirsten Vangsness, Fionnula Flanagan, Ed Asner, Jane Kaczmarek, and others, the programs included works by Richard Ford, Miranda July, Yasunari Kawabata, John Updike, and Julie Otsuka, to name a few.

Selected Shorts 2009: Unforgettable Journeys
May 2 and 3, 2009
The 2009 lineup explored destinations real and imaginary, far flung, and close at hand, with journeys featuring wild adventures, comic mishaps, and unexpected encounters. Stories by Todd McEwen, Lorrie Moore, Hunter S. Thompson, Marguerite Yourcenar, and more were read by a distinguished lineup of actors including James Cromwell, Kate Burton, Alec Baldwin, and Fionnula Flanagan, and more.