“˜Selected Shorts’ at Getty is grown-up story time

By Siddarth Puri
Daily Bruin Reporter
[email protected]

Little elementary school students aren’t the only ones who
get read to anymore.

Childhood memories return to the Getty Museum this weekend with
the event “Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short
Story” premiere for its eleventh season.

The performance, set against the backdrop of a living room, is
composed of four performances of classic and new short fiction read
by actors from all mediums.

Sprouting from the Symphony Space’s annual celebration
called “Bloomsdale on Broadway,” which was a series
where actors read parts from James Joyce’s
“Ulysses,” the short stories tour was created as an aim
for the company to get actors to read short stories. It was an
experimental spin-off from other literary events that has been
touring numerous cities nationwide.

“The short stories bring out the best in an
audience,” said Isaiah Sheffer, the artistic director of the
program. “It’s the opposite of the numbing someone gets
while watching television because it requires of your mind that you
translate words into pictures and events in your head.”

Audience participation in the event is as important as the
reading of the short stories themselves. By making the audience an
integral part, they will do more than listen, but create mind
pictures as well, according to Sheffer.

“Short stories remind me of kindergarten days when I used
to sit on my grandmother’s lap at night when she read to
me,” said Michele Roeder, a UCLA psychology alum.
“It’s finally nice not to have to do your own reading
again.”

The actors will read short stories up to thirty minutes long,
including many works by authors such as Elizabeth Haas, Adam
Haslett, Julie Otsuka and George Singleton. “Selected
Shorts” allow the actors to connect with the audience as well
as perform without having to memorize their lines. Actors attending
the performance include Thomas Gibson (“Dharma and
Greg”), James Cromwell (“The Green Mile”), and
Jane Kaczmarek (“Malcom in the Middle”).

“I love the spoken word and I don’t often get to
read great writing, especially in Los Angeles, so when I have the
chance to, I jump at it,” said Christine Pickles, the actress
who played Ross and Monica’s mother on “˜Friends.’
“You can feel the attention of the audience on the story, so
you feel like you’re revealing something, almost channeling
it to them.”

For actors, the experience is very different from their usual
performances. Without having the stress of a script or of
presenting in front of a camera, they can act out the emotions the
books evoke, thus showing a more human side as opposed to the usual
grammatical side, according to Pickles.

Many authors of the presented short stories also attend the
performance. The authors have rehearsed the stories with the actors
to make sure they read the short story accurately.

Furthermore, according to Sheffer, after the actors read the
stories, the authors are invited up to the stage to either
“slug” or “hug” the actor after the
reading.

“Many authors are impressed with the actor’s reading
of the story,” said Sheffer. “When Gedde Watanabe read
Julie Otsuka’a “˜When the Emperor Was Divine,’ she
was very impressed with his articulation and style of presenting
her story,” she added.

Though most audience members for the usual short stories series
are radio audience members because they air on KPCC public radio
(89.3 FM), Sheffer thinks that the live audience will enjoy the
performance as much as the radio audience does. There are even
parallels in the performance with current Getty presentations: the
Sunday matinee, “Railway Tales,” complements the Getty
Museum’s current “Railroad Vision”
photographs.

“The different experiences people have when hearing
stories in a public place is very different than the experience
they have when listening to them alone,” said Sheffer.
“It’s engaging to see the looks on their faces to see
how the little nuances hit them ““ the quivering of a mouth or
the silencing of laughter ““ it shows how different people
react to situations in a public environment.”

LITERATURE: “Selected Shorts” will
premiere at M. Williams Auditorium at 1200 Getty Center Drive.
Tickets ($20) are available at the Museum Information Desk or by
calling (310)-440-7300. Parking at the Getty Center is $5. For more
information visit www.getty.edu.