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“Selected Shorts,” produced by Symphony Space in New York City , is co-presented at Westport Country Playhouse by the Westport Arts Center and Westport Country Playhouse, and sponsored by WSHU. Hosted by Isaiah Sheffer, the evening’s program will be “The MacDowell Colony: A Centennial Celebration,” featuring the short stories “A Curtain of Green” by Eudora Welty, “Nineteen Fifty-Five” by Alice Walker and “Pilgrims” by Julie Orringer. The three authors were nurtured and inspired by the isolation and vital community of The MacDowell Colony for artists, which James Baldwin called a place “to crouch in order to spring.”
Myra Lucretia Taylor’s Broadway credits include “Nine,” “Macbeth,” “Electra, “Chronicle of a Death Foretold,” “Mule Bone” and “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Off Broadway, she appeared in “Crazy Mary,” “All’s Well That Ends Well,” “Fabulation,” “Force Continuum” and “The American Clock,” among other productions. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, she appeared in “The Winter’s Tale” and “Pericles” in London and Stratford-upon-Avon . Her film work includes “Changing Lanes,” “Unfaithful,” “Music of the Heart,” “Everyone Says I Love You” and “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.” Her television work includes all three “Law & Order” series, “Oz,” “The Black Donnellys” and “Conviction.” She has just appeared in the play “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” at Baltimore ’s Center Stage, and will be seen in the forthcoming films “The Understudy” and “A Dog Year.” About the Authors Julie Orringer has published a collection of stories, “How to Breathe Underwater.” Her stories have also appeared in The Paris Review, The Washington Post, Ploughshares, Zoetrope: All-Story, The Pushcart Prize anthology, and The Best American Non-Required Reading 2004. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Cornell University and was a Stegner Fellow in the Creative Writing Program at Stanford. She is a visiting professor of creative writing at the University of Michigan . Alice Walker won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for her novel “The Color Purple.” Her other novels include “By the Light of My Father’s Smile,” “Possessing the Secret of Joy,” “Meridian,” “The Temple of My Familiar” and, most recently, “Now Is The Time to Open Your Heart.” She is also the author of short story collections including “You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down” and “The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart”; collections of poetry; volumes of essays; and several children’s books. Her work has been translated into more than two dozen languages. Born in Eatonton , Georgia , she now lives in Northern California . Eudora Welty (1909-2001) was born in Jackson , Mississippi . Her story collections include “The Wide Net and Other Stories,” “The Golden Apples,” “The Bride of Innisfallen and Other Stories” and “A Curtain of Green.” She received the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for “The Optimist’s Daughter”; her other novels are “The Robber Bridegroom,” “Delta Wedding,” “The Ponder Heart” and “Losing Battles.” Among her other publications are essays on the craft of writing, a book of photographs, and a memoir titled “One Writer's Beginnings.” Now in its 21st season on the airwaves, “Selected Shorts” is produced for radio by Symphony Space and WNYC, New York Public Radio. The award-winning program is heard locally on Saturdays at 3 p.m. on WSHU (FM 91.1). Upcoming “Selected Shorts,” co-presented by Westport Country Playhouse and Westport Arts Center at the Playhouse, will be “Writers and Their Dogs,” funny and poignant short fiction about canine companionship, inspired by the dogs in three writers’ lives, on Tuesday, March 18; and “Are We There Yet?,” fabulous stories that take place on trains and planes, in cars and berths, about encounters and adventures that would not have been possible without modern transportation, on Monday, May 19. Actors and authors will be announced. Tickets to “Selected Shorts” are $15, $20 and $25. The Westport Arts Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating arts experiences that contribute to individual growth and community enrichment. WAC believes that encouraging the arts is essential to the renewal and well-being of society. WAC works hard to bring to the community a rich, accessible roster of visual and performing arts programs, including exhibitions, concerts, lectures, children's classes and outreach programs. Westport Country Playhouse is now open year-round, welcoming 85,000 audience members annually, following a multi-million dollar renovation completed in 2005. On its legendary stage are theatrical productions, educational programming and special events, including film, readings of short fiction and new plays, and a Family Festivities series. The rich history of the Westport Country Playhouse dates back to 1931, when New York theatre producers Lawrence Langner and his wife Armina Marshall created a Broadway-quality stage within an 1830s cow barn. Now celebrating its 77th season, the Playhouse has produced more than 700 plays, 35 of which later transferred to Broadway. Its roster of actors reads like a "Who's Who" of the American theatre. Westport Country Playhouse serves as a treasured home for the performing arts for audiences and artists alike, and as a true cultural landmark for Connecticut . For more information or reservations for “Selected Shorts,” visit www.westportplayhouse.org, or call Westport Country Playhouse box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529. Westport Country Playhouse is located at 25 Powers Court , off Route 1, Westport . © Copyright by NorwalkPlus.com. Some articles and pictures posted on our website, as indicated by their bylines, were submitted as press releases and do not necessarily reflect the position and opinion of NorwalkPlus.com, Norwalk Plus magazine, Canaiden LLC or any of its associated entities. Articles may have been edited for brevity and grammar. 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