Irvine Barclay Theatre: Selected Shorts

Students only!

Actors Yetide Badaki, Justin Kirk, Melora Hardin, and Gildart Jackson take the spotlight as Selected Shorts returns with a suite of stories celebrating writers and their readers. Join us for an evening of artists finding unexpected inspiration and bibliophiles of every stripe experiencing the power of the written word...for better and for worse!

Our greatest actors transport us through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time. Sometimes funny. Always moving. Selected Shorts connects you to the world with a rich diversity of voices from literature, film, theater, and comedy.

In 1985, Selected Shorts was born at Symphony Space in New York City with this simple premise: great short stories performed by great actors. Flash-forward more than 35 years, and Selected Shorts is broadcast on over 150 radio stations around the country, attracting over 300,000 listeners each week through the live show and podcast. Past performers have included Catherine O'Hara, Blythe Danner, Tony Hale, among many others.

Learn More About the Artists

Yetide Badaki is a Nigerian-American actress. She is best known for playing Bilquis on the Starz series American Gods. Badaki played the mother of Giannis Antetokounmpo in the 2022 biographical movie Rise for Disney Plus.

Justin Kirk gained prominence for his roles as Prior Walter in the HBO miniseries Angels in America (2003), for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, and Andy Botwin in the Showtime dark comedy series Weeds (2005–2012). Other credits include Succession and Perry Mason.

Melora Hardin is best known for her roles as Jan Levinson on NBC's The Office, Trudy Monk on USA Network's Monk, and Tammy Cashman on Amazon Prime Video's Transparent, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. She starred as magazine editor-in-chief Jacqueline Carlyle on the Freeform comedy-drama The Bold Type, which aired from June 2017 to June 2021.

Gildart Jackson is best known for his role as giles the Host\Butler on the ABC hit reality series Whodunnit? His film and television credits include The Big Brass, General Hospital, Providence, Charmed, You, Atlas Shrugged: Part II, Burn Notice, Supernatural, Feud, and The Bold Type.


Actors subject to change.

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