Selected Shorts: Texan Style!

Last weekend I visited the Lone Star State for the first time, and it wasn’t just to enjoy some down-home Texas BBQ (although I certainly did that too).

I couldn’t resist sharing this with you! It’s called a Pan Handle Po Boy with pulled pork, hot dogs, and onions!

Selected Shorts has been going to the Dallas Museum of Art for 25 years and I traveled there to celebrate this important anniversary.

For more than three decades, Selected Shorts has found new audiences while keeping the original spirit of the program alive. Symphony Space Board Member Kay Cattarulla, one of the founders of Selected Shorts, brought the program to Dallas and curated it as part of their “Arts and Letters” series for many years. For this special Selected Shorts, the theme of Art and Artists was fitting considering the location. Host and reader Denis O’Hare, John Benjamin Hickey, and Blythe Danner delighted the audience with The Color Master by Aimee Bender, Weber’s Head by J. Robert Lennon, and How to Become a Writer by Lorrie Moore. Yet again I was struck by the enduring appeal of this series. There are few moments more stirring than when a great actor finds the heart of a wonderful story and brings it to life — the sold out event on Saturday was certainly evidence of this!

left to right: John Benjamin Hickey, Blythe Danner, Denis O’Hare, and me

Many long-time friends were on hand to celebrate this anniversary, including Ethel Sheffer and Kay. Earlier in the day the Dallas Museum screened Art and Heart: The World of Isaiah Sheffer. Kay introduced the film and Ethel made the journey from New York for a Q&A session after the screening.

I even managed to get some time off for sightseeing this weekend. One of the highlights for me was visiting the Nasher Museum’s incredible contemporary sculpture collection and stunning Renzo Piano building. And of course no visit to Dallas is complete without a visit to the Sixth Floor Museum. Standing in the place where Lee Harvey Oswald pulled the trigger on the fateful day in 1963 is a chilling experience.

Nasher Museum

Congratulations Selected Shorts on another milestone. And the anniversaries continue — we are off to the Getty Museum in LA later this month for the 25th anniversary of Selected Shorts there!