I frequently happen upon Selected Shorts on NPR midway through a story and go through a predictable course of thinking: I’ve missed the first part of the story. I should just download the podcast and hear it from the top. Wow, that sentence was brilliant. What the heck is going on here? And then I end up listening to the conclusion of the story and enjoying it immensely.

Now that I’m in New York, I hope to make it to one of the live stage performances of Selected Shorts. If you’re lucky enough to already have a ticket, on May 26th Selected Shorts will celebrate the stories of This American Life with an evening featuring Ira Glass, Mike Birbiglia and Elna Baker. Just in time for Short Story Month, this evening is also a part of New York Book Week. I’m excited for the Audience Favorites performance on June 9, when three stories nominated and chosen by listeners over the past season will be read onstage.

But no matter where you are, a short story read aloud is a very fine thing, so check out your local library or bookstore to see if any authors are visiting or giving readings. I’ve also been thinking a short story supper club might be the busy friends’ solution to the book group. Each week or month, one person could read a favorite short story after dinner or over a cup of coffee, discussion to follow. Pre-reading not a requirement.

What are some of your ideas about how to celebrate the read-out-loud story?

We’ve seen a lot of book adaptations lately, from Where the Wild Things Are to Precious to The Lovely Bones. Screenwriters and directors cut scenes here and add scenes there to transform the book into a cohesive viewing experience. A good adaptation can be a brand-new work of art. But in the process, the book is often boiled down to its essence while the particulars–the writer’s own words–are often lost.

The American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is trying to work around that. The A.R.T.’s latest production is “Gatz,” a staged reading of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby in which the original text is the show:

Gatz is conceived as a single six-hour production in which an ensemble of 13 actors bring to live every word of the novel with no text added and none removed.

The show begins as an office worker (played by actor Scott Shephard) finds a copy of The Great Gatsby and begins to read it aloud. An NPR review explains what happens next:

It doesn’t take long for things to turn strange. Co-workers wander on and off stage — an assistant, a janitor, a man in a suit. The lines between the narration and the action begin to blur. It’s as if the book is coming to life. Then, the janitor blurts out a line of dialogue from “Gatsby” character Tom Buchanan.

“Civilization’s going to pieces!”

And so it goes, ramping up, getting more surreal. While “Gatz” stays true to the words, it takes liberties with every prop, sound effect and stretch of the imagination.

The show is so long that it’s split into two parts, separated by a dinner break.

So why do it this way? Every novelist’s dream: a profound love for the novel itself, exactly as it’s written. “What made this a great book,” director John Collins explains in a video interview with NPR affiliate WBUR, “was not so much the story, or the characters, or the themes, or the symbols, but this writing. We thought, well, here’s a great crazy idea to start with, here’s a great crazy project, here’s a great impossible task: we’ll do every single word of it.”

Even the most slavishly faithful adaptations are based on plot and characters; usually, the only use of the actual text of the book is in dialogue, or (shudder) voiceover. Beautiful, powerful, pivotal passages of prose are condensed into a single shot, or left out entirely–never mind that the author probably spent weeks fine-tuning the language and picking just the right words. So as a fiction writer, I can see the appeal of the “Gatz” type of adaptation: the writing itself is in the spotlight the whole time.

What’s more, the show is intended to dramatize the blurring of the boundaries between reality and fiction. Collins continues, “When you read a book that you love… you start to see the people that you know in the characters. And you also start to see the book around you, when you get that involved. The line begins to blur a little bit between your own reality and the reality of the book.”

You can see the A.R.T.’s trailer here and snippets of the show here.

THE *NEW* DIXON PLACE PROUDLY PRESENTS
In the tradition of Jacques Brel, Dixon Place presents a groundbreaking musical theater experience: the staging of composer Chris Rael’s Araby.

ARABY

By Chris Rael

ALL SHOWS ARE LOCATED at The New Dixon Place
161 Chrystie Street (b/w Rivington & Delancey) New York, NY 10002
212-219-0736, www.dixonplace.org

Wednesdays-Saturdays, April 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16*, 17 & 18 at 7:30pm
Fri & Sat, $20 (general), $15 (student/senior)
2 Matinees added! – Sundays, April 12 & 19 at 3:00pm
$15 (gen) $12 (stu.sen)

*April 16 – Special Araby Event! – Composer and ensemble talk back with post performance reception. $30.

“Irresistible” -the New York Times
“Brilliant” -Billboard
“If otherworldly rock exists, surely this is as lofty as it gets” -All Music Guide

Araby is a uniquely structured “chamber musical” inspired by James Joyce’s Dubliners. Chris Rael re-imagines the 15 narrative short stories with lyrics when Irish nationalism was at its peak in the early 20th century. Araby is accompanied by a 9-piece chamber ensemble and video projections from contemporary Dublin. The composition reflects Rael’s rich world music orchestral background. The libretto is impressionistic, recounting characters’ internal experiences- an approach inspired by the depth of Joyce’s psychological portraiture.

Singers: Dudley Saunders, Nancy Magarill, Carlos Ponton & Chris Rael.
Chamber Ensemble: Rima Fand, Ina Litera, Pinky Weitzman, Matthew Goeke, Maria Jeffers, Reuben Radding, Brian Geltner & Chris Rael.
Directing Consultants: John Kelly & Eric Wallach
Vocal coach: Barbara Maier
Dramaturgy: Dudley Saunders & Penny Arcade

CHRIS RAEL is the singer, sitarist and founder of renowned New York Indo-pop ensemble Church of Betty. Incorporating sitar into western composition, he traveled the world with Church of Betty, and has been a mainstay of the downtown music scene since the late eighties. Church of Betty has performed in the Knitting factory, the Bottom Line, Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Prospect Park Band Shell, the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Jewish Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, and virtually every music nightclub and public radio station in Manhattan during the last 20 years. Composer of more than 300 songs, he has also performed all over the world, including Sydney Opera House and New York’s Town Hall. He has worked with artists such as Penny Arcade, Bow Wow Wow, and Oasis. Drawn to theatre and film in recent years, he won the Outstanding Score Award at Outfest Film Festival in LA.

Araby is made possible with generous support from the Mary Flagler Charitable Trust, The Greenwall Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation & the Peg Santvoord Foundation.