"WordTheatre is a great, freewheeling, passionately engaged interpreter of contemporary short fiction. Whereas other such enterprises are content to cherry pick a few classics in a predictable setting, WordTheatre finds work that can bring about great performances in its constituency of first-rate performers, always in search of the ineffable and the uncanny that are at the heart of the very best in world literature. Their ambition is for the new, the challenging, and the emotionally rich. In my own case, I have never heard such wonderful and illuminated performances of my own work." - Rick Moody, author of The Ice Storm
Our Supporters
Pushcart Prize Benefit
June 27, 2009 @ Guild Hall
 Nicole Ansari |
 Brian Cox |
 Edi Gathegi |
 John Heard |
 Amy Irving |
 Samantha Mathis |
 Janel Moloney |
 Jackson Rathbone |
 Linus Roache |
 Amber Tamblyn |
 Lynn Whitfield |
 Sean Young |
James Franco (Board Member)
Amanda Seyfried (Honorary Board Member)
Jane Oster (Board Member)
Kieran Beer & Melissa Benson
Michelle Murphy & Robert Strada
Heidi Banks
and Bill Henderson (Editor of the Pushcart Prize)Invited you to Guild Hall as WordTheatre once again honored the Pushcart Prize, considered "one of the most important publishing projects in American history" (Publishers Weekly), with a benefit at the newly renovated Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York.
This year marked the 33rd anniversary of the Pushcart Prize, and WordTheatre's fifth year working with them. Their "yearly volumes of stories, poems and essays feature much of the best writing available in this country." (New York Times Book Review).
This year's celebration featured performances of Pushcart Prize winning stories by:
Act I
- Darrell Larson (The Manchurian Candidate, Rachel Getting Married) read "The Face" by David St. John
- Lynn Whitfield (The Josephine Baker Story, Head of State) read "By Love Possessed" by Lorna Goodison
- Linus Roache (Law and Order, The Wings of the Dove) read "Joyas Voladores" by Brian Doyle
- Samantha Mathis (Broadway's 33 Variations; American Psycho) read "Sundays" by Ellen Wilbur
- Nicole Ansari (Rock n' Roll on Broadway, As Good as Dead) read "One Moment on Top of the Earth" by Naomi Shihab Nye
- Edi Gathegi (Twilight; The Twilight Saga: New Moon; Gone, Baby, Gone) read "Bons" by Beth Tashery Shannon
- Amy Irving (Carrie, Hide and Seek) read "The Dead Boy at Your Window" by Bruce Holland Rogers
Act II
- Janel Moloney (The West Wing, Desperate Measures) read "Recorded Message" by Philip Dacey
- John Heard (Home Alone, The Sopranos) read "Tomorrow's Bird" by Ian Frazier
- Sean Young (Bladerunner) read "Not the Plaster Casters" by Janice Eidus
- Brian Cox (The Bourne Supremacy, The Escapist) read "The Human Table" by Marvin Cohen
- Amber Tamblyn (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Joan of Arcadia)read "The Kiss" by Pamela Painter
- Jackson Rathbone (Twilight; The Twilight Saga: New Moon) read "The Bank Robbery" by Steve Schutzman
- Amy Irving (Carrie, Hide and Seek) read "The Dead Boy at Your Window" by Bruce Holland Rogers
Produced and Directed by Cedering Fox
Technical Director Todd J. Goldblatt
Sound Design Craig Freeman
Special Thanks to Janes Oster, WordTheatre Board Member, for her enormous contribution to tonight's event and Darrell Larson for his support
Special Thanks to East Hampton Wines and Liquors and Park Place Wines and Liquors
Photo Gallery
Brian Cox
Ben Graupner and Jackson Rathbone
Ann Oster, Edi Gathegi and Rita Lerner
Linus Roache and Samantha Mathis