"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
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WordTheatre T-Shirt
WordTheatre T-shirts are printed on 100% cotton American Apparel tees and feature neon versions of our book and microphone logo with a flutter of 'WordTheatre''s bridging the gap. Available in sizes Small, Medium, Large and X-Large. (more)
Performances
You can purchase many of WordTheatre's performances from Harper Collins. Browse some of our performaces below or go directly to Harper Collins.
WordTheatre: Sweet Day
Written by Hal Ackerman. Performed by Robert Forster. WordTheatre's Family Affairs series takes us into the rewarding but complex and often painful world of parent-child relationships. Planting a garden he knows he... (more)
WordTheatre: Finger Dance
Written by Luis J. Rodriguez. Performed by Miguel Sandoval. WordTheatre's Family Affairs series takes us into the rewarding but complex and often painful world of parent-child relationships. In "Finger Dance," Lui... (more)
WordTheatre: The Child Screams and Looks Back at You
Written by Russell Banks. Performed by Lolita Davidovich. WordTheatre's Family Affairs series takes us into the rewarding but complex and often painful world of parent-child relationships. In Russell Banks' gut-wre... (more)
WordTheatre: The Wind
Written by Dorothy Scarborough. Performed by Brooke Adams. Performed Live at The Met Theatre in Hollywood, WordTheatre’s THE WILD WEST series is a survey of the literature inspired by the West. BROOKE... (more)
WordTheatre: The Virginian
Written by Owen Wister. Performed by Bill Pullman Performed Live at The Met Theatre in Hollywood. WordTheatre’s THE WILD WEST series is a survey of the literature inspired by the West. BILL PULLMAN pe... (more)
WordTheatre: The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky
Written by Stephen Crane. Performed by Dermot Mulroney. Performed Live at The Met Theatre in Hollywood, WordTheatre’s THE WILD WEST series is a survey of the literature inspired by the West. The Amer... (more)
WordTheatre: Fatso
Written by Leelila Strogov. Performed by Amanda Seyfried. WordTheatre's Love Hurts series focuses on souls dazed and confused by this thing we call "love". MTV Movie Award winner Amanda Seyfried gleefully portrays... (more)
WordTheatre: Hands On
Written by T. Coraghessan Boyle. Performed by Elizabeth Perkins. WordTheatre's Love Hurts series focuses on souls dazed and confused by this thing we call "love". In T. Coraghessan Boyle’s "Hands On", Emmy nom... (more)
WordTheatre: An Entrepreneur's Story
Written by Ha Jin. Performed by Sung Kang WordTheatre's Love Hurts series focuses on souls dazed and confused by this thing we call “love”. Here, celebrated Chinese author, Ha Jin, takes us deep in... (more)
WordTheatre: Deadwood Dick
Written by Edward Wheeler. Performed by Amy Madigan. A rambunctious example of the notorious dime novels, Amy Madigan (Pollock, Carnivale) gives a rip-roaring reading of Edward Wheeler's 1887 account of one night... (more)
WordTheatre: Oblivion, Nebraska
Written by Peter Moore Smith. Performed by Gil Bellows We journey into the heart and mind of an imaginative young boy struggling to come to terms with his mother's death. A Pushcart-Prize-winning story by Peter ... (more)
WordTheatre: Bulldog
Written by Arthur Miller. Performed by Jeff Goldblum In an achingly funny an poignant performance, Jeff Goldblum (Independence Day, Jurassic Park) portrays a 13 year old who comes of age in Brooklyn of long ago ... (more)
WordTheatre: The Ideal Bakery
Written by Donald Hall. Performed by Richard Schiff Emmy Award-winning actor Richard Schiff (The West Wing, Ray) takes us to New Haven in the spring of 1939. This painful yet stunning recounting of a 10-year-ol... (more)
WordTheatre: Journey to the Fort
Written by Dorothy M. Johnson. Performed by Sheila Kelley. Sheila Kelley (The Sopranos, Dancing at the Blue Iguana) offers a heartbreaking performance of Dorothy M. Johnson's short story, a psychologically acute... (more)
WordTheatre: The Naked Gun
Written by John Jakes. Performed by Gary Dourdan. Gary Dourdan (C.S.I., Alien Resurrection) smoothly inhabits this powerful fable of fate working through innocent hands from John Jakes's Western story collection... (more)
WordTheatre: Admissions
Written by Mona Simpson. Performed by Julianna Margulies. First published in Harpers Magazine, this story portrays a mother whose desperate need for her daughter to attend a posh New York school is revealed thro... (more)
WordTheatre: Reading in His Wake
Written by Pamela Painter. Performed by Marcia Gay Harden Academy Award Winner Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock, Mystic River) slips elegantly into the role of a wife deeply in love with her dying husband on their las... (more)
WordTheatre: The Gold Lunch
Written by Ron Carlson. Performed by Bill Nighy BAFTA award-winner Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3) introduces a new Olympic sport as he battles his ex-wife for the gold medal in this h... (more)
WordTheatre: A Happy Dream
Written by Steve Almond. Performed by Christopher Gorham. Christopher Gorham (Out of Practice, The Other Side of Heaven) plays a lovelorn, risk averse sous-chef who, when mistaken for a firefighter by a sassy yo... (more)
