Zaks, Hadary, Weaver and More Featured on Baseball CD Set

Symphony Space has assembled the fiction, essays and poetry on the game, recorded live in performance and broadcast on NPR, and as the 2006 baseball season begins, presents them all on the new 3-CD set "Selected Shorts: Baseball."

As broadcast on National Public Radio, "Selected Shorts: Baseball!" features classic baseball stories and commentary by Roger Angell and by A. Bartlett Giammatti, the late, celebrated Commissioner of Baseball. The readers include the Tony-winning Broadway director and actor Jerry Zaks and the distinguished Broadway and Hollywood actors Jonathan Hadary, John Shea, Fritz Weaver, Arthur French, Jack Davidson, and Selected Shorts host Isaiah Sheffer.

The set will feature: John Updike's Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu, read by Jack Davidson, about Ted Williams' miraculous Fenway farewell; Roger Angell's Game Six, read by the author; W.P. Kinsella's The Thrill of the Grass, read by John Shea, in which a true baseball fan starts a quiet revolt against artificial turf; Ken Kalfus' The Joy and Melancholy Baseball Trivia Quiz, a series about funny and charming vignettes about the importance of baseball in American life, read by Jack Davidson; T.C. Boyle's The Hector Quesadilla Story read by Jerry Zaks, and A. Bartlett Giamatti's The Green Fields of the Mind, an essay read by the author.

The CD will also include classic baseball poems by Rolfe Humphries, Robert Francis, Robert Fitzgerald and Yusef Komunyakaa, read by Fritz Weaver, Arthur French, Jonathan Hadary, and Isaiah Sheffer

Selected Shorts, now in its 22nd year, is one of radio's longest-running literary series, broadcast on National Public Radio stations nationwide.

Selected Shorts on audiocassette and CD features 20 volumes of Broadway and Hollywood actors reading stories by established masters and bold new writers. These readings were recorded in front of a live audience in New York City.

"One of New York's primary cultural resources, Symphony Space fosters artistically and culturally diverse music, dance, literary, theatre, family and film programs that bring artists and audiences together in an atmosphere of exploration and intimacy. Reaching audiences throughout New York City, the wider metropolitan area, and through distribution of programs via media such as radio, recordings, pod casts and touring the nation, Symphony Space presents and produces innovative, multidisciplinary world-class arts events, and provides a first-rate affordable facility for artists and producers," state press notes.

Tickets for Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th St.) performances are available by visiting the Symphony Space Box Office at Broadway and 95th Street, Tuesday-Sunday, Noon to 7 PM, by calling 212-864-5400, Tuesday-Sunday, 11 AM to 7 PM or on-line at www.symphonyspace.org.

Symphony Space memberships, which entitle holders to extensive benefits, including reduced price admission to designated events, start at $60/year ($15/year for full-time students). For group sales call the box office at 212-864-5400.

The recording is $28.00, available in fine book and music stores nationwide (distributed by Independent Publishers Group) or direct from Symphony Space: (212) 864-5400, online, or write to the Selected Shorts Order Department, c/o Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, New York, NY 10025; also available at the Symphony Space box office window at the same address.