Hello and welcome to WORDTheatre Weekly: The Short Story Podcast where great authors and actors meet! I’m your host, Cedering Fox, WORDTheatre's Founder & Artistic Director.
After many weeks of presenting longer stories, we’re giving you something a little bit different in this episode: three bite-sized love stories, performed by four incredible actors.

First you’ll hear Christopher Gorham, from The Lincoln Lawyer and Ugly Betty, performing “A Happy Dream” by Steve Almond. Next, Gethin Anthony,who played Charles Mason in Aquarius and burst onto the scene in Game of Thrones, reads Etgar Keret’s story “Crazy Glue.” And lastly, you’ll hear “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood, performed by the wonderful Gina Bellman, from Leverage, and the inimitable Jason Isaacs, currently starring as Timothy in this season of The White Lotus.

But before we get into the stories, I want to let you know about an upcoming event in Santa Monica! On Thursday, May 24th, come meet Pushcart Prize winning author Ben Shattuck and hear two of his most gorgeous stories, including the Pushcart Prize winning“The History of Sound,” which has been adapted into a film starring Josh O’Connor, Paul Mescal and WORDTheatre's own Chris Cooper, set for a 2025 release. Then we are off to Manhattan where we will honor John Edgar Wideman on Wednesday, May 7th. Performances with followed by a conversation between Mr. Wideman and another WORDTheatre favorite author David Means. For more information, visit WORDTheatre.org. Please note that WORDTheatre holds the copyright to these recordings and no portion of anything you hear on WORDTheatre Weekly, our short story podcast may be reproduced without permission.

We begin this episode with Steve Almond’s “A Happy Dream,” performed by Christopher Gorham.

CHRIS PERFORMS THE STORY.

Up next, we have Gethin Anthony, performing “Crazy Glue” by Etgar Keret.

GETHIN PERFORMS THE STORY.

Lastly, we have Gina Bellman and Jason Isaacs performing “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood.

JASON AND GINA PERFORM THE STORY.

We hope you’ve enjoyed these three short love stories. If you'd like to pick up books by the authors that you are hearing, please visit Bookshop.org and you will be helping two non-profits! Also, for another little literary treat this week, check out our social channels, to hear Jan Munroe performing his own short story “Dear House,” which he wrote at WORDTheatre's annual Writer’s Workshop & Retreat in Southern France!
WORDTheatre has a full calendar of live events in 2025 - from our intimate Author•Actor series to our largest of large-scale productions to date, there's something for every literary lover to enjoy LIVE if you find yourself near LA, NY or LONDON! Just visit our websites, wordtheatre.org and wordtheatreuk.org, to find out more. If you sign up to become a Patron or Enthusiast Member, you will be able to watch recordings of all our LIVE events from the comfort of home. Supporting our podcast, our live events, and our live and digital programming for students in underresourced schools with WORDTheatre Campus has never been more imperative. Please become a member or make a donation today!

On behalf of Kirsty Peart, my UK producing partner, and myself, we'd like to thank the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, Randy & Jane Sinisi and their Phiphen Studios | Post NJ, our podcast editor, Maya Johnson, and our entire hard working staff at WORDTheatre. Thank you for listening. Until next week, this is Cedering Fox signing off!