Hello and welcome to WORDTheatre Weekly:The short Story Podcast where great authors and great actors meet! I’m your host, Cedering Fox, WORDTheatre's Founder & Artistic Director.

Please note that WORDTheatre holds the copyright to these recordings and no portion of anything you hear on the short story podcast may be reproduced without permission.

Today we continue to honor the life and legacy of Lore Segal, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 96. We are pleased to share with you a multi-actor performance of one of Lore's most important works,"The Reverse Bug". This story was perhaps the most difficult to write, but was also one that she was most proud of. It was performed at WORDTheatre on September 24th of 2024 in Manhattan, and although Lore was not able to attend, the recording was shared with her just before she passed away on October 7th of this year.

James Cromwell, who was an old friend of Lore's, narrated the performance. Each of the characters you will meet are from countries that have experienced war, genocide, people battling each other.. Special thanks to the following actors, In order of appearance:
Laila Robins, Raúl Castillo, Mary Beth Peil, Vincent Piazza, Masaya Okubo, Tom Nelis, Maggie Siff & Ronald Peet. The story was performed with an atonal soundscape performed by classical pianist, Sophiko Simsive.
Here now,to say a few words about the author and how they met, is James Cromwell.

JAMES INTRO

And now, it's time to hear"The Reverse Bug." This is not an easy listen and you might want to listen to it more than once. but it's an important story and we feel very proud that we were able to bring this to life. If you'd like to read it, you can find it in the NewYorker's archive, it's from 1989. But now, please, sit back and listen to "The Reverse Bug" by Lore Segal.

STORY PLAYS

Thank you for tuning in to today's episode and don't forget to check out the other two stories we have on the podcast by Lore Segal. One narrated by James Cromwell, as he mentioned, it's called "Ladies Zoom," and the other by Harriet Walter, "Her First American"! You can find Lore's Books on Bookshop.org and if you purchase them there you will be helping to support two literary non- profits and if you are near the UK, check out our new website WORDTheatreUK.org. If you are not yet a WORDTheatre Member, please join us! As always, I'd like to thank Philanthropist/Benefactor, Ola Strom, and the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture for their ongoing support and a big shout out to the WORDTheatre Team. Until next week, this is Cedering Fox, signing off!!

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