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Each week, WORDTheatre shares a brilliant short story performed live in LA, NY or London by a great actor. Like what you hear? Visit WORDTheatre.org/Membership/ to enjoy live events and recordings by becoming a Patron or Enthusiast Member! WORDTheatre® is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in the US and a Dual Charitable Trust in the UK. We are on a mission to make a better world one story at a time.
CEDERING FOX
Hello and welcome to WORDTheatre Weekly! I’m your host, Cedering Fox, WORDTheatre's Founder & Artistic Director.
It's summer and we’re changing things up for the next seven weeks with our new series of Staff picks. Each week you'll meet a member of the team, hear one of their favorite stories and then their interview with the story's author. For the record, WORDTheatre holds the copyright to these recordings so no portion of anything you hear may be reproduced without permission. Also, these stories cannot be transcribed as there are underlying rights issues and that would be in violation of copyright law. In advance, I would like to say thank you to Philanthropist and Benefactor, Ola Strøm and the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture for their ongoing support of this podcast, to Jonathan Sacks for composing our theme music, to all our interns and to you our listeners. Now, take it away team!
JASON LEE
Hello! My name is Jason Lee. I have been the Audio Editor for the WORDTheatre Weekly Podcast for the past 2 years. I am a rising senior at the University of Rochester, where I major in Audio and Music Engineering. For this week’s Staff Picks, I picked my favorite short story: “Proxy Marriage” by Maile Meloy. This story was performed by Johnny Simmons back in 2014.
Proxy Marriage is a story about a boy named William who has a deep crush on his friend Bridey but is too shy to confess. Through certain circumstances, he and bridey help aid in double proxy marriages in which soldiers in Iraq and their partners are not able to perform the wedding ceremony in person. William and Bridey act as stand ins for the absent individuals. The story is mainly about the progression of the two characters and how as they get older, their relationship with one another and the proxy marriages changes overtime.
What I personally enjoyed the most about this story is how alive the two main characters are right away and as a young adult myself, how relatable their story feels. Maile’s fast paced writing give a very light tone to the story, but still contains human moments where you can see the vulnerability of both characters throughout the progression of their lives. I hope you enjoy Johnny simmons performance of this story as much as I did and please Stick around to the end of the episode to hear an interview from the story’s author Maile Meloy
Here is Johnny Simmons performing “Proxy Marriage” by Maile Meloy