Best Laid Plans

Symphony Space in New York is launching a new live-streaming series tonight called Virtual Selected Shorts. The idea is to have actors read short stories around a particular theme. Tonight’s program is called Best Laid Plans. You can watch the program by going to Symphony Space’s YouTubeChannel at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT.

The four actors participating in Best Laid Plans are Maulik Pancholy, Emily Skeggs, Allison Williams and Bobby Cannavale.

Pancholy will be reading Riding Solo by Simon Rich.

Pancholy may be best known as one of the main voices on Phineas & Ferb. He appeared on Broadway in Terrence McNally‘s It’s Only a Play and Bess Wohl’s Grand Horizons. His first novel, The Best At It, was recently published.

Simon Rich has the distinction of being the youngest writer to join Saturday Night Live. He’s the creator of the series Man Seeking Woman and also the series Miracle Workers.

Riding Solo comes from Rich’s most recently published work, Hits and Misses.

Skeggs will be reading Miss Laura’s School for Esquire Men by Carmen Maria Machado

Skeggs received both Tony Award and Grammy Award nominations for her role in the musical Fun Home. She will appear in American High on Hulu, The Ultimate Playlist of Noise and was in the film Dinner in America which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Machado is a Guggenheim Fellow and a National Book Award finalist for Her Body and Other Parties, the best-selling memoir In the Dream House and The Low, Low Woods.

Miss Laura’s School for Esquire Men comes from Machado’s Tin Noise.

Williams will be reading The Meeting by Aimee Bender.

Television audiences know Williams from the award-winning series Girls. She also appeared in the Oscar-winning film Get Out.

Bender is the author of the award-wining book The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. She is also the author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, An Invisible Sign of My Own and Willful Creatures.

The Meeting comes from Bender’s Willful Creatures.

Cannavale will be reading Magnificent Desolation by Jess Walter.

Cannavale is known for his role as Skinny Razor in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman. He won Emmy Awards for his work on Boardwalk Empire and Will & Grace. On Broadway he has appeared in Mauritius, The Motherf**ker With the Hat and Glengarry Glen Ross. His most recent stage appearance was in Medea at BAM.

Walter is the author of National Book Award finalist The Zero, the Edgar Award-winning Citizen Vince and bestsellers Beautiful Ruins and The Financial Lives of the Poets.

Magnificent Desolation comes from The Spokesman-Review

All images courtesy of Symphony Space