Selected Shorts: Meg Wolitzer Talks with Denis O'Hare
Podcast: Selected Shorts | Host: Symphony Space
Episode Date: March 5, 2026
Episode Overview
This episode features novelist Meg Wolitzer in conversation with acclaimed stage and screen actor Denis O’Hare. The focus is on the art of reading fiction aloud—how actors bring stories to life, the nuanced choices they make with language and voice, and the alchemy that occurs between text, performer, and audience. Denis O’Hare shares behind-the-scenes insights, demonstrating his approach by reading selections from Ben Loory's story. The discussion is rich with reflections on performance, craft, and the unique challenges and delights of both acting and storytelling for a live and listening audience.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. The Duality of Performing for Live and Recorded Audiences
- O’Hare emphasizes the difference between reading for a microphone (recorded) versus a live audience, noting that each situation impacts performance choices.
- “Reading aloud to an audience is different than reading aloud to a microphone... you have two constituencies.” (00:48)
- In a live setting, the audience’s immediate responses—laughter, movement, sighs—shape the reading in real time (01:07).
2. Audience Reaction and the Unpredictability of Reception
- The way audiences respond can surprise performers, pushing them to adjust delivery on the fly.
- “It can feed you. Or their absolute silence inspires you because you can feel the weight of the story hitting them.” (01:36)
- Noted that what lands one night might fall flat another, echoing the experiences of comedians (01:47).
3. The Written Word vs. Spoken Performance
- Challenges arise in translating written formatting—like paragraph breaks or lack of quotation marks—to an oral experience.
- “The thing about the written word is that you sometimes can’t get something across that’s on the page... very small sentences in paragraphs that have breaks. How do you value that for the audience’s ear?” (01:53)
4. Character Voices and Modulation
- O’Hare demonstrates the process of experimenting with voices for different characters, especially in stories where distinctions are subtle.
- “You try it that way and you kind of go, oh, we’re missing something. I want to hear her.” (03:14)
- He shares humorous anecdotes about audiobook work: “Dennis the Witch sounds like the cat, and you need to distinguish between the five bears. They’re all sounding a little bit like the same Russian guy.” (04:10)
5. Gathering Tools as an Actor
- O’Hare talks about collecting gestures, voices, and mannerisms from daily life, a habit ingrained from his earliest acting lessons.
- “Every day as I’m walking around, I’m collecting things, I’m collecting people. You can’t help it.” (04:47)
6. Finding the Style and World of Each Text
- The importance of reading for context and style: what works for Sam Shepard differs from Chekhov or Neil Simon.
- “You have to find the style... What’s the world of the text? What’s the style of the text?” (05:10)
- Examples of how short, simple sentences in one story suggest a mythic, fairytale atmosphere, as opposed to the complex sentences of a Delmore Schwartz story (06:06).
7. Interpreting Beyond the Page
- O’Hare describes “saying things that aren’t on the page” and reading between the lines, pulling out subtext or emphasizing certain words for effect.
- “That’s a trick that actors have—figuring out how to say something that’s not on the page that you think is in the context of the story.” (07:33)
8. Memorization vs. Reading Aloud
- The difference between performing from memory (as on stage) and reading from a script. O’Hare describes how muscle memory can enable a performance to happen even when the mind is somewhere else.
- Story of forgetting lines after hundreds of performances and having to “re-solder all the connections.” (09:47–10:20)
- “It’s like locking the door. Did you lock your door? You were present, you did it, you turned the key, but you don’t have any memory of it.” (10:03)
9. Live Demonstration of Storytelling
- O’Hare reads an extended passage from Ben Loory’s story, employing the techniques discussed—voice modulation, pacing, and emotional undercurrents—while providing meta-commentary on his interpretive decisions (10:46–14:43).
Memorable Quotes & Notable Moments
Denis O’Hare [00:48]:
“Reading aloud to an audience is different than reading aloud to a microphone... you have two constituencies. And for me, as a live performer... I tend to privilege the live constituency over the microphone constituency.”
Denis O’Hare [04:10]:
“God knows, when you get too many characters, it’s a minefield. I mean, I once did a book on tape where the note that I got was so Dennis the Witch sounds like the cat. And you need to distinguish between the five bears. They’re all sounding a little bit like the same Russian guy.”
Denis O’Hare [04:47]:
“When I started studying acting when I was 18... my acting teacher was: go out and bring back observations. Bring back five walks, bring back three gestures. Bring back a couple voices, bring back a couple noses. Go out into the world and look.”
Denis O’Hare [10:03]:
“So it’s like locking the door. Did you lock your door? You were present, you did it, you turned the key, but you don’t have any memory of it.”
Denis O’Hare (on interpretation) [16:09]:
“There’s no right answer. There’s just taste. My taste, your taste, the director’s taste, the audience’s taste, and everyone’s taste is different. And all you can do is make a guess and try to stab, you know, and then someone will go, that was brilliant. Someone else will kind of go, oh, I didn’t like it.”
Noteworthy Timestamps
- 00:48 – O’Hare on reading for live vs. recorded audiences
- 01:36 – The unpredictability of audience responses
- 03:14–04:01 – Experimenting with character voices from Ben Loory’s story; honoring the story’s sensibility
- 04:47–06:06 – How actors gather tools and adapt to different literary styles
- 09:47–10:20 – O’Hare on muscle memory and forgetting lines on stage
- 10:46–14:43 – In-studio demonstration: O’Hare reads a segment, showcasing various interpretive strategies
- 15:46–16:09 – Discussing artistic choices and subjectivity in performance
Tone & Atmosphere
The episode is warm, insightful, and candid—marked by Meg Wolitzer’s curiosity about the craft and Denis O’Hare’s openness about the inner workings of a performer’s approach. The exchange is filled with humor, humility, and deep respect for storytelling.
Final Insight
O’Hare’s closing thoughts encapsulate the artist’s dilemma:
“There’s no right answer. There’s just taste... all you can do is make a guess.”
Listeners are left with a sense of the artistry and ongoing discovery that infuses every live reading, every audience interaction, and every act of bringing a story to life.