Popular Reading Series Featuring Hudson Valley/Berkshire Writers is Back for 5th Season

Crystal Radio Sessions, the popular series where professional actors read aloud the work of contemporary writers, returns to the Hilltop Barn at Roe Jan Park at 7:30pm on Sunday, July 15. Presented for the 5th year by Ancram Opera House, Crystal Radio Sessions is modeled after Symphony Space’s “Selected Shorts” and features fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and personal essays by established and emerging writers from the Hudson Valley and Berkshires. 

This year’s short stories are “The Yellow'' by Samantha Hunt, read by Sandy York, and “Sugar Bath” by Harris Lahti, read by Joey Taylor. Tickets are $25 general admission ($15 with student ID), and are available at www.ancramoperahouse.org. 

In “The Yellow,” loneliness, a car accident and a resurrected dog bring together two strangers in the suburbs. In “Sugar Bath,” a house flipper and his pregnant wife discover gravestones in the basement of their new house. 

The series is curated by Ashley Mayne, whose work has been published in Fence, Post Road, Juked, Northwest Review, Peripheries, Blight Podcast, Metambesen, and elsewhere. She is the author of novels Mankiller (2014 Dr. Cicero Books), and Tiger (2015), and edits fiction for Fence. 

About the Authors 

Samantha Hunt is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Bard Fiction Prize, the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Prize, and the St. Francis College Literary Prize. She has been a finalist for the Orange Prize and the PEN/Faulkner. Hunt has published five books, teaches at Pratt Institute and lives in Tivoli, NY. 

Harris Lahti’s fiction has appeared in Southwest Review, Bomb, Archway Editions Journal, Ninth Letter, Blue Arrangements, and elsewhere. He edits for Fence. His debut short story collection, Mental Health Professional, is forthcoming from the new Cash for Gold Books in the spring of 2024. 

About the Performers

Sandy York is an actor-singer based in New York City who has studied classical, contemporary, and musical theater at Princeton University (AB), Trinity Repertory Conservatory (MFA) and the New York Shakespeare Festival Lab. She works in theater, film, TV, industrials and commercials around the country and internationally.

Joey Taylor is an actor, director and co-founder of Definitely Human Theatre, which produces contemporary theater in the Hudson Valley. In December 2022 Definitely Human Theatre presented The Ukraine Plays, short works by Ukrainian playwrights, at Ancram Opera House to raise money for Ukrainian theater artists. Recent acting/directing credits: My Love Letter to Godzilla. Howie the Rookie, Speech & Debate.

This performance of Crystal Radio Sessions is sponsored by Oblong Books, an independent bookstore with locations in Millerton and Rhinebeck. 

Ancram Opera House is an award-winning theater located in New York's Hudson Valley. Housed in an historic Grange Hall, AOH has since 2016 presented groundbreaking theater and musical performances by nationally recognized theater artists. AOH receives significant annual support from the New York State Council on the Arts and in 2023 was awarded a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

To post a comment, you must register and login.