Contemporary Short Fiction Brought to Life in Readings by Professional Actors
Returning for its fifth year, audience favorite Crystal Radio Sessions will kick off fall programming at the Ancram Opera House on Saturday, September 23 at 7pm. This popular event, modeled after Symphony Space’s “Selected Shorts” series, features the best of short fiction from writers in the Hudson Valley and Berkshires, read aloud by professional actors.
The live performance will feature J. Arthur Boyle’s “Angela Lives,” where a woman’s apartment takes on a life of its own; and Pamela Ryder’s “The Tintype of Billy the Kid,” where an itinerant tintypist makes his living taking portraits of the dead (content warning: this story contains themes and depictions of death, childbirth complications, and mortality which may be upsetting to some viewers).
The stories will be read by Frank Boyd, whose The Holler Sessions was presented by Ancram Opera House in 2017, and Leigh Strimbeck, a busy regional actor who will be seen as Amanda in The Glass Menagerie in an upcoming Bridge St. Theatre production.
Crystal Radio Sessions is curated by Ashley Mayne, author of the novels Mankiller (2014), and Tiger (2015).
Tickets are $25 general admission ($15 with student ID) and are available at www.ancramoperahouse.org. Audiences are welcome to join the authors and actors for a glass of wine around the outdoor fire pit after the event.
About the Authors
J. Arthur Boyle’s fiction has appeared in Fence, RECLINER, Forever, and elsewhere, and critical work has appeared in Verso, Publisher’s Weekly, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn. He received an MFA from Columbia University, where he was a teaching fellow and teaches writing at CUNY. He is currently an artist-in-residency at the Wassaic Project. More of his work can be found at jarthurboyle.com.
Pamela Ryder is the author of a short story collection, A Tendency to Be Gone, and two novels in stories, Correction of Drift and Paradise Field. The Tintype of Billy the Kid is from a new novel about that young desperado on the run at the end of his short and violent life. pamelaryder.com
About the Performers
Frank Boyd is an actor-writer based in the Hudson Valley. Selected theater credits include Gatz (Public Theatre); Is This a Room (Vineyard Theatre); Straight White Men (Center Theatre Group); The Select (NYTW); and The Holler Sessions (P.S. 122, Ancram Opera House, Guthrie Theater). Film/TV: FBI, Blue Bloods, Z Nation, Thin Skin. Frank is a new dad, and the owner/operator of a vintage clothing store, Clubhouse Vintage, in Rosendale, NY.
Leigh Strimbeck is an actor, writer and educator. Recent credits include Eleanor in Lion in Winter; Alice in Lewiston (Bridge Street Theatre); Leonata in Much Ado About Nothing (Saratoga Shakespeare); Virginia Butley in Native Gardens (Gloucester Stage Company); Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit and Kate Keller in All My Sons (Voice Theatre of Woodstock); Tippy in Breakwater (Great Barrington Public Theater). More regional theater: The Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble; WAM; The Rep; Shakespeare and Co. Films: UnCivil Liberties, Fighting for Freedom, Little BiPeep and Lifetime Movie Network’s Off the Rails and Sleeping with My Student; short films Key Transition, Life Quest and in production: Blind Man’s Buff. Leigh heads the Acting Program for NY State Defenders Association Basic Trial Skills program and is the author of the one-woman play The Queen of Fenway Court: Isabella Stewart Gardner, as well as several other plays.
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. For more information visit
- Crystal Radio Sessions
- Saturday, Sept. 23, 7pm
- Ancram Opera House, 1330 County Route 7, Ancram, NY, 12502
- $25 general admission ($15 with student ID)
- Tickets: www.ancramoperahouse.org