[Capdist-announce] A Celebration of Literature at Ancram Center for the Arts

[Lauren Letellier]

*A Celebration of Literature at Ancram Center for the Arts *

*July 13 & 14*



Finished your Netflix queue and unsure what to watch next? Uninspired by
the offerings at the local movie theater? Here’s an antidote to the summer
screen blahs: live readings of electrifying fiction over two days at Ancram
Center for the Arts.



On Saturday, July 13 at 7:30pm, *Crystal Radio Sessions, *the curated
fiction reading series back for its sixth season at the Center, will
feature these notable writers: Jo Ann Beard (*Maybe It Happened* and *The
Longest Night*); Jackelyn Hoy (*Breaking);* and Kyra Simone (*The Smallest
of Hearths)*. Actors Thomas Rothacker and Erin Lindsey Krom will conjure a
Paris apartment fire, a childhood afternoon, a woman's goodbye to her best
friend, and an encounter with a mysterious babysitter.



On Sunday, July 14, at 3:00pm, Ancram Center will host a 150th birthday
celebration for *Willa Cather *(1873-1947), one of the most singular and
treasured American writers of the 20th century. A peer of Edith Wharton who
was admired by Henry James, Hemingway and Faulkner, Cather was an author
who wrote against the grain of her own cultural moment, when Modernist
experimentation was in vogue. Sticking to her own style, Cather wrote in
steadfast, even plain language about the lives of settlers on the prairies
during the homesteading era of the late 19th century. In recent years
scholars have rediscovered Cather’s groundbreaking fiction (*O Pioneers!,
My Ántonia, One of Ours, The Professor’s House, Death Comes for the
Archbishop*) and consider her to be a canonical American writer. This
performance, created in partnership with the Willa Cather Foundation and
directed by Darrah Cloud, features readings from Cather's fiction and
letters performed by actors Dean Temple and Anne Undeland. The performance
follows readings at Symphony Space (hosted by Ken Burns, a huge advocate
for her work), Boston Athenaeum, New York Society Library, Kaatsbaan Arts
Center, and UCLA.



Tickets for both events are available at www.ancramcenter.org.



Ancram Center for the Arts is an award-winning theater located in New
York's Hudson Valley. Housed in an historic Grange Hall, Ancram Center has
since 2016 presented groundbreaking theater and musical performances by
nationally recognized theater artists. Ancram Center for the Arts 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 tickets and information visit www.ancramcenter.org.




[image: Crystal_Radio_Upstate_logo.jpeg]

[image: Willa Cather.jpg]
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