<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt">Back for its fourth year,<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Real People Real Stories Taconic Hills Edition</i>, which features 4^th<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>5^th, and 6^th<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>grade students from Taconic Hills Elementary School, will take the stage at Ancram Opera House on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 2PM. This community event is free and open to the public.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt">In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic’s first year, Ancram Opera House director Paul Ricciardi began conducting storytelling workshops for 5th and 6th graders at Taconic Hills Elementary School. The project supports the school's literacy and writing pedagogies by utilizing live storytelling as a step towards composing personal narratives.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt;background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box">Because of the program's popularity, the workshops have been expanded to include 4th graders and now a team of AOH teaching artists leads more than 300 Taconic Hills students in the techniques of storytelling. Using the same methods developed for</span><span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></span><i><span style="font-size:11pt">Real People Real Stories</span></i><span style="font-size:11pt;background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box">, AOH’s popular adult storytelling event, students learn to identify the key components of a good story, how to tell it, and how to write about it.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt">The storytelling program has become an ongoing component of the middle school writing curriculum. By participating in the program in grade 4, and then repeating it in grades 5 and 6, students can concretize valuable writing skills and enter junior high school as well-prepared writers.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt">The storytelling program at Taconic Hills has been praised by parents, teachers, staff, and, perhaps most important, the majority of students, who report a newfound interest in telling and writing personal narrative.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><i><span style="font-size:11pt">Real People Real Stories Taconic Hills Edition<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><span style="font-size:11pt">is made possible by the generous sponsorship of Stewart’s Shops, Berkshire Bank, and the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation Fund for Columbia County.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt">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 </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><a href="http://www.ancramoperahouse.org/"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">www.ancramoperahouse.org</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt"><br><br></span></p><ul type="disc" style="margin-bottom:0in;color:rgb(0,0,0);margin-top:0in"><li class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Real People Real Stories Taconic Hills Edition</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Saturday, Nov. 4, 2pm</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Ancram Opera House,<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><strong><span style="font-size:11pt">1330 County Route 7, Ancram, NY, 12502</span></strong><span style="font-size:11pt"></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Free and open to the public</span></li></ul><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0in 0.5in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 12pt;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> </p></div>