<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><b><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:center"><b><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:center"><b><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Ancram Center’s Summer Play Lab Series Opens June 16 with</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:center"><b><i><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The Last Day of Dorothy Lillian Phelps</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:center"><i><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Author Patricia Van Tassel will lead free community workshop June 13<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Ancram Center for the Arts’ Summer Play Lab,<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">now in its fifth year, offers theater artists space, production support, and a budget to develop and present new works. This season’s first presentation will be a staged reading of<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><i><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The Last Day of Dorothy Lillian Phelps</span></i><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">, a one-woman show by Patricia Van Tassel, on Sunday, June 16 at 4pm.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">In addition, on Thursday, June 13 from 10AM-12PM, Van Tassel will lead a free community workshop employing a variety of art forms to explore the ultimate question posed by her play:<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="letter-spacing:0.25pt;background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box">What would you say if it was your last day?  To register email<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><a href="mailto:info@ancramcenter.org" style="color:rgb(150,96,125)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;letter-spacing:0.25pt;background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box">info@ancramcenter.org</span></a><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;letter-spacing:0.25pt;background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;letter-spacing:0.25pt;background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;letter-spacing:0.25pt;background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box">Van Tassel, who grew up in Ancram and attended local schools, said<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">that she started writing the play 10 years ago, and that the character of Mrs. Phelps is based partly on her maternal grandmother.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">“We all have this universal thing that happens to us: our last day. I began thinking, what if you knew it was your last day?” said Van Tassel.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span> “What would you want to say to your loved ones? What would you want to leave with people? The whole theater becomes Miss Phelps’s home, and the audience is invited in. And maybe Miss Phelps isn’t as ready to depart as she thinks she is.” <span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">A graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Van Tassel is an independent artist, writer and performer.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Her stage credits include off-Broadway tours of<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><i><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal">Finnegan’s
Farewell</span></i><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal">;
and performances at the Dramatist’s Guild and Treehouse Theater in NYC, as well
as numerous regional performances including the one-woman shows </span><i><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal">Shirley Valentine</span></i><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal">, </span><i><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal">The Belle of Amherst</span></i><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal">,<i> Shame the Devil! </i></span><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal">and the world premiere of
Sandra Asher’s </span><i><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal">Walking Toward America</span></i><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal">, directed by Amie Brockway. </span>Her family’s roots in America go back to the mid-1600s, when the first Van Texel emigrated to Long Island from the Dutch island of Texel. Her mother, Clara Van Tassel, was for many years Ancram’s Town Historian.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Tickets may be purchased online at <a href="http://ancramcenter.org">ancramcenter.org</a>. General Admission: $20; student tickets $15 with ID. Patrons can save 25% by purchasing a bundle<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box"><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>of all three Summer Play Lab performances. The discount is applied automatically at checkout.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Two more Summer Play Lab performances will be staged at the Ancram Center this summer:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0in 0.5in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><b><i><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Centuries,</span></i></b><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> a concert collaboration between Matthew Dean Marsh (<i>You Don’t Know the Lonely One</i>), Kate Douglas (<i>The Lucky Few</i>), and singer-composer Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez. <i>Centuries</i> is a new musical storytelling experience that follows a family over two generations and explores how landscapes and people change with time.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Centuries</i> will have its SPL showing July 7 @ 4pm.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0in 0.5in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><b><i><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Conversations. </span></i></b><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Created and performed by Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby, in collaboration with The Civilians, NYC, this music-theater piece features songs drawn from extensive interviews with Native Americans from across the country.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Conversations<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>will have its SPL showing August 4 @ 4pm.</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">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 </span><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><a href="http://www.ancramcenter.org/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(150,96,125)"><span style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">www.ancramcenter.org</span></a></span><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"></p><img src="cid:ii_lx53ofjc0" alt="Van Tassel 2024 Head Shot.jpg" width="562" height="422"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Photo Credit: Patricia Van Tassel<br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> </p></div>