<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE     <span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> </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">Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby Present a Work-in-Progress </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"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(34,34,34)"></span><b><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Performance of<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">CONVERSATIONS </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">at Ancram Center for the Arts Sunday August 4</span></b></p><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"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box">Afro-Indigenous singer/songwriter Martha Redbone and her collaborator/husband Aaron Whitby will bring a work-in-progress showing of their new theater project<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>CONVERSATIONS</b><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>to the Ancram Center for the Arts on Sunday, August. 4, 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;color:rgb(34,34,34);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);text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box">This new piece was developed from intimate conversation with Native American elders and family members who have been in Redbone's life for decades. Working with<span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="https://thecivilians.org/about-us/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(150,96,125)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(17,85,204)">The Civilians</span></a><span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box"> </span></span><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box">team in residency as part of Ancram Center’s Summer Play Lab program, Redbone and Whitby are turning these conversations into songs, stories and dramatic vignettes in a cross-cultural art form that she hopes will speak to audiences in a new way.<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;color:rgb(34,34,34);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);text-indent:0.5in"><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">“Often we don’t get to hear the viewpoints of elders, and their role in the world we live in today,” said Redbone. “The piece we’re developing will be based on stories about their lives and personal experiences. They have given me the honor and permission to turn their stories into songs written with my longtime collaborator Aaron Whitby. I’m thrilled to have this special time to develop it during the Ancram Center residency.”</span><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;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;color:rgb(34,34,34);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);text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box">Redbone is celebrated for roots music that combines the folk and mountain blues sounds of her Appalachian childhood and the electric grit of her teenage years in pre-gentrified Brooklyn. She inherited her powerful gospel-singing father's voice and the resilient spirit of her mother's Native American heritage. </span><i><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)">The New Yorker </span></i><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box">calls her music "a brilliant collision of cultures." </span><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)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(87,87,87);letter-spacing:0.25pt"> </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);text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box">Now in its 5th season, Ancram Center's </span><b><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Summer Play Lab </span></b><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-image:none;background-position:0% 0%;background-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box">offers exceptional artists space, production support, and a budget to develop and present new works.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><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><a href="http://www.ancramcenter.org/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(150,96,125)"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(17,85,204)">www.ancramcenter.org</span></a><u><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(17,85,204)">.</span></u></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)"> </p><img src="cid:ii_lz3ih0qn1" alt="martha redbone and aaron whitby duo by molly magnusson.jpeg" width="542" height="361"><br><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Photo Credit: Molly Magnusson </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:medium;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> </p></div>