PORT JERVIS, NY — The Port Jervis Council for the Arts is currently presenting a three-play reading series featuring the council’s first playwright in residence, Jan Buttram. “PAGE 2 STAGE,” will feature new works by the NYC playwright, actor and artistic director of NYC’s respected Abingdon Theater. The series was kicked off on Saturday, June 11 at the Up-front Exhibition Space, 31 Jersey Avenue.

“Phantom Killer” will be the second reading, on Saturday, July 30 at 7 p.m. It plunges the audience onto a sweltering hot deserted Texas road in 1946 where a man, his new bride and a Texas Ranger hunting a serial killer, become entangled. Bargains are struck, plans change and guilt is everywhere. The actors—Patrick Dunn, a native Port Jervis resident; Lori Gardner, Keith Merrill and Jeff Foley—are young working NYC actors.

The third reading, “Lost on the Natchez Trace,” is scheduled for September 3, 2011. Call 845/856-8331.