Music for Montauk will kick off its 2018 season with “Bach to Brazil,” a free concert featuring the internationally acclaimed soprano Rachelle Durkin, who will be joined by the guitarist Rupert Boyd and an ensemble of cellists. Set for Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Montauk School auditorium, the program will connect the music of Bach with the sounds of South America.

Ms. Durkin, who was born in Australia, is an established artist at the Metropolitan Opera, where she replaced Anna Netrebko to great acclaim in “Don Pasquale” and has appeared as well in “La Cenerentola,” “La Sonnambula,” and “La Boheme,” among others. In addition to frequent appearances in Australia, she has performed with opera companies in Spain, Hong Kong, and throughout the United States.

“We have wanted to do Hector Villa-Lobos’s ‘Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5’ for some time,” said Milos Repicky, who with Lilah Gosman and Brendon Moffitt oversees artistic planning and development for Music for Montauk. “We immediately thought of Rachelle Durkin. I had worked Rachelle at the Met. It is a great opportunity to have a major operatic artist offer an intimate and personal performance . . . world class with a personal touch.”

Ms. Durkin will sing “Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5” with the cellists Ani Kalayjian, Andrew Yee, Laura Metcalf, and Caleb van der Swaagh, and a Spanish song by Manual de Falla, accompanied by Mr. Boyd, who has performed at Carnegie Hall and at festivals in Spain, China, France, Nepal, and throughout Australia.

The program will begin with Bach’s solo cello suites and include works for cello by living composers such as Caroline Shaw before concluding with the Villa-Lobos piece. 

A post-concert party featuring a buffet, drinks, and a chance to meet the artists will take place at Gosman’s restaurant from 5:30 to 7. Reception tickets are $35 in advance at musicformontauk.org and $40 at the door.

Music for Montauk’s summer series will take place from Aug. 7 through Aug. 16 with concerts at Third House in Montauk County Park, Fort Pond House, the Art Barge on Napeague, and the Arts Center at Duck Creek in Springs.

Founded in 1983, Music for Montauk is dedicated to bringing a fresh and dynamic approach to classical music for all members of the community as well as visitors.

Did you give up or give away a pair of gloves, some pants, or a jacket over the past few years? Were they leather? You might find them repurposed in a colorful and unique show by Claire Watson at Ille Arts in Amagansett.

Mixing fashion and art can make for a frothy mélange, but Ms. Watson takes it a step or two further, deconstructing her found pieces so much that they become something else entirely. Up until recently she was playing with the size and shapes of opera-length gloves. Her latest work is something else: two-dimensional abstractions made from pants and jackets that are boiled, cut, and sewn into different patterns and mounted on plywood panel. Boiling tightens and shrinks the material, making it look different from what we would typically recognize as leather. 

In fact, if you didn’t have a checklist of the works on view or didn’t know the artist’s background, leather would not be the first thing you would think of when you saw her pieces from afar. There are black-and-white constructions; colorful works in blue, red, and mustard; monochrome shapes that remind me of “Stargazer,” that familiar deer sculpture installed in the fields between Sunrise Highway and the L.I.E., and more. 

But really, these are clever and visually sophisticated assemblages, open to any interpretation, even while Ms. Watson tamps down total free association with precise titles. The artist said part of the transformation of the found objects comes from imagined histories. This is presumably why titles such as “Some Semblance,” “The Thing Is,” “Is and Isn’t,” “Spunk,” and others are both evocative and open-ended. It’s not just her imagined histories that she alludes to, but the baggage each of us brings to the work.

She also appreciates the scars and blemishes of the animal that gave up its skin, which are evident even after the tanning and dying processes. And she says the stains and smells of the previous owners, hints of perfume and cigarette smoke, also inspire her.

As is often the case, these works are hard to comprehend fully when you’re not actually in the room with them. In reproductions they seem small, even when viewed in a large format. In reality, they are quite large. They can sport dimensions of four, five, six, and even eight feet. 

Ms. Watson seems to enjoy negative space. Many pieces are created from smaller forms that she mounts in a way that leaves enough of a controlled expanse to assert her intentionality. Looking at them from across the room, you get the sense that that undulating form created by the borders of “Some Semblance” is just as much a part of the work as the solid forms themselves. Maybe, in a way, it’s everything, the colorful pieces left as mere window dressing.

Just as appealing are her preparatory drawings for each work. Given the deliberate nature of her compositions, as well as the planning involved in their construction, it is not surprising that much thought goes into them before she even splits her first seam or puts the pot on to boil. 

Each work on view has its own mini version in gouache and collage. Maybe it is because they are expected to be artworks, but these drawings have an approachability that is magnetic. In a smaller way, the paint of the drawings expresses more in its color than the larger versions in skin. This paradox makes them captivating; they whisper in a way that causes you to hang on every word.

It is easy to get bogged down in the formal qualities of these works, but their origins as animal hide, clothing, and refuse and their transformation through basic domestic processes are highly charged aspects of their DNA. At the same time, her references to traditional housework draw attention to issues of class, gender, and labor.

Ms. Watson seems to be offering a choice in this show between experiencing one or several of these elements, or even taking the time to absorb it all, which is well worth the investment. The exhibition is on view through Monday­­.

If the name Anzia Yezierska doesn’t exactly ring a bell, you are not alone. Born in 1880 in Poland and coming to America 10 years later, Yezierska was a writer who chronicled Jewish immigrant life on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Her work employed unflinching realism to capture the poverty, prejudice, and small triumphs of the immigrant experience. Though still in print — and once the source of no less than two motion pictures — Yezierska’s work has largely fallen out of the public eye. 

Now a handful of local and regional artists are attempting to revive it. On a recent Sunday at a private residence in Sagaponack, a group of actors performed an emotional reading of Dennis Moritz’s play “Hungry Hearts,” based on her work.

Culled together from various source materials, which include Yezierska’s stories and autobiography, “Hungry Hearts” focuses primarily on her personal life. The play dramatizes her financial struggles as well as the search for American identity as she tries to balance motherhood with a compulsion to write. The trajectory spans decades — from the cramped confines of tenement life to Hollywood to her affair with the celebrated educator John Dewey. 

The afternoon’s reading began with a light lunch and wine, then moved to a handsome parlor cleverly converted to an intimate theater. As directed by Adam Judd, who teaches at the Ross School, the drama evoked humor, pathos, and at times intense pain. At play’s end, both the audience and the actors sat in a kind of stunned silence broken only by polite applause. A scheduled question-and-answer session was briefly delayed as Zillah Glory, the actress who was dazzling as Anzia, composed herself. 

“I’m sorry,” she said in between deep breaths, clearly still in the throes of her performance. Robert Craig Baum, the producer of “Hungry Hearts,” stepped in to talk about the power of Mr. Moritz’s play. “I really think it’s just so timely, with all that’s going on, all that’s being said,” he remarked — referring, no doubt, to the worldwide refugee crisis, and perhaps to our recent heated political record. “Regardless of what you think of our president!” he added eagerly, obviously trying to avoid a political scrum.

Now fully composed, Ms. Glory talked about how she had been working on the character of Anzia for some time, watching the play go through different versions. After Mr. Moritz’s original draft, the project fell into the hands of another writer, who attempted to make the material more commercially approachable. It was an incarnation that no one was particularly happy with, especially the actors. “We kept coming back to Dennis’s work,” she said, “the voices that he created.”

Asked where these voices came from, Mr. Moritz explained that his grandparents, who had immigrated from Hungary to live on the Lower East Side, were his inspiration. “Writing these characters,” he said, “was my way of visiting them.” Mr. Moritz grew up on Grand Street as a young man, two doors down from where his grandparents had lived. 

After the reading, as Mr. Moritz signed a bound collection of his dramatic works, I explained how I myself had lived on both Delancey and Mulberry Streets during much of the 1990s. It was a serendipity that seemed confirmation of the ever-evolving allure of these few blocks of New York real estate.

A few days later I spoke to Mr. Baum by phone, hoping to learn more about his relationship with Mr. Moritz. A former teacher at the Ross School and a born impresario, the verbose Mr. Baum explained how somewhere in the late 2000s, a colleague had given him a collection of Mr. Moritz’s plays to read. Mr. Baum was highly impressed. Years later, a handful of writers and producers were in a Facebook chat room discussing the idea of doing a project on 9/11, when Mr. Baum happened to notice the name of one of the participants. “You’re not the Dennis Moritz are you?” he asked. Indeed he was. A collaboration was born, and now, a shared labor of love. 

In person as well as on the phone, Mr. Baum’s excitement about the material was palpable. He referred again to the quality of Mr. Moritz’s writing and the “timeliness and importance” of Yezierska’s work. As for the play’s immediate future, he said there is talk of more readings and, at a later date, some stage productions in smaller theaters. 

His ultimate goal for “Hungry Hearts”? “A feature film,” he asserted without hesitation, stating that the director Mike Figgis has shown interest, among others. “It would not be expensive!” The material is so richly malleable, he added, that it could also be “an ‘American Playhouse’ type of thing, or even a Netflix original series.” 

For the latter he already has a name and concept. “Tenement” it would be called. Near the end of her life, Yezierska updated her writings about the Lower East Side, exploring the influx of Puerto Ricans in the 1950s and ’60s. Mr. Baum envisions a series exploring the different incarnations of Lower East Side tenement life, from Jewish immigration up to the new gentrification. 

“I’m always working on a bunch of different things,” Mr. Baum said. “But this,” he said, alluding to Mr. Moritz’s play, “is the one I keep coming back to.”

Reynold Ruffins in Sag

The John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor is presenting an exhibition of paintings by Reynold Ruffins today through May 31. A reception will be held on May 12 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Mr. Ruffins began to paint some 25 years ago after a distinguished career as an illustrator and graphic designer. Along with Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, and Edward Sorel, he was a founding member in 1954 of Push Pin Studios, and, in 1963, he formed a design studio with Simms Taback. He has illustrated more than 15 children’s books and received the Coretta Scott King Award from the American Library Association.

While his paintings range from figuration to abstraction, all are distinguished by bold, expressive colors and a strong graphic quality.

Crush Curatorial’s Back

Crush Curatorial will return to the potato barn at 68A Schellinger Road in Amagansett that is its Hamptons outpost for a one-day exhibition on Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m. According to the gallery, “Untitled Projects” is a weekend retreat that will bring artists and curators from New York City and the East End together to highlight not only their artwork but also the new channels of distribution available for artists.

Organized by Catherine Haggerty and Karen Flatow, the projects represent formal gallery systems, artist-run collectives, online exhibition spaces, and social media platforms. In addition to Ms. Flatow, who has a studio in Amagansett, participating East End artists include Scott Bluedorn, Janet Goleas, and Almond Zigmund.

The Classic’s New Poster

The Hampton Classic Horse Show, which will take place in Bridgehampton from Aug. 26 through Sept. 2, has announced that Jennifer Brandon of Waverly, Pa., has been selected as its 2018 poster artist. Her oil painting “A Splash of Red” contrasts the dynamism of a jumping black horse and red-jacketed rider with the vast blue sky.

Drew Petersen, a classical pianist who made his debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall at the age of 5, will perform tomorrow evening at 6 at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill as part of its Salon Series. Mr. Petersen’s many awards include the 2017 American Pianists Award and the Christel DeHaan Fellowship of the American Pianists Association.

His program will include Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor, Chopin’s Fantasie in F minor, Op. 49 and Scherzo No. 2, Fantasy Pieces, Op. 6 (1912-1915), by Charles Tomlinson Griffes, and Samuel Barber’s Piano Sonata in E flat minor, Op. 26. Tickets are $25, $10 for members and students.

The Montauk Library will present a free concert of classical music by Maksim Shtrykov on piano and Misuzu Tanaka on violin on Saturday evening at 7:30. The two have performed at chamber music societies throughout the United States and, as soloists, at venues in Europe, Asia, and the U.S.

The program will feature four works for clarinet and piano: Saint-Saens’s Sonata in E flat major, Op. 167, Brahms’s Sonata in F minor, Op. 120, Nos. 1 and 2, and Poulenc’s Sonata from 1962.

The White Room Gallery in Bridgehampton and Jeff Nichols, a comedian, writer, and lecturer about learning disabilities and the dangers of drugs and alcohol, will present an art exhibition and a live comedy show to raise money for New Hope Rising, a Westhampton Beach facility that provides housing for people in recovery from addiction.

“Impetus,” the art exhibition, is on view today through May 13 at the gallery, with a reception set for Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. Participating artists include Joss Parker, Martha McAleer, Alicia Gitlitz, David Geiser, and Seek One. 

The comedy show, which will take place on May 12 at 8 p.m. at 230 Elm in Southampton, will feature Eagle Witt, Joey Kola, and Dan Naturman, hosted by Steve Rosenberg. Tickets are $40 and available by calling 631-466-7223

The Southampton Arts Center will celebrate Cinco de Mayo on Saturday at 7 with an evening of tango, jazz, bolero, and dance. Presented with the Jam Session, the program will feature the renowned dancers Sandra Antognazzi and Walter Perez as well as Oscar Feldman on alto and baritone saxophone, Helio Alves on piano and keyboards, Eddy Khaimovich on bass, Javier Sanchez on bandoneon, and Claes Brondal on drums. Tickets are $20, $10 for students.

Max’s Kansas City, the iconic New York City nightclub and restaurant that was a hangout for artists and musicians from Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg to Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, and David Bowie, will be celebrated by the band Cracked Actor Friday at 8 p.m. at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett.

Kevin Foran on bass, Anthony Genovesi on drums, Carlos Lama on vocals, Jack Marshall on lead guitar, and Christopher Walsh on piano and guitar will pay homage to Alice Cooper, the New York Dolls, Marc Bolan (T-Rex), Bowie, and others of the glam rock scene. Tickets are $10.

Remember George and Martha, the middle-aged, booze-swilling, expletive-slinging husband and wife in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” whose marathon battles we’ve watched with appalled fascination since the play’s 1962 premiere? Turns out, they didn’t kill each other or get divorced. Worse, they went through couples therapy, stayed married, grew old, and got meaner than ever.

The play’s author, the late Edward Albee, might have cracked a wry smile on Saturday as Mercedes Ruehl and Harris Yulin, two veteran, award-winning actors, read the opening scene from Mr. Albee’s liquor-fueled marital slugfest at the LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton. Ms. Ruehl, 70, and Mr. Yulin, 80, have in earlier stages of their careers inhabited the roles of Martha and George onstage, though never in the same production.

The reading was part of an hourlong tribute to rename the LongHouse’s amphitheater in memory of the playwright, who was a Montauk resident and great friend of Jack Lenor Larsen, the textile designer, art collector, and founder of LongHouse. Henceforth, the sunken, horseshoe-shaped grassy knoll, with  seating and stage pit in its center, will be called the Edward Albee Amphitheater. Saturday also marked the opening of the LongHouse Reserve’s 27th season.

Art, weather, nature, and performance perfectly coalesced for the occasion. It’s that time of year when the daffodils and crocuses that cover the LongHouse’s 16-acre sculpture gardens, wooded glens, and walking paths are in glorious bloom. Even Mr. Larsen, now 91, reflected spring’s gaiety in a yellow jacket with a swatch of turquoise scarf peeking out. He spoke about Mr. Albee, referring to him as “a pillar at LongHouse” and reminded the audience that the playwright had performed often in the amphitheater. In fact, he had read the same opening scene from “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” with Elaine Stritch in 2001. Footage of the archived reading was being played in the LongHouse pavilion throughout the day. 

Champagne was served, people milled, birds chirped, and the evening light hit the tallest of sculptures set amid the gardens just so. 

“Of course the sun came out,” said Dianne Benson, the president of LongHouse’s board. “Of course it’s perfect. Because LongHouse is good to nature, nature is good to LongHouse in return.”

Ms. Ruehl took to the stage before her reading to pay tribute to Mr. Albee, whom she knew well as a friend, and who would have turned 90 in March. “He was the first person to call me after my father’s obituary appeared in The East Hampton Star,” she said. 

She also shared recollections of Mr. Albee, the consummate professional, who was known to get deeply involved with productions of his plays. Besides playing Martha in 2001, Ms. Ruehl also starred in the Broadway staging of “The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?” in 2002 and “Occupant” in 2008.

“Anyone who knew him, would not have characterized Edward Albee as an easygoing fellow,” she said, smiling, and added that he was “allergic to small talk and mediocrity.” Tough ideas were at the core of his plays, she said, adding that he could use words like “pistol shots.”

And, indeed, the pistols were cocked and aimed once Mr. Yulin joined her onstage. Incidentally, “Romeo and Juliet” was recently restaged in England with the lovers, after somehow surviving the poison, having eloped, set up house in suburbia, and become middle-aged and tired of each other. So why not an older George and Martha, still bitterly trying to camouflage their unhappiness?

Mr. Yulin and Ms. Ruehl made a great pair of prizefighters, who are matched pound for pound, and it was pure entertainment to see them toy vindictively with each other in the newly consecrated Edward Albee Amphitheater.

With only a few benches around the stage, providing adequate seating for about 50 guests, the rest of the audience was perched on the top lip of the knoll, as the grassy sides are too steep to sit on without sliding down. Either way, it doesn’t exactly make for comfortable theater viewing. Which is altogether fitting, since neither did any of Mr. Albee’s plays.