A writing workshop taught by Judson Merrill, one of Guild Hall’s five artists-in-residence, will take place on four consecutive Thursdays starting April 5 from 6 to 8 p.m. Titled “Writing Workshop Real Fiction: Writers, Readers, and the Battle Over Truth,” it will examine the ways fiction uses and abuses ideas of truth and authorship, experiment with those techniques, and discuss the creative and social benefits as well as the pitfalls.

Mr. Merrill studied literature and writing at Brown University and received an M.F.A. from Brooklyn College, where he taught writing for several years. His work has appeared in The Iowa Review, The Southampton Review, Unstuck, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, among others. He is currently writing a novel about grief and a sci-fi memoir about partnership.

The fee is $100, $80 for members. The class will be limited to 15 students. 

Robert Frank Film at Parrish

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will present “Don’t Blink: Robert Frank,” a documentary about the Swiss-born photographer whose work changed the course of 20th-century photography, tomorrow at 6 p.m. Laura Israel, the director and a friend of the photographer, and Alex Bingham, the film’s editor and art director, will discuss the film and take questions after the screening.

After emigrating to the United States in 1947, Mr. Frank worked as a fashion photographer for Harper’s Bazaar while creating several hand-bound books of photographs. In 1955, a Guggenheim fellowship enabled him to travel across the U.S. and take photographs. The result was “The Americans,” a book whose loose approach, occasionally blurred imagery, and tilted horizons deviated from the photographic standards of its time.

“Don’t Blink” provides a rare in-depth look at the media-averse artist, including footage of him at home and with friends. The film also sheds light on Mr. Frank’s relationships with the Beats, including Jack Kerouac, who wrote the introduction to “The Americans”; the 1960s counter-culture; his touring with the Rolling Stones, and his influential experimental films. 

Tickets are $20, $5 for members.

New From Folioeast

Folioeast will present the penultimate exhibition of its winter salon series at the Malia Mills boutique on Main Street in East Hampton from tomorrow through April 9, with a reception set for Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. The show will include paintings by Perry Burns and Janet Jennings, prints by Hiroyuki Hamada, and photographs by Lindsay Morris.

Both Folioeast and ArtUnprimed, which occupied the Addo retail store in Sag Harbor for several months this winter, have energized otherwise empty shops. The popularity of their opening receptions has testified to the community support for such off-season initiatives. 

Four at Ashawagh

“Under the Influence,” an exhibition of artwork by four former docents at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, will be on view at Ashawagh Hall in Springs on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Sunday from 11 till 2. A reception will take place Saturday from 5 to 7:30 p.m.

Participating artists are Pam Collins Focarino, whose abstract and expressive paintings hint at the nature that inspires them; Ruby Jackson, who will show elaborate folded-paper maquettes; Tracy Jamar, whose art explores the many possibilities of textiles and fibers, and Rose Zelenetz, a mixed-media artist whose work includes sculpture and wall hangings.

Strictly Abstraction

“Long Island Abstraction: 2 Generations” will open Sunday with a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery of the Art League of Long Island in Dix Hills. The exhibition, which will continue through April 16, includes work by the Sag Harbor artist Frank Wimberley, Stan Brodsky, Peter Galasso, and Laura Powers-Swiggert.

“Je Christine,” a free solo performance by Suzanne Savoy about Christine de Pizan, a late-medieval literary figure who was born in Venice in 1364 and married a French nobleman at the age of 15, will take place tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the Montauk Library. 

Ms. Savoy, an educator, actor, and designer, brings to life Pizan and illuminates her works, which include courtly poetry, a book on warfare and chivalry, and the official biography of Charles V.

On Sunday afternoon at 3:30, Caroline Enger, a classical pianist, will present “The Mischlinge Exposé,” a concert that combines music, images, and discussion about the long history of pre-World War II and postwar Jews whose families had converted to Christianity and who were, during the Nazi era, called “mischling,” or half-breed. 

“The Last Waltz,” Martin Scorsese’s film of the Band’s final concert in 1976, has immortalized that event. Among the musicians who performed were Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, and many others.

On Saturday evening at 8, at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater, local musicians will perform tunes from the concert, among them Mr. Morrison’s “Caravan,” Joni Mitchell’s “Coyote,” and Mr. Dylan’s “Forever Young,” as well as such Band classics such as “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” 

The performers include Joe Lauro, Michael Schiano, Daniel Koontz, Dave Giacone, David Deitch, Gene Casey, Michael Weiskoph, Jim Turner, Katie Pearlman, Randolph Hudson III, Mama Lee and Rose Lawler, and Eamonn Bowles. Tickets are $30.

Bay Street will also present four performances of “The Wave,” a 1967 play written by Ron Jones and performed by Jon Kovach, from Wednesday through Saturday at 7 p.m. The play is based on a true story about a 1960s California history teacher whose classroom experiment went awry. In order to deter his students from the allure of totalitarianism, he created a fascist state on campus, including salutes and Gestapo-like informants. What began with 30 students grew to 200, and the five-day experiment gradually spiraled out of the teacher’s control. 

Mr. Kovach is an actor who has performed on stages in New York City, at regional theaters, and on the South Fork at Guild Hall and Bay Street. Tickets range from $20 to $45.

The Southampton Cultural Center’s Rising Stars piano series will launch its spring season on Saturday evening at 6:30 with a “Petite Soirée Musicale.” The evening will include hors d’oeuvres, drinks, a silent auction, and performances by two acclaimed young pianists, Fei-Fei Dong and Tanya Gabrielian.

Ms. Dong, who won the Concert Artists Guild Competition and Juilliard’s 33rd annual William Petschek Recital Award, has performed throughout the United States and abroad. Ms. Gabrielian has performed at such important venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

General admission tickets are $50, $25 for students under 21, and free for children under 12.

For art lovers who have never visited the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the film “Van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing,” which will be shown at the Southampton Arts Center tomorrow at 8 p.m., is the next best thing. The film provides complete access to the museum’s treasures, contextualized by world-renowned art historians and curators. Tickets are $10.

The Hamptons International Film Festival’s ongoing celebration of its 25th anniversary will touch down at the arts center on Saturday at 6 p.m. with “Nowhere in Africa,” a World War II-era drama about a German-Jewish lawyer who moves his family to Kenya to escape the rise of Nazism. Shown at the festival in 2002, the film went on to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2003. Tickets are $12.

Judith Leiber’s 65-year career has spanned not only generations, but a number of presidential administrations. It has become a tradition for first ladies to carry her handbags on Inauguration Day. 

Her designs are like diminutive artworks, products of her training as a pattern-maker and her innate sense of craftsmanship and style. Her work will be celebrated at the Museum of Arts and Design, on Columbus Circle in Manhattan, beginning Tuesday through Aug. 6.

Before 1947, when Ms. Leiber, who lives in Springs with her husband, the artist Gerson Leiber, came to New York, she was the first woman in Budapest to earn the title of master craftsman. In later years her artisan technique with handbags, constructing them from start to finish, stood out from the American assembly-line approach.

She began her U.S. career working for others, eventually forming her own company in 1963. Her daytime bags in leather and textile are often embellished with details such as Art Deco-influenced hardware, Lucite, or seashells. She is probably best known for her Swarovski crystal and metal evening bags, called minaudières, which often take the shape of animals — snakes, pigs, peacocks — but also include foods: watermelon, asparagus, cupcakes, and much more. Some of her handbags incorporate designs after Modern artists — Mondrian, Braque, and Sonia Delaunay are a few — while others use exotic materials. One collection of bags was inspired by the narrative quilts of the artist Faith Ringgold.

“Judith Leiber: Crafting a New York Story” includes handbags from 1963 to 2004, when she retired. The exhibition is not only a tribute to her artistic vision but also a reflection on “the gendered significance of the handbag in 20th-century Western culture, and the centrality of immigrant entrepreneurship in the fabric of New York,”according to the museum. Michele and Marty Cohen, who is the chairman of Guild Hall’s board of trustees, are leading supporters of the show.  

Next Thursday at 7 p.m., a panel discussion related to the exhibition will include Samantha De Tillio, its curator, in conversation with Ellen Goldstein-Lynch, a handbag expert and founder of the Accessories Design Program at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Jeffrey Sussman, who wrote the biography of the Leibers, “No Mere Bagatelles: Telling the Story of Handbag Genius Judith Leiber & Modernist Artist Gerson Leiber.” A curator-led tour will precede the talk at 6.

It started when Sawyer Spielberg was looking for a scene to perform in Lyle Kessler’s Master Class for Actors in New York City. One of his classmates, Brynne Kraynak, knew the playwright Gabe McKinley and had seen his play “Extinction” workshopped in graduate school. She thought one of the roles would be right for Mr. Spielberg. 

From that seedling, a new production of that play, which had a single performance at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Manhattan in 2009, grew from a hunch into a three-way partnership that is bringing it to the stage at Guild Hall’s John Drew Theater for a two-and-a-half-week run starting next Thursday.

“Extinction” is the story of two college friends, Max and Finn, who meet every year for a weekend of male bonding and debauchery. Ten years on, the ritual takes them to the Borgata in Atlantic City, where from the beginning it is apparent that the friendship is about to unravel.

Mr. Spielberg, who lives New York City and East Hampton, took the play to Josh Gladstone, John Drew’s artistic director, when both were appearing in “Of Mice and Men” at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor in 2015. 

“I was reading it in the dressing room,” recalled Mr. Gladstone, “and I thought it was a really funny, edgy piece. Then I read the second act and realized it goes to a dark, interesting place that explores to meat of their specific relationship and male relationships in general.”

Mr. Gladstone expressed his interest in the play and suggested that Mr. Spielberg produce it. The actor and his colleagues formed the Where Are They Going Theatre Group, embarked on a crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo, and raised the money to produce the play. 

Guild Hall is providing the space, marketing, and Mr. Gladstone, who will direct. “It’s been 10 years since I’ve had a chance to direct something here,” he said. “There’s a lot of sexual tension in the play, lots of drugs and booze — it’s a mess.”

The cast came together as a result of that reading in Mr. Kessler’s class. Eric Svendsen, another classmate, read the scene with Mr. Spielberg. Ms. Kraynak and another member of the class, Raye Levine, became excited about the play and decided to get involved. In addition to playing one of the two female roles, Ms. Levine will design the set. Mr. Spielberg is doing props. 

“It’s the purest form of ‘let’s put on a show,’ ” said Mr. Gladstone.

In addition to its performance at Cherry Lane, “Extinction” had a brief run in Los Angeles in 2009. In a review of that production, the critic Joe Straw wrote, “Gabe McKinley writes a dramatic play that takes [a relationship] by the throat and squeezes the life out of it. Moments come crashing down like lightning bolts, changing their relationship into a fragile quivering whimpering mass of human flesh.”

The play will be performed at Guild Hall in the round, with the audience seated on the stage. “It was the actors’ idea,” Mr. Gladstone said. “I thought that would be very interesting, because there will be no place to hide.”

Mr. Gladstone said that Guild Hall will produce four plays this year, two more than in 2016. “The plays all involve young people, edgy work, and I’m having a great time. This is an exciting time for the theater community here.”

Performances will take place Wednesdays through Sundays at 7 p.m. through April 16, with 2 p.m. matinees set for April 8 and 15. Tickets are $25, $23 for members, and $15 for students under 18.

A wealthy novelist husband. A hot-to-trot stepmother. A ne’er-do-well son.  A loaded gun. What could possibly go wrong?

This is the question asked by the playwright Bernard Slade in the Hampton Theatre Company’s production of “An Act of the Imagination,” currently running at the Quogue Community Hall through April 9. This twisty, surprising whodunit will satisfy fans of murder mysteries despite its occasional lack of narrative momentum. Viewers who can hang on through the draggier moments will be richly rewarded.  

The play, set just outside London in the mid-1960s, is a classic British mystery in the style of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, though with a slightly nastier, post-modern sensibility. Arthur Putnam is a successful mystery writer who has just completed a new novel, the plot of which seems to echo events not only in his own life, but in the play we are watching (this is a play within a book within a play).

Is Arthur unfaithful, like the hero in his novel? He denies it, but his wife and editor aren’t so sure. Is someone trying to frame him for murder? Most definitely. Toss in a vain, money-sponging son and a mysterious woman with blackmail on her mind, and you have the makings of an enjoyably devilish night of theater.

Mr. Slade is also the author of “Same Time, Next Year,” which chronicled a couple who carry on an annual tryst for two decades. “An Act of the Imagination” is a more frivolous tale, though it does make a few stabs at profundity as Arthur tries to explain how authors cannibalize their own lives for material. Most audience members won’t find much nourishment in these metaphysical musings about the relationship between a writer and the imagination, but Mr. Slade’s talent for twisty plot points will have viewers surprised and occasionally gasping. There is even a sign as you enter the theater, warning that the play involves the simulation of weaponry. Yes, shots will be fired, and even though you know it’s coming you may find yourself flinching.

Although the actors’ English accents vary in verisimilitude under Edward A. Brennan’s direction, the cast is generally superb. Rebecca Edana, excellent in last year’s H.T.C. production of “Lost in Yonkers‚“ is very good as Arthur’s much younger wife, Julia. And Jesse Pimpinella is suitably creepy as the scheming son, Simon.  

There is a draggy moment or two near the end of the first half (the play could probably be 15 minutes shorter), but then Meggie Doyle arrives as the blackmailing Brenda Simmons and livens things up considerably, bringing both energy and moxie to the potentially cliched role of the calculating floozy. And Matthew Conlon is absolutely outstanding as Arthur, the self-proclaimed “stodgy” author. Mr. Conlon alternates from absent-minded narcissism (can Arthur be losing his mind?) to lucid fury at finding himself the victim of a vicious plot.  It’s hard to imagine this role performed with more range or complexity.

As for the plot, it’s no use to trying to fathom just exactly what is going on and with whom — even the most veteran of mystery fans will find their best guesses overturned. 

Despite its protracted length, “An Act of the Imagination” is beautifully constructed and full of satisfying misdirections, though it is unclear why it feels the need to punctuate these moments with heavy-handed sound effects. As the climax nears and the plot goes into overdrive, the phrase “cue the thunder” begins to take on almost comic overtones. 

Dana Marbury’s set, on the other hand, finds just the right tone for this prosperous literary family, in which all is perfect yet not quite right. So does most everything else in “An Act of the Imagination.” Its giddy immorality will have you feeling virtuous by comparison.

The Choral Society of the Hamptons gave its spring concert, “Across the Centuries,” to a large and grateful audience this past Sunday, the first Sunday of spring, at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church.  In contrast to its December concert, which featured a seasonally themed program of works by mostly well-known composers, Sunday’s fare, although mostly sacred, was not directly tied to the religious holidays of the season. Furthermore, while two of the works were by composers whose names were likely somewhat familiar to casual concert-goers (although the piece attributed to one is now recognized to have been composed by his even less well-known teacher), another was probably unknown to virtually the entire audience, and the last was by a composer whose name is more likely to be recognized by ethnomusicologists and elementary-school music teachers than a general audience.  

This may not have looked promising on the page, but the singers of the choral society and the instrumentalists who accompanied them under Walter Klauss, the guest conductor, delivered magnificently.

Georg Phillip Telemann (1681-1767) was the godfather of J.S. Bach’s son Carl Phillip Emmanuel and was by far the better-known composer in their lifetimes.  He was also by most accounts one of the most prolific composers in history, and if his well-crafted compositions lack the profundity and spiritual force of J.S. Bach’s, they nonetheless occupy an important and respected place in the repertoire.  The concert began with Telemann’s “Laudes Jehovam, omnes gentes,” a setting of Psalm 17 composed for continuo and two violins, and for this endeavor, the singers were accompanied by the South Fork Chamber Ensemble, with Thomas Bohlert at the church’s organ.  While there were issues of balance between players and singers in the first section, this improved in the second, slower section, where the nicely shaped phrases allowed for a settling in among instrumentalists and singers and the chorus was able to hit full, confident stride in the “Alleluias” of the final section.

It is unlikely that many if any of Sunday’s audience were familiar with either the music or the name of Jean Roger-Ducasse (1873-1954), but it is quite likely that online orders for his music spiked in our area after this concert.  Roger-Ducasse was a student of Gabriel Faure’s, and these three motets, “Regina coeli laetare,” “Crux fidelis,” and “Alma redemptoris Mater,” for organ, soprano solo, and choir, bear a strong resemblance to Fauré’s, “Messe Basse” for organ and treble choir. 

 But where the similarities are unmistakable, the differences are delightful.  Also delightful was the soprano soloist, Emilia Donato, whose vocal abilities, musical intuition, and poise were well beyond her 22 years of age. (The chorus might have learned from Ms. Donato’s ability to consult her score while maintaining connection with both Mr. Klauss and her audience.) The exuberant “Alleluias” that finished he Telemann yielded to exquisitely shaped “Alleluias” below the soloist in the first motet, “Regina coeli laetere.”  The crescendo to the word “crux” in the second motet, “Crux fideles,  was rendered even more effective by the long, carefully measured decrescendo to the word “dulce” (sweet). 

By this point it had become clear that Mr. Klauss had given priority in rehearsal to well-shaped, dynamically controlled phrases, and the care and attention clearly paid off. This was evident once again in the third motet, “Alma Redemptoris Mater,” especially in the final “Amens.” 

Thomas Bohlert’s playing was not only impeccable but showed that he was actually listening and responding to the group he was accompanying when the organ was in an accompanying role.

On the basis of both stylistic considerations and the lack of a copy in his own hand, most music historians agree that the Magnificat long attributed to Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) was actually the work of his teacher, Fran­cesco Durante (1685-1755). While this piece is not terribly challenging vocally or musically, it offers choruses a chance to shine in a substantial, multi-movement work from this period, and it brought back the South Fork Chamber Ensemble to provide a contrast with the chorus/organ sonority of the previous piece, this time in a better balance with the singers from the start. 

It was a relief to hear that, unlike so many performances of the first movement, the strings had been encouraged to think in terms of longer lines, with connected rather than detached eighth-notes in the bass and cello contributing to more of a sense of forward momentum than is sometimes heard. The Magnificat gave a chance for several of the choral society’s members to step forward as soloists, and Susan Vinski Conklin, soprano, and Christine Cadarette, alto, sang a lovely duet in the second movement while Tom White, a tenor, and Richard Louie, a baritone, blended nicely in the “Suscepit Israel.”

For most of the audience, the musical revelation of the afternoon may well have been the “Laudes Organi” of Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967). In addition to his work as a composer, Kodaly was an ethnomusicologist who collected and transcribed Hungarian folk songs, and he was a music educator who developed a system of instruction that is still very much in use all over the world.   “Laudes Organi” was commissioned for the 1966 convention of the American Guild of Organists and was Kodaly’s last major work. He took the 15 verses of a 12th-century piece praising the glories of the organ (at that time a relatively new instrument) and grouped them into seven sections with an introduction, several interludes, and a postlude for solo organ, which also accompanies the chorus. (In a nice touch, Kodaly set an optional final verse praising Guido d’Arezzo, an 11th-century monk whose familiar system of musical syllables — do, re, mi, fa, sol — was the basis of Kodaly’s own system eight centuries later.)

It was a tribute to all involved — singers, conductor, accompanist, and audience — that this challenging piece in a largely unfamiliar musical style received the warmest applause of the evening. Once again, the attention to dynamics and the shaping of phrases, particularly in the two “Amens” of the final section, were simply thrilling, and if the price of this attention to larger musical concerns was a little less attention to smaller details, such as lining up consonants and clean releases of final notes of phrases, it was a price worth paying. It was of course fitting that the organ gets the final word in this piece praising the virtues of the instrument, but it was also appropriate that Mr. Bohlert was given his due. He is not a flashy, demonstrative player, but he is a consummate musician and his sensitivity and proficiency made possible highly successful performances of challenging and unfamiliar compositions.

Walter Klauss is no stranger to East End concert-goers. Among other things, he is impresario and performer at the Bach and Beyond concert series held at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor. Nor is he a stranger to the singers of the choral society, which he has guest-conducted on many occasions. Still, it is interesting to hear an ensemble perform under someone other than their usual conductor, somewhat akin to watching a ship respond to the commands of a new captain, one with a different approach to winds, waters, and crew. Nowhere was Mr. Klauss’s command of his vessel more evident than in his navigation of the “Laudes Organi.” His is an experienced and sure hand and he clearly has the teaching skills to help his singers handle the relatively unfamiliar melodic and harmonic syntax of Kodaly’s music.

Although it was evident right from the first piece that the guest conductor had clear ideas about dynamics and how he wanted phrases shaped, and that the group had been rehearsed to these ends, with the exception of a handful of singers, the chorus rarely looked up from their music at their director, even when doing nothing more than holding out a long note at the end of a phrase. This is unfortunate. The members of the choral society have shown themselves to be capable, well-prepared singers, and Mr. Klauss is an experienced director whose gestures and facial expressions are capable of communicating a great deal to a group if they would only allow themselves an occasional glance up from their music. In addition to the loss of communication between singers and conductor, something is also lost between singers and audience when eyes and faces are cast down.

One final thought: There is an under-appreciated art to designing a satisfying concert program. Effectively balancing unity, variety, thematic considerations, and the strengths and weaknesses of the ensemble requires experience, thoughtfulness, and creativity, all of which have been on display in the first two concerts of the choral society’s 2016-2017 season. Even more impressive, though, is the way that the three concert programs of the season have been designed to create a larger, satisfying whole. We began in December with the familiar, Bach, Schutz, and Mozart, were introduced to unfamiliar names and music in March, and are now anticipating a monumental conclusion to the season with the Brahms Requiem on July 8. This is intelligent, artistic programming, and music lovers on the East End are the fortunate beneficiaries.