Two concerts that will be welcome summer events for lovers of chamber music will take place at Guild Hall tomorrow and Saturday night at 7, well before other established festivals here. Six musicians from the New York Philharmonic will give the back-to-back concerts along with a guest pianist, the first time the Philharmonic has been represented on the Guild Hall stage. 

“Musicians from the New York Philharmonic” will showcase masterworks of color, form, drama, and emotion by Mozart, Brahms, Dvorak, and Dohnanyi, using various combinations of two violins, two violas, cello, horn, and piano.

Tomorrow night’s program features Mozart and Brahms. It is said that Mozart’s genius was revealed in his quintets, and the evening begins with his String Quintet in C, which is considered on par with his last symphonies.

In an unusual bit of music history, three composers took part in writing one sonata, one movement each — the young Brahms, Robert Schumann, and his pupil Albert Dietrich — as a gift to the violinist Joseph Joachim. Brahms’s Scherzo from this work for violin and piano will be heard.

A more mature Brahms wrote the rich and melancholy Horn Trio in E flat that closes the first concert. It was specified for waldhorn, or natural horn, but will be heard on the modern French horn, along with violin and piano.

Saturday evening’s program also leads off with Mozart, his Horn Quintet in E flat. Written for the uncommon combination of violin, two violas, cello, and horn, the quintet is regarded more as a horn concerto than chamber music.

Dohnanyi’s Serenade for String Trio follows. It is a five-moment work that reminds one of Brahms, but with a touch of Hungarian flavor. Dvorak’s Quintet in A has been chosen to end the chamber music weekend; it is acknowledged as one of the few masterpieces of the form. 

Leading the ensemble is Michelle Kim, who has been assistant concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic since 2001. She has performed at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and Bravo! Vail, and teaches at the Mannes College of Music.

William Wolfram has been has been invited to be the guest musician for the programs. Mr. Wolfram said recently that he has performed before with Ms. Kim and other members of the Philharmonic on some occasions, but this is the first time for this particular combination of players. “I’ve never performed on the East End,” he said, “but I’ve vacationed here with my family, so I’m looking forward to the concerts.” He described the Brahms Scherzo as “super fun, accessible, with infectious rhythms and a juicy ending.”

Tickets are from $30 to $100 ($28 to $95 for members) with a $10 discount for both nights. Free student tickets may also be available at curtain.

Both laughter and tears should be flowing at Guild Hall in the days and nights to follow. 

“Inside the Hamptons (Literally!) With Jonathan Adler” will tilt toward the former on Sunday morning at 11, when the home furnishings designer, potter, author, and interior designer will chat with Pamela Fiori, a noted editor and author. While pottery continues to be the core of Mr. Adler’s business, his design empire now consists of 25 stores, and he has designed restaurants and hotels around the world. A former lead judge on Bravo’s “Top Design” and a self-described incurable optimist, he will sign books after the discussion. Tickets are $15, $13 for members, and everyone in the audience will be entered to win a signed piece of his pottery.

Things will take a serious, if inspiring, turn Sunday at 3 with a screening of “Defiant Requiem,” an Emmy Award-nominated documentary that tells the story of Terezin, a Nazi concentration camp where the prisoners, led by Rafael Schachter, a Czech conductor, staged plays, composed opera, and created a choir of 150 inmates, who performed, among other things, Verdi’s “Requiem.” Free tickets can be obtained by emailing [email protected].

Freddy Roman, a stand-up comedian and the creator and star of “Catskills on Broadway,” will bring his Borscht Belt humor to Guild Hall on Sunday evening at 7:30. Reviewing “Catskills on Broadway,” Mel Gussow of The New York Times said of Mr. Roman, “His effervescence becomes infectious as he shifts targets from the Catskills to Florida” in a “finely honed routine.” He will share the stage at Guild Hall with Cory Kahaney, a regular on late-night television, “The View,” and “Politically Incorrect.” Tickets range from $45 to $100, $43 to $95 for members.

Bob Balaban, the noted actor, director, and producer, will introduce a screening of Julie Taymor’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the imaginative stage production filmed in 2014 at the Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn, at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Ms. Taymor, whom Ben Brantley of The Times has called “the cosmic P.T. Barnum of contemporary stagecraft,” will attend the screening. Tickets are $25, $23 for members.

The jazz and cabaret vocalists Cole Rumbough and Molly Ryan will bring their show “Around the World in 80 Minutes” to Guild Hall next Thursday night at 8. The program travels the globe through the music and lyrics of such 20th-century American composers as Cole Porter, Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, Frank Loesser, and Johnny Burke. Ticket prices range from $22 to $45; $20 to $43 for members.

With reporting by Mark Segal

Vivien Bittencourt at Ille Arts

“Captiva,” an exhibition of photographs taken by Vivien Bittencourt on Captiva and Sanibel Islands off the west coast of Florida, will open at Ille Arts in Amagansett tomorrow and continue through Aug. 3. A reception will be held on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m.

Ms. Bittencourt, a filmmaker and photographer, much of whose recent work focuses on landscapes in such far-flung locations as Italy and Lebanon, spent the summer of 2015 on Captiva and Sanibel, where she turned her lens on their avian residents. 

In an interview in The Brooklyn Rail, she said, “There is the delicacy of their bodies, the lightness of their movements, but then there are the pelicans! Their group movements are beautiful; they are like ballets, or streets in rush hour.”

Also at the gallery, Kate Mueth and the Neo-Political Cowgirls will perform “B(e)rd,” a 20-minute theater piece examining the relationship between birds and humans, from next Thursday through July 25, with shows each evening at 7:30 and 8:30. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at npcowgirls.org.

Group Show at Firestone

The Eric Firestone Gallery in East Hampton will open “Mirror/Mirror,” a group exhibition, on Saturday, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The show will run through Aug. 3.

Participating artists include Slater Bradley, Sebastian Errazuriz, Rogan Gregory, Sven Lukin, Ryan Metke, Josh Reames, Miriam Schapiro, Mimi Smith, Adam Parker Smith, Jen Stark, Letha Wilson, and Rob Wynne.

New at Fireplace Project

The Fireplace Project in Springs will present two solo exhibitions from tomorrow through Aug. 15, with a reception scheduled for Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

“Casual Water” will include works from Maia Ruth Lee’s “Steel Glyphs” series, which consists of wrought-iron wall sculpture fashioned from decorative elements that adorn fences and window bars.

Peter Sutherland’s show, “Santa Clara,” will feature wall and sculptural works on which the artist overlays and collages his own photographs, usually taken while traveling, to make associations with Pop and cult imagery.

Harriette Joffe at Lawrence

Lawrence Fine Art in East Hampton, which has devoted its summer exhibition program to artists in their 80s and 90s, will open “Harriette Joffe: Works on Paper” with a reception today from 6:30 to 9 p.m. The show will run through July 28.

The gallery will exhibit current work from her “River Song” series, abstract works in watercolor on translucent yupo paper, some of which faintly suggest the human form, as well as earlier work going back to the 1980s.

Ms. Joffe, who had a studio in Montauk from 1970 to 1990, is one of the last links to the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, numbering among her friends and colleagues Willem de Kooning, Philip Pavia, Ibram Lassaw, John Little, and Balcomb Greene.

The Last Baymen

“The Last Baymen of Amagansett,” an exhibition of photographs by Michael Ruggiero, is on view from today through Sept. 19 at Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor. A reception will be held Sunday from 4 to 6:30 p.m.

Mr. Ruggiero, who lives in Springs, has been photographing workers in different professions, among them slate quarriers and long-distance truckers, for 25 years. Last fall, while on the beach in Amagansett, he saw baymen gillnetting with their trucks and asked if he could photograph them. 

They were hesitant at first, but after several meetings and conversations, he began the project, which he plans to continue for another year. His starkly beautiful black-and-white photographs are a document of a family and a way of life in danger of disappearing.

Lecture Series in Springs

The Lichtenstein Lecture Series, a program of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs, will launch Sunday at 5 p.m. with “Franz Kline and the Performance of Identity,” a talk by Bradford Collins, a professor at the University of South Carolina. 

Future speakers will be Phyllis Braff, Dan Rattiner, William C. Agee, Gail Levin, and Marion Wolberg Weiss. All lectures, which are free, will take place Sundays at 5 at the Fireplace Project, which is located at 851 Springs-Fireplace Road, across the street from the center.

Lisa Breslow at Markel

Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in Bridgehampton is presenting recent paintings and monotypes by Lisa Breslow from today through July 31, with a reception set for Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

Her recent cityscapes and still lifes reveal a heightened and varied color palette, looser brushwork, and bursts of color that juxtapose nature and architecture. Color contrasts rather than lines delineate forms, and as the artist pares down each subject to its essence, her works move closer toward abstraction.

Walter Robinson in Montauk

“Objects of Desire,” a show of paintings by Walter Robinson, is on view at Melet Mercantile Outpost in Montauk through July. The show includes works from the 1980s, chiefly of stenciled and painted images based on pulp book covers, and more recent paintings. An art critic as well as a painter, Mr. Robinson was the founding editor in chief of Artnet magazine.

Plein Air Paintings at Grenning

“Marc Dalessio Rediscovers Italy” will open at the Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor on Saturday, with a reception from 6:30 to 8 p.m., and continue through Aug. 1. The exhibition’s title refers to the fact that the artist, who lived and studied in Italy for 20 years, recently returned there to see and paint with fresh eyes.

Mr. Dalessio believes in working from life as much as possible. He has painted the landscapes of Fiji, Myanmar, India, Morocco, and, in the United States, from Shelter Island to Big Sur.

The gallery also reports that Ben Fenske, who shows there regularly, has been selected to exhibit his portrait “Beatrice” at the National Portrait Gallery in London in the exhibition “BP Portrait Award 2016,” which is on view through Sept. 4. 

All About Water

“Water,” an exhibition of photographs by four artists, will open Saturday at the Tulla Booth Gallery in Sag Harbor with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m., and remain on view through Aug. 22.

Daniel Jones is known for his stately color and black-and-white prints of eastern Long Island. Blair Seagram brings her preference for panoramic images to bear on the East End landscape. Herb Friedman’s photographs of the beaches of the French Riviera capture the area’s color and crowds. Stephen Wilkes’s “Day to Night” series ranges from the beaches of Israel to those of Santa Monica.

Pop Paintings

Collective by Jeff Lincoln, a new gallery in Southampton, is presenting its first exhibition, “Pop Art: ‘A Catalyst for Dreams,’ Abstraction and Figuration,” through July 27.

The show includes paintings by Paul Feeley and John Wesley, both of whom take Pop Art beyond the consumer culture favored by Andy Warhol. Feeley, who was the influential director of the Bennington College art department, painted simple geometric forms in a brightly colored, hard-edged style. Mr. Wesley employs a pastel palette; his figurative subjects range from the comic to the sexual.

Art in Agawam Park

More than 60 Long Island artists will exhibit their paintings, sculpture, photographs, and mixed-media works on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Southampton Artist Association’s “Art in the Park” exhibition in Agawam Park in Southampton.

Bonac Tonic Pop-Up

A two-day exhibition of artists from the Bonac Tonic Collective will pop up at Camp SoulGrow Studios in Montauk on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., with a reception set for Saturday from 6 to 8.

The Montauk Library will present “Recipes for Disaster,” a free one-man show in which Charles Baran, an actor and singer, serves up a smorgasbord of music, comedy, and zaniness, on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. The music will range from the Cranberries to Jacques Brel, and the comedy will touch on growing up gay in Queens with parents right out of “All in the Family.” Ted Arthur, a pianist and music director, will accompany Mr. Baran.

The Steve Shaughnessy Quartet will perform a live show at the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum tomorrow at 6 p.m. The free concert, says the museum, offers an opportunity to enjoy live jazz in an intimate setting.

Just as an artist working in assemblage would craft a three-dimensional project with objects that take up space and achieve a specific goal, so did Karyn Mannix build her working art studio from scratch.

With a rainbow of kid-size smocks hung on one wall, a couple of shelves of art books lining another, photographs from her latest exhibition hung on every wall space in between, and bookcases stuffed with practically every kind of art material imaginable, the Mannix Studio of Art is exactly what one might expect. And, like the variety of imagery that greets visitors, including a series of sophisticated paintings leaning up against a window that depict the legs of sexy ladies and a friendly yellow sun painted on the adjacent glass pane, the studio has proved versatile. Ms. Mannix not only offers classes in various media and techniques but also curates shows and offers a few local artists’ and artisans’ works for sale.

Her East Hampton Village studio on Gingerbread Lane is the latest venture for Ms. Mannix, an artist herself, longtime art teacher, art dealer, and former gallery owner. She has imagined a center from which a community of artists and art enthusiasts can grow, from the ages of “6 to 96.”

“I wanted to bring studio arts back into East Hampton,” she said. “I thought it was the perfect fit, right in the village. We live in the arts community, and this was where abstract art was practically born.”

On a recent Saturday morning, a two-hour session for children started with an assignment: Create a self-portrait in the style of Frida Kahlo, complete with her distinctive eyebrow, colorful jewelry, and flowers in her hair. That was followed by freestyle drawing and clay sculpture, in which the kids crafted fish with shiny buttons for scales.

“This is not like a camp setup where you get kids to paste pompoms to paper plates,” Ms. Mannix said. “We teach watercolor, the golden ratio, composition and balance, life drawing and figure drawing, oil painting, and portrait drawing.”

Her adult classes, which have some students as young as 14, are inspired by a wide spectrum of artists, ranging from Michelangelo to Banksy. Ms. Mannix, who has degrees in fashion design and Postmodern art theory and criticism, and a certificate in appraisals, always includes some art history along with instruction in technique. That’s to develop a general sense of art appreciation in her students, she said.

The studio, which opened in March, has not been without its share of challenges. Early on, the East Hampton Village Design Review Board directed her to remove a metal kinetic sculpture she’d installed outside the studio, and she took it down. Getting the word out has not been easy, she said, but the classes have started to pick up now.

Outside experts, including Lenny Stucker, an award-winning photographer, are often brought in to help teach; Ms. Mannix believes it’s important to learn from more than one person. She has plans for a ladies’ night, featuring a good-looking (clothed) male model, and one day, perhaps, an artist-in-residence. 

But the children’s classes are where this former art director at the Children’s Museum of the East End and teacher at the Child Development Center of the Hamptons is having her greatest success to date. From the mouths of the babes themselves, the classes are nothing like what they do in art class at school.

“It’s really fun,” said Danielle Barr, 7, of New York City, who previously attended classes at the Golden Eagle. “I get more time to do things and you do more fun stuff.”

Remington Eliasek, also a 7-year-old from the city, agreed. “I really love doing this. It’s more advanced,” she said.

Children, Ms. Mannix observed, are much more expressive and willing to take chances with their art than her adult students. The grownups, she said, smiling, labor over every pencil line or brush stroke.

When she transformed the Mannix Studio of Art into a gallery during Memorial Day weekend for a show called the Golden Age of Rock ’n’ Roll, featuring photos of iconic musicians, Ms. Mannix changed the atmosphere entirely. She cleared out the tables and shelves to focus on the photographs, which remain on view through July. August will feature a different show, and, come October, a partnership with the Hamptons International Film Festival will bring a juried exhibition titled “What Becomes a Legend Most: Icons and Idols of the Silver Screen.” The latter show is currently accepting submissions; more information can be found at karynmannixcontemporary.com.

“I decided this studio was another good outlet for the arts,” Ms. Mannix said — “another good outlet for me, and for East Hampton.”

More “Summer of Sculpture”

The Springs Improvement Society’s “Summer of Sculpture” show, which began Memorial Day weekend with an installation of outdoor sculpture in the Springs Historic District, will expand its reach with a show of indoor sculpture at Ashawagh Hall from tomorrow through July 31. A reception will be held tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m., during which a tour of the 11 outdoor pieces will be conducted.

The indoor exhibition, organized by Christina Strassfield, Guild Hall Museum’s director, will include pieces by 30 artists from the East Hampton area who work in a wide range of materials. The gallery will be open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays and weekdays from 10 to 6.

Paper and Steel

Studio 11, a gallery located in the Red Horse Plaza in East Hampton, will open concurrent solo shows of work by Linda Miller and Steven Miller with a reception tomorrow from 5 to 7 p.m. The exhibitions will run through Aug. 8.

Ms. Miller, a paper sculptor, will present “Thank You Morandi,” a collection of paper-cast vessels inspired by the Italian painter known for the subtle tonalities of his still-life paintings. Mr. Miller will show new works, including steel columns, open box constructions, and a steel line drawing. 

Both Millers divide their time between SoHo and East Hampton. The gallery is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.

New at Art Space 98

“Time Out of Mind,” an exhibition of oil paintings by Michael Oruch, will open with a reception Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Art Space 98 in East Hampton and remain on view through Aug. 22.

Mr. Oruch, who has worked in a Manhattan studio on the Bowery for 30 years, is an abstract painter interested in Asian and Native American imagery, American folk art, and geometric divination imagery such as Celtic runes and the I Ching. The exhibition will feature configurations of smaller works influenced by Tibetan traveling thangkas and Tantric paintings.

American Realists 

At Whaling Museum

“Masters of American Realism,” an exhibition of painting, sculpture, and drawings by modern and contemporary masters organized by Peter Marcelle, will be on view at the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum from tomorrow through Aug. 4. A reception will be held tomorrow evening from 6 to 8.

Among the artists who established themselves in the 20th century are Jules Kirschenbaum, John Koch, Luigi Lucioni, and Andrew Wyeth. Contemporary painters include Matthew Adelberg, Bo Bartlett, Anna Jurinich, and Michael Viera.

Portella and Camp at Dow

“H2O,” a show of photographs by Dalton Portella and EJ Camp, is on view at Elizabeth Dow Home on Gingerbread Lane in East Hampton through Aug. 3. Mr. Portella is showing photographs from his “Picnic Table” and “Storm” series, both of which use digital technology to capture the power and vulnerability of nature. 

EJ Camp’s photographs feature water in flux, including glacial erratics, or large boulders, of the North Fork, which were deposited as the glaciers retreated. 

Michael Combs Book Signing

Michael Combs, a sculptor whose work draws heavily on the lives of his ancestors — generations of North Fork baymen, hunters, fishermen, and decoy-carvers — will sign copies of his new book, “Michael Combs,” published by Grenfell Press, in the lobby of the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill on Sunday at 11 a.m.

Mr. Combs’s work is on view in “Radical Seafaring,” the museum’s current exhibition. The event is free, but the museum recommends reserving copies of the book in advance.

Studio Paint Bar

The Mannix Studio of Art in East Hampton will launch a “paint bar” for adults 21 and older this evening at 7 p.m. The idea is for artists to bring a drink of choice to accompany 90 minutes of painting and finger foods from Hamptons Foodie. The theme of tonight’s class is Monet’s “Water Lilies.”

Subsequent classes will look to Van Gogh, Matisse, and Picasso for inspiration. The final event in the series, set for Aug. 25, is for “ladies only,” which is likely to pique a few artistic imaginations.

Color at White Room

 “All 4 Color,” a show of work by Barbara Bilotta, Katherine Liepe-Levinson, Kat O’Neill, and Mark E. Zimmerman, opens today at the White Room Gallery in East Hampton and continues through Aug. 7. A reception will happen on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

Ms. Bilotta’s abstract paintings are animated by her love of nature and organic forms, as are the photographs of Ms. Liepe-Levinson. Mr. Zimmerman’s paintings are fueled by emotion and intuition, while Ms. O’Neill’s works, printed on metal, feature graffiti, abstraction, and mixed media.

Montauk Images

An exhibition of photographs by Laura Knipe is on view at the Montauk Library through July 31. A reception for the artist, who is a longtime summer resident of the hamlet, will take place on Sunday from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Titled “Montauk — The End,” the show includes traditional and digital photographs of the natural beauty and magical moments of Montauk. Sunsets and seascapes are complemented by portraits of children and families.

Plein Air Paintings

The Wednesday Group will hold an exhibition of plein air paintings in the Amagansett Historical Association from Saturday through July 30. A reception will be held Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m., and the artists will paint on the grounds of the association, on Montauk Highway at the corner of Windmill Lane, on Wednesday morning from 9 until noon.

Group Show at RJD

“The Princess and the Provocateur,” a show of figurative paintings by gallery artists, will open at RJD Gallery in Sag Harbor on Saturday and continue through Aug. 18. A reception will be held Saturday from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Among the artists in the show are Alexander Klingspor, Adrienne Stein, Armando Valero, Salvatore Alessi, and Andrea Kowch.

Photo Group 

At Water Mill Museum

The Water Mill Museum will present “Decisive Moments,” an exhibition of traditional, digital, and alternative photographic processes by members of the East End Photographers Group, from today through Aug. 14. A reception will take place Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. Organized by Marilyn Stevenson, the show will include work by 30 photographers.

Paintings at Surf Lodge

“Fish People,” a show of 10 paintings by Joel Mesler, an artist and art dealer, will open today at the Surf Lodge in Montauk and continue through next Thursday. Each work “responds to the cultural history of the sea, New York City’s annual migration to Long Island resort towns, and vacation-induced identity shifts,” according to Adam Abdalla, who organized the exhibition.

Estate Art Sale

An estate sale of art work by Phyllis Skolnick Hirschberg, who died in 2011, will be held at her family’s house, 184 Bluff Road in Amagansett, on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Her work, influenced by German Expressionism, Japanese woodblocks, and Chinese calligraphy, was shown at various galleries in New York City and on the South Fork, including the Glenn Horowitz Gallery in East Hampton.

As of the date of this publication, Williams Cole is at the Galway Film Festival for the world premiere of his film “Rebel Rossa,” enjoying the accomplishment of several months of filming and just as much time editing.

In fact, in the last several months, every free moment has been spent inside the six-square-foot closet that serves as his editing room on the top floor of a Williamsburg brownstone. The East Hampton native, with many years of documentary filmmaking work behind him, has been working on two passion projects over the past few years, and taking on much of the work himself to keep costs down. 

As for “Rebel Rossa,” “I don’t even want to say what the final budget was, because it was so low from my own unpaid labor that I don’t want to set a bar for a feature documentary being this cheap.” The film is the record of a personal journey to understand the legacy of his great-grandfather Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa. His brother, Rossa Cole, who is a still photographer and artist, learned video work to be the film’s second cameraman and is also a co-producer.

The other project, “Barney’s Wall,” a film previously featured in The Star, is the story of Barney Rosset’s pursuit of his own artistic vision, after years of championing the work of others, and an effort to save this artwork from destruction.

A cut of “Rebel Rossa” was submitted to Galway only days before he discussed the film in his office on June 22, and he was still tinkering with it, noticing things that had to be tweaked before its public debut.

The film stars Mr. Cole and his brother as they follow their ancestor’s footsteps and discuss the meaning and significance of his often-violent activism in the pursuit of Irish freedom. The concept of starring in a documentary might seem antithetical to the medium. Yet, they are indeed the engine of the narration and as much a part of the film’s subject as the man whose footsteps they tread in. They credited their father, William Rossa Cole, an award-winning editor and author who died in 2000, as being their inspiration to reexamine the past. Their mother, Galen Williams, is an East Hampton landscape designer.

“I always wanted to make a film about O’Donovan Rossa and his wife, Mary Jane, because we grew up knowing about them, but not knowing much about them,” he said. In the film, Mr. Cole examines the long dormant family archive with a historian. Footage and still photographs of prior trips to Ireland, when their father was alive, are interspersed with their trip to scatter his ashes, and the two trips they took in 2015 to research Rossa’s life and take part in various commemorations of the centenary of his funeral. An oration at his burial by Patrick Pearse, which concluded “Ireland unfree shall never be at peace,” was credited with inspiring the 1916 Easter Rising that ultimately led to Ireland’s independence from Great Britain.

The film features interviews with historians, scenes from a play based on Rossa’s life, visits to sites of significance, including the cell in which he was incarcerated and tortured for years, the commemorations, their father reading some of his poetry, and discussions between the two brothers and their reflections on all they are seeing and learning.

Rossa was eventually given amnesty, provided he left Ireland and didn’t return. Settling in New York, his Dynamite School in Brooklyn taught aspiring 19th-century terrorists how to handle explosives and sent them to England to attract attention to their cause. Although other factions of the Fenians, the group in Ireland who wanted independence, were against violence and wanted to work on political solutions, Rossa is described as thinking that force or the threat of force was the only thing the British would understand.

It is clear that the violence that Rossa espoused and his indirect role in the killing of bystanders is a hard thing for the brothers to reconcile. “The point is not to sanitize what he did,” Mr. Cole said about his handling of that facet of his great-grandfather’s legacy, which may have introduced the modern concept of terrorism. “He knew the Irish could never go against the British on a conventional battlefield.” The recent invention of dynamite gave them a way “to set off explosions and disrupt things. They didn’t target civilians, but some people got hurt.”

In what he called “a solid personal film,” the brothers are somehow detached observers and at the same time personally involved as they participate in commemorations of the centenary of Rossa’s death all over Ireland and even in New York City, where he died. As direct descendants from America, they are objects of reverence and curiosity, a “living, breathing continuum,” as Mr. Cole put it. 

There is footage of them being interviewed by news crews, laying wreaths, and walking and meeting with both the Irish president and some of the heads of the Sinn Fein party, such as Gerry Adams. Sinn Fein was once the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, a militant group who used bombs in protest of the oppression of Catholics in Northern Ireland. After a 1998 peace accord, it became an opposition party. From their reactions, it is obvious that attending all of the observations was a dizzying and exhausting experience.

As the film came together, so did the soundtrack. Through a cousin, Mr. Cole approached James Fearnley, a founding member of the Pogues. He agreed to help with the music and even wrote the title song about Rossa. His involvement gives the 19th-century rabble-rouser some 21st-century street cred.

Next up, “Barney’s Wall” is near completion and the hope is to finish it in time for inclusion in this year’s Hamptons International Film Festival. And then, there’s always the day job or jobs he takes to support himself and his family including work with the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities project and full-length films such as “Finding Fela!” 

“Even Though the Whole World Is Burning,” a film about W.S. Merwin, an environmental activist, poet laureate, and Pulitzer Prize winner, was shown on PBS in April and will be screened at the East Hampton Library on July 29 at 4 p.m. As a producer, he will be there to introduce and discuss the film, his first visit to East Hampton all summer.

“The thing about making a documentary film is that just when you are fatigued by it, know everything about its subject, and are saturated with it, then you get distribution and it starts showing, and it begins all over again. These projects will be in my life for years to come in one way or another.”

Fans of Hamptons regional theater take note: Run, don’t walk, to the Bay Street Theater’s current adaptation of “The Last Night of Ballyhoo.” It’s the best local production since last year’s “All My Sons” at Guild Hall, which rose to Broadway-level quality. 

The playwright, Alfred Uhry, who was commissioned to write “Ballyhoo” for the 1996 Olympic Arts Festival, is also the author of the more widely known “Driving Miss Daisy.” Much like that play, “Ballyhoo” deals with the South and its thorny relationship with race, this time as it concerns Jewish identity.  

The setting is 1939 upper-middle-class Atlanta, where Adolph Frietag, owner of the Dixie Bedding Company, lives with his sister, Boo, and sister-in-law, Reba, both widows. The laid-back Adolph, himself a bachelor, has his hands full with this house full of women — especially the domineering and class-conscious Boo, who suffers crushing embarrassment at her daughter Lala’s various social mishaps. (Lala did not, for example — gasp! — get into the right sorority at college.) 

As the play opens, the Freitags are trimming a Christmas tree, symbolizing their relaxed approach to their Jewish heritage in a mostly Christian South. When Joe Farkas, a new employee of Adolph’s, arrives for dinner one night, he is startled by the Christmas display. He is from New York — Brooklyn, as Boo drawls derisively — and is much more observant of traditional Judaism.

Tensions mount as Joe becomes involved with Reba’s daughter, Sunny. He is the “wrong kind” of Jew, apparently, Eastern European rather than German. When Joe invites Sunny to the Ballyhoo — a lavish ball sponsored by a local Jewish country club — the play heads to its climax.

While Mr. Uhry’s play is crisply funny and adept at navigating the challenges of ethnicity and religion, it doesn’t have the lyricism or complexity of that other Southern master, Tennessee Williams. It is essentially a light-hearted comedy with dashes of conflict. It is a credit, then, to this sterling Bay Street production that it raises Mr. Uhry’s material to a level that transcends the written work. 

This begins with Alexander Dodge’s terrific set, which captures the slightly sterile upper-middle-class life of the Freitags, and includes a wall panel that ingeniously becomes the passenger car of a train. But under the direction of Will Pomerantz, it’s the performances that make this “Ballyhoo” special. To a person, this superior ensemble wrenches huge laughs and genuine emotion from Uhry’s play. 

Daniel Abeles, for example, is so comfortable embodying the privileged arrogance of Peachy Weil that the character’s irritating refrain of “What do you think?” comes off as almost endearing. And John Hickock approaches the good-natured Adolph with just the right laconic sense of humor, as when he is asked what he thinks of Peachy deciding that he will marry Lala and come to work at with him at his bedding company: “What do you think?” Adolph replies, nearly bringing the house down.

Ellen Harvey finds a commanding presence as Boo, stalking the stage with an imperious gait and delivering her zingers with a haughty drawl. But it is the characters of Sunny and Joe, played by Amanda Kristin Nichols and Ari Brand, that give the play its emotional heft.  Mr. Brand summons his Eastern Parkway Brooklyn accent to perfection, and his tone, as he inquires (and sometimes jabs) at the Freitags’ Southern Jewish ways, are always searching rather than hectoring. Ms. Nichols, in perhaps the play’s best performance, finds a balance between disgust at the tired tradition of Ballyhoo and respect for an even older one: traditional Judaism. Her chemistry with Mr. Brand comes off as real, and their conflicts are genuinely wrenching.

After all the laughs, the play concludes on a thoughtful, somber note that suggests Joe has brought a new sense of purpose to the Freitags’ religiosity. It is the eve of the rise of Hitler, and this quiet, melancholy coda rightly concludes the funniest and most flawlessly acted drama to hit the Hamptons this year. 

“The Last Night of Ballyhoo” runs through July 24.

“The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey,” a play written by James Lecesne, who plays all nine characters, will begin a six-day run at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater on Monday at 8 p.m. Leonard is an orphaned gay 14-year-old who comes to live with his aunt, a hairdresser in a small New Jersey shore town. However, he is never seen; the story begins when the aunt reports his disappearance to a local detective.

Among the characters in the town who are affected by Leonard’s disappearance and murder are, in addition to the detective and the aunt, a withdrawn teenage girl, an old jeweler, a mobster’s widow, a sullen teenage boy, and the British proprietor of a dance-and-drama school. 

While the story was not inspired by a specific event, Mr. Lecesne said, “There have been so many stories of L.G.B.T.Q. young people who have dared to be themselves and then found that they were not exactly welcome or were met with violence.” He cited the murders of Leticia King and Matthew Shepherd. “I think all of us, no matter who we are, remember that moment during adolescence when we suddenly came face to face with someone who didn’t like us for what we were.”

Mr. Lecesne wrote the screenplay for “Trevor,” an Academy Award-winning short film that inspired the Trevor Project, the only nationwide 24-hour suicide prevention and crisis intervention lifeline for L.G.B.T. and questioning youth. He has also created several other solo shows, including “Word of Mouth,” which was presented by Mike Nichols and Elaine May and directed by Eve Ensler; written three novels, and appeared in numerous New York plays, including the Broadway production of Gore Vidal’s “The Best Man.”

“I have a long history of solo shows,” he said. “It’s so much fun. Given that I perform without costume changes and without set changes, the audience becomes my co-creator in making the story. I provide the mental prompts and then, using their imaginations, the audience members design and build.”

Reviewing “Leonard Pelkey” when it opened at Dixon Place in New York City in 2015, the New York Times critic Charles Isherwood called it “a superlative solo show” and ranked Mr. Lecesne “among the most talented solo performers of his (or any) generation.”

Tony Speciale directs the production, with music by Duncan Sheik. A special benefit performance for Live Out Loud, which empowers L.G.B.T.Q. youth by connecting them to positive role models, will take place on July 23 at 5 p.m. Show times vary from day to day, and ticket prices start at $25. More information can be found and tickets purchased at baystreet.org. “Leonard Pelkey” will run at Bay Street concurrently with  “The Last Night of Ballyhoo.”

“Bohème to Broadway,” an evening of music ranging from opera classics to Broadway and beyond, will take place at the Southampton Arts Center on Saturday at 7 p.m. Melissa Zapin, a vocalist, actress, and voiceover artist, will perform with Willy Falk, a Tony Award-nominated actor-singer, and Konstantin Soukhovetski, a conductor and pianist. Tickets are $50 and include a preconcert reception.

The center’s free weekly Jazz on the Steps series will feature Dan Later, tenor sax, and Claes Brondal, drums, on Sunday at noon. The concert series is presented by the Jam Session Inc., which was created by Mr. Brondal to showcase the diversity of jazz for both adults and children.

On Sunday afternoon at 5, Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Marine Program will hold a screening of the most recent episode of “On the Water and In the Field,” its news magazine show. Local oysters and wine will be on offer after the screening. Tickets are $12.