Center Stage at the Southampton Cultural Center will hold open auditions for performances of Yasmina Reza’s four-character play “God of Carnage (A Comedy Without Manners)” on Wednesday and next Thursday at 6 p.m. in the center’s Levitas Center for the Arts. Auditions will begin promptly, and late arrivals will be seen at the discretion of Michael Disher, the director. Readings will be from the script. Performances will take place Oct. 13 through Oct. 30.

A pipe organ that had been silent for three decades is now making music again at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton, thanks to the initiative of the church’s pastor, the Rev. Donald Hanson; the generosity of two of its parishioners, and the skills of a number of organ technicians and craftsmen.

The instrument was originally built in 1963 for the St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary in Uniondale by the Schantz Organ Company, but when the seminary closed in 1984 the organ was no longer used. The building was vacant until a few years ago, when it was sold. Father Hanson then asked the bishop of the diocese if the organ might be used at Most Holy Trinity, and the bishop agreed.

With only two weeks’ time to complete the move, Elsener Organ Works of Deer Park dismantled the many pipes and mechanical parts of the organ and shipped it to East Hampton, where it was stored on the church’s property in a building known as “the barn.” It sat there for several years while plans for the instrument came together.

   The organ had to be reconfigured to fit the new space and needed a new windchest on which to seat the pipes and a new blower for the wind supply. There was also a desire to enhance the sound of the pipes with more tone color and flexibility by adding digital sounds as well.

The project was made possible by the estates of Mark Havers and John Ross, who were domestic partners and longtime members of the church. In the 1960s they formed Ross-Havers of New York City, a company that sold collectibles, fine gifts, and home accent pieces, and later rebranded it as Haut Papier in Bridgehampton.

Father Hanson, who has a deep interest in music, engaged Ray Henderson, an organ consultant from Carle Place, to advise on the myriad details of carrying out the project, from both mechanical and musical points of view. The two men knew each other from earlier days when Mr. Henderson took classes from Mr. Hanson at the seminary. 

In order to redesign a visual layout for the pipes against the back wall of the church and around the rose window; build a new windchest, which is the mechanical center of the instrument, and do the tonal refinishing so that the pipes sound appropriately in their new acoustical setting, two other companies worked together: Robert E. Gladden Associates of Merchantville, N.J., and the Atlantic City Pipe Organ Company.

The organ has five complete sets of pipes, which are known as “ranks,” each one having a distinct tonal character, and each made of different materials and with different shapes. There are a total of 365 pipes.

Although the sound of the pipes forms the solid backbone of the organ’s character, many additional tone colors have been added by the Walker Technical Company, a firm that specializes in “digital voice enhancements for pipe organs.” There are speakers mounted among the pipes that allow the sounds to blend together seamlessly.

A wooden case that the organ pipes sit on, which juts out from the rear wall of the church, was constructed by James Sullivan of Barn Board Builders in East Hampton, also a member of Most Holy Trinity, to blend in with the console and existing woodwork in the church.

The organ has been playing now for several months, but various mechanical and tonal details are still being tweaked.

John Bennett, the church’s music director and organist, demonstrated the instrument one evening recently, showing the full range of the tonal palette and dynamics and delighting in its effects. He has been at the church for over 25 years, during which time he has played for a great many Masses and public events on an electronic instrument, which has now been placed in the church’s parish hall. He said that the sound of the pipes gives strong support to singing in the church.

“I find it so much easier to practice and to accomplish varied sound with this fine pipe instrument. Each Mass is a wonderful experience for me at the console,” Mr. Bennett said.

His sentiments were echoed by two parishioners and choir members. “We are so very fortunate to have a pipe organ in our church. We are truly blessed,” said Barbara Mattson.

Carol Byrne added, “I find the sound of the pipes extremely, wonderfully stimulating and invigorating. It certainly adds dimension to the musical sound, our worship, and spiritual praise.”

There will be a dedication and inaugural recital of the organ on July 17. The program will be played by Mr. Henderson, and will include music by J.S. Bach and Max Reger, and the masterwork toccata by the 20th-century French composer Henri Mulet, “Tu Es Petra” (“Thou Art the Rock”). It will mark the completion of a remarkable musical project and the beginning of a lifetime of new music-making in the community.

You’ve heard of the classical “three Bs” — Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. Well, there are more than three notable composers whose last names begin with the second letter of the alphabet, and you can include Victoria Bond in that extended list. Ms. Bond, a well-known conductor and music commentator, is also a composer of considerable ingenuity.

The pairing of “The Reluctant Moses,” her new commission, with an old but little-known commission, the Mass in C by Beethoven, was the subject of the stirring 70th anniversary finale concert by the Choral Society of the Hamptons and South Fork Chamber Orchestra under the estimable direction of Mark Mangini, which took place Saturday evening at the 172-year-old Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor. 

I have known Victoria Bond and her work for many years and she has conducted my music. I was pleased to have an opportunity to hear this work in its world premiere. 

For a subject, Ms. Bond reached back to the Old Testament scene in which Moses encounters the burning bush and the voice of God commanding him to lead his people out of Egypt. In this highly successful modern telling of an ancient story, Moses is a bass accompanied by a bass (a string double bass, that is). 

In fact, bass sounds are everywhere in this piece, which includes a bass clarinet, a French horn imitating a bass tuba (according to the composer, intended to evoke the ancient Hebrew shofar), and, of course, the bass section of the chorus which, along with the soprano, alto, and tenor sections, takes the role of the voice of God. The use of bass sounds adds a suitable gravity, but this is, by no means, a bottom-heavy piece. There is a striking and imaginative use of a wide palette of orchestral sound coupled with strong vocal writing that culminates in an emotional, contrapuntal setting of the Ten Commandments. 

The bass singer, Joseph Charles Beutel, was not the older, stern Moses we associate with the Old Testament prophet but rather a more youthful, hesitant figure whose dignity was enhanced by John Feeney’s knobby, insistent double bass interventions. Playing God in the burning bush to Ms. Bond’s highly developed musical setting was not an easy assignment for the chorus, but they handled it with the strength and musicality that it deserved. 

The soloists for the Beethoven Mass in C, which followed, were Ileana Santamaria, soprano, Charlene Marcinko, mezzo-soprano, and Sean Christensen, tenor, in addition to Mr. Beutel. 

The Mass in C (not to be confused with Beethoven’s later and much better-known Missa Solemnis) was commissioned by Nikolaus II of Esterhazy. This Austro-Hungarian aristocrat partially restored his grandfather’s famous and influential musical establishment and started a program of commissioning a new setting of the Catholic Mass every year. Haydn wrote no less than six  Masses for him (or rather, for his wife); after Haydn retired in 1802, the annual job went to other composers. Beethoven’s turn came in 1807, and he responded magnificently with an imaginative and moving work that Nikolaus hated. Beethoven’s Mass, he said, was unbearably ridiculous and detestable; he was not convinced that it could ever be performed properly. Beethoven left town in a huff, and the piece fell into relative obscurity.

Nikolaus was wrong, and the Hamptons chorus obviously outdid the Esterhazy chorus. The Mass in C was performed more than properly on Saturday night, and its highly original score was revealed as a power house of the composer’s middle period, well deserving of revival. 

Beethoven was already becoming quite deaf, and his vocal writing, often off the charts and a challenge to any chorus, had energy, clarity, and lyricism in this performance. The four soloists — deftly woven into the choral and orchestral textures — made an excellent ensemble, while the orchestra, struggling somewhat due largely to the small number of strings, was equally lively and lyrical in a work that alternates the hammer blows of the Fifth Symphony and the pastorale idiom of the Sixth, both roughly contemporaneous with the Mass in C.

I should add that there was just enough room in the church’s altar area to accommodate the orchestra (with its 11  strings) along with the conductor and  four soloists. Even the timpani had to be placed off to the side at audience level, and the 56-voice chorus was necessarily divided between the church balconies, which reach all the way to the front of hall — the high voices on the left, the lower voices on the right. This produced an antiphonal effect, perhaps not quite intended by the composer but not ineffective, and it gave the chorus a presence and immediacy quite different from the usual positioning of choral singers on stage behind the orchestra. Mr.  Mangini, the longtime director of the Choral Society (since 2001), provided solid musical leadership for both Bs.

Eric Salzman is a composer and writer working mainly in the development of a new music theater. His most recent major theater opera, “Big Jim and the Small-time Investors,” is about a con man who has convinced people to invest in his new invention, a virtual-reality machine. Mr. Salzman’s music can be found on the Labor/Naxos label, and he is the co-author, with Thomas Desi, of “The New Music Theater: Hearing the Body, Seeing the Voice.”

For the past decade, it’s seemed that Mary Heilmann was bent on world domination. A career survey show that started in her native California in 2007 and made stops in Houston and Columbus, Ohio, before concluding at Manhattan’s New Museum in 2009, ignited a critical and popular response that led to several solo shows in New York, Holland, and all over Germany, and a regular presence at the most respected international art fairs.

When the new Whitney Museum of American Art opened in the Meatpacking District in 2015, her installation “Sunset‚“ which took over a rooftop terrace, delighted visitors with its signature colorful chairs, a video she’d made of the neighborhood in 1982, and blown-up photographic images of her joyful pink paintings. In March, Guild Hall honored her with a lifetime achievement award. Adam Weinberg, the director of the Whitney, was the presenter.

This summer, a mini-retrospective is on view in London at the Whitechapel Gallery; it too is attracting a great deal of attention.

Ms. Heilmann, who could go anywhere or do anything, wants to live and work in New York, but especially at her house and studio in Bridgehampton, where she looks out onto two acres of farmland that inspires and drives her creatively.

“Art is about thinking, looking, and meditating about the work,” she said in her studio this spring. “Looking out the window to see the farm and field is a major part of my work. It’s part of the process.”

“It was when Lisa Phillips and some people from the New Museum visited me here that they thought of the [New Museum] survey,” she said. Given the span of the show and its key stops in the United States, its inception in Bridgehampton “made it kind of personal and huge.”

From the earliest months of her relocation from California to New York in the late 1960s, she began visiting the East End. First, she came to see Bruce Nauman, a classmate and kindred spirit from the University of California, Davis, who was working for the summer in Southampton at the invitation of Roy Lichtenstein. More short visits were followed by a series of rentals, in Springs and at the Cozy Cabins in Wainscott, a popular place for artists at the time. “A lot of people were there. It was a scene.”

By the late ’80s and early ’90s, she was teaching and selling her work, but “I was getting tired of the art world. I wanted to get a place in Springs and sit in a rocking chair,” not unlike Willem de Kooning, one of her role models. She rented a place in Wainscott during the winter and worked on the text for “The All-Night Movie,” an exhibition catalog that morphed into an artist’s book published in Zurich in 1999. 

“I loved it, staying at Wainscott. It was empty and quiet with a lot of farmland.” Without the social distractions of the city, she spent all of her time working. “I would go for a swim, but that was it.”

She began driving and biking around neighborhoods she liked. Eventually a For Sale sign on a Narrow Lane property caught her attention. She purchased the parcel with the house and studio for $300,000, and, after a few years of looking at the adjoining field, decided she had to buy it before someone else did. 

It was prescient. The South Fork’s weather observer, Richard Hendrickson, her neighbor, owned the land and was about to sell it. She borrowed the money from Iwan Wirth, her dealer, then mortgaged her studio to pay him back. It was an investment that continues to pay dividends, and not just for its appreciation in value.

Robert and Joanne Comfort, who own land not far from hers on Lumber Lane and have been farming there and on her property for many years, continued as usual, with one exception. “The rows were parallel to my view. I asked him to change it so I could look into the rows . . . he’s now committed to making it look as beautiful as he can.” She bought apple and pear trees from Marders, which supply everyone with lots of fruit. Mr. Comfort grooms the trees into appealing shapes for her.

The Comforts, who have a farmstand on Lumber Lane, also manage an apiary and give riding lessons on their horses. They give the artist whatever produce she wants, “and they help me with my life. I give them a stipend for that. We’re partners now.”

Ms. Heilmann sees how hard the Comforts work to make ends meet in a place with an impossibly high cost of living. That young artists have opportunities to live and work here as she did when she was just starting out is important to her, she said, and to that end she would like to take part in a philanthropic effort to buy up distressed houses, handyman specials that artists could take over and renovate, as has been done elsewhere in the nation. She brings up the idea to collectors and professionals at parties in the hopes of planting a seed and helping to sustain something vital in the community that she said has given her so much.

In May, she was still planning for the June opening at the Whitechapel, which is up all summer. Now back from London, she is thinking about work again. Leading up to her show at New York’s 303 Gallery last November, she said, she completed a lot of pieces. Since then, though, she’s been stuck.

“I got a little frozen after 303.” The sudden and intense interest in her work after decades of quiet respect had taken her by surprise initially, she said, and then it kept coming. “It got me paralyzed, and depressed.”

She expects her schedule to quiet down now. “It’s going to be good. I can hide out and start working again,” beginning with looking at the field and thinking. “Some people work really hard making work all day long. I sit, think, figure out the easiest way to do it. There’s hardly any work here that is really labor-intensive. The new work evolves from the ideas.”

“That’s Amore!” a free concert celebrating the musical heritage of Italy and its influences on composers in North and South America, will take place Saturday evening at 7:30 at the Montauk Library.

The guest artists — Ashley Galvani Bell, soprano, and Alexander Wu, pianist and arranger — will perform a selection of vocals and keyboard music ranging from Neapolitan songs to light opera classics to American and Latin pop music by composers of Italian heritage. Music of Mozart, Scarlatti, Verdi, Puccini, Coppola, Morricone, Paganini, Piazzolla, Rota, and more will be on the program.

Koichiro Kurita has a way with rocks, with trees, with ponds, indeed with nature in all its forms in straightforward photography, and, more recently, with collage. His insanely textural and captivating images are on view at Ille Arts in Amagansett with Takeshi Shikama’s photographs from his “Urban Forests” and “Garden of Memory” series.

Their work complements each other, but Mr. Kurita is definitely the scene-stealer. His images are large-format, irregularly sized to fit the specific subject matter, and, in the case of the collages, incorporate a range of subjects and objects with beautiful symmetry and asymmetry. 

His metier is texture. A snowy field with a narrow and winding patch of grass that looks like dense fur is arresting and confusing at first, and then mesmerizing. His preferred process, a calotype paper negative used to make platinum, albumen, and salt prints, is a nod to the era of Henry David Thoreau, whose philosophy of nature Mr. Kurita admires. Thoreau’s “Walden” inspired him to leave his lucrative job in commercial photography and follow his muse at the age of 40. Since then, he has been dedicated to capturing images of nature and relating them in soft, tonal prints on handmade Japanese gampi tree paper. 

He applies an emulsion by hand, takes an image and develops the negative for several minutes, and prints it the next day. The uneven borders of the image underline the handmade painstaking process. The way light moves in the landscape, particularly over grass and other plant life, is tactile. The overall effect is lyrical, mysterious, and surreal. 

One of his favorite presentation strategies is to group prints on contact sheets so that the parts of one object or subject come together for a discernible whole, whether they be trees, a landscape, or even buildings. It is a bravura approach, but one of the only things that might be made easier by his process.

He also presents large-format single-image prints, and these too are quite beautiful. His views of the convergence of plants and bodies of water, such as ponds, create visual confusion, which gra­dually resolves itself and then inspires wonder. “See Through” is one example. The grasses and their reflection on the water seem to suspend the water lilies within their stalks. The first impression is that it may be a double exposure, but the eye finally apprehends it. Once understood, the image is made more spectacular.

His unique collage pieces in the “No Anonymous” series are like mini shadow boxes, with frames the artist makes himself, which he also does for his prints. In “Stone” as in “Feather,” he layers images and objects in a way that tells a story about their inception and realization. Set in the bottom of the frame of “Stone” is the stone, a small object that has been photographed and blown up to heroic proportions to take up most of the frame. A small negative is attached to the image.

The show also includes a few works that incorporate his contact-print format to photograph portions of various plant forms. The subject of the photograph is then attached to the same-sized blocks containing no image, and presented in mirror form in one case and in the same direction in the other. A long strip of prints of several objects includes the real objects in a similar fashion, an assortment of small buds and seeds from trees. They are delightful.

In all of this vibrant capturing of nature, Mr. Shikama’s small, identically sized static images of stuffed animals in staged settings from the American Museum of Natural History seem even more stilted and uncomfortable than they might otherwise. He, too, makes platinum prints on gampi paper, and his images have the same warmth and tonality of Mr. Kurita’s prints. 

Mr. Shikama is also interested in the natural world, including a lovely and ennobling series of Central Park, but in this case he appears to take an ironic approach. It also offers a confounding approach to presentation. Once again, the eye is not certain it understands what it is seeing. Where does the two-dimensionality of the faux background of the museum’s diorama start and the three-dimensional still life end? In these 7 1/2-by-7 1/2 small-format images, it is eventually apparent, but the straightforward subjects also have a modicum of the unearthly or the surreal.

The show will be up through July 13.

A Contemporary Hogarth

“Heavy Metal Picnic,” an exhibition of work by the Irish painter Genieve Figgis, will open Saturday at Harper’s Books in East Hampton with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. and continue through Aug. 10.

The show enlarges on Ms. Figgis’s scathing depictions of 18th-century noblemen, monarchs, and ladies-in-waiting. The 16 paintings on view exploit the possibilities of acrylic paint for dripping, caking, cracking, and trickling. For example, her send-up of Velazquez’s “Las Meninas” drowns its subjects in oozing pools of paint, turning the noble family members into caricatures.

Two Shows at Ashawagh

“Passion and Freedom,” a show of work by Kelly Darr, Kristy Schopper, Connie Cortese, and Ingrid Torjesen, is on view today only from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. A reception with live music will be held from 6 to 10.

The Artists Alliance of East Hampton will take over Ashawagh Hall tomorrow through July 10 with its 22nd annual members exhibition. A reception will take place Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. The gallery will be open tomorrow from 1 to 6 p.m., Saturdays from 9 to 6, Monday through Friday and Sunday, July 3, from 10 to 6, and July 10 from 10 to 4.

New at Whaling Museum

The Sag Harbor Whaling Museum will open the second installment of “Every Village Has a Story” tomorrow with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The show, which will run through July 18, celebrates the working-class history of Sag Harbor with vintage photographs from public and private collections and photographs and paintings from artists who have lived and/or worked in the village.

Participating artists are Linda Alpern, Michael Butler, Ann Chwatsky, Arthur Leipzig, David Slater, and Kathryn Szoka. “Meet Me on Main Street,” a panel discussion about the village’s business district, will take place at the museum on July 17 at 11 a.m. Bryan Boyhan will moderate.

On and Off the Wall

“Off the Wall/On the Wall,” a joint exhibition between C Fine Art in Manhattan and the White Room Gallery in Bridgehampton, is on view at the East End location from today through July 17. A reception is set for Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

C Fine Art has contributed sculpture and wall reliefs of all sizes by Kevin Barrett, John Van Alstine, Isobel Folb Sokolow, Norman Mooney, and Rogan Brown. Abstract paintings by the East End artists Beth Barry, Melissa Hin, and Sally Breen constitute the “on the wall” portion of the show.

Busy Weekend at Vered

Vered Gallery in East Hampton is launching two exhibitions this weekend. “American Modernism” and “It’s Color” will open with a reception Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m. and remain on view through Aug. 5.

“American Modernism” will include works by John Singer Sargent, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Milton Avery, Charles Demuth, and Robert Mapplethorpe, among others. “It’s Color” features paintings by Wolf Kahn, David Demers, and Miles Jaffe.

Just Watercolors

“Water+Color+Works,” a group show of contemporary watercolors, will be on view at the Amagansett Library from tomorrow through July 31. A reception will happen Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. Participating artists are Kirsten Benfield, Johanna Caleca, Jorie Latham, Janet Rojas, and Carol Craig Sigler.

Stanley Casselman at Borghi

Mark Borghi Fine Art in Bridgehampton will exhibit recent abstract paintings by Stanley Casselman from Saturday through July 25, with a reception set for Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

Mr. Casselman is known for his focus on the application and manipulation of paint; specifically, the use of homemade squeegees to drag paint across the surfaces of his canvases, adjusting the angles and pressure of his tools to both add and remove paint. The newest works are on polyester screen, which permits paint to be forced through both sides of the work.

All About Trees

“The Tree Show” will open tomorrow at the Woodbine Collection in Montauk with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The show will continue through July 31 and include paintings, sculpture, photographs, and ceramics by Shawn Chavez, Kelly B. Darr, Nicki Klepper, Gary Kuehn, Isabelle H. Radtke, Alexander Reinwald, Kristy Schopper, Melanie Schopper, and Luke Schumacher. According to the gallery, “the artwork invokes, quite simply, the value of trees.” 

Call for Zines

Ille Arts in Amagansett has issued a call for zines for an exhibition to take place Aug. 20 and 21. Artists can submit up to two different zines by sending a copy of each to 2 Captain’s Walk, East Hampton, no later than July 15. Those selected will be notified by July 20 with further instructions.

Jack Lenor Larsen has channeled 25 years of creative energy into the house, sculpture, gardens, and overall landscape of the LongHouse Reserve, his residence and public preserve in East Hampton. 

Now, he is sharing some of what he learned, the tried and true, the abject failures, and all of the insights he gained from them in “Learning From LongHouse.” The book, which functions as a scrapbook and vision board, has a beautiful and thoughtful design, illustrated by plenty of archival and current images that document the evolution of the place.

Asked earlier this year what one might learn from LongHouse, Mr. Larsen said the house and grounds can teach you why it is better “to be less conformist and consider alternatives. You don’t have to do it like your parents did it.”

He began his experiments at RoundHouse, an adjoining property that was inspired by African huts. A shrine at Ise, Japan, was the genesis of LongHouse, a place he designed to showcase more art.

When he is thinking about a new space or altering a current one, he wants to know what the options are, and ultimately, he said, “what’s more fun?”

Known for continuously shaking things up, whether it is LongHouse’s rotating outdoor sculpture installations, annual design and craft exhibits, or other site-specific performances and installations, he said, “Some people are comfortable knowing things aren’t going to change. I always think there are better ways to do it, welcoming the new and the old.”

The book is published by Pointed Leaf  Press, with a dense cardboard binding and plenty of color illustrations that demonstrate his unique approach to design. 

In October 2005, Stephen Beachy, writing in New York magazine, asked, “Who is the real JT Leroy?” and proposed an answer. A few months later, The New York Times called the Leroy enigma “one of the most bizarre literary mysteries in recent memory” and Vanity Fair dubbed it the “literary parlor game of ‘Who Is JT Leroy?’ ”

It has been 10 years since the questions were answered and the story told. “JT Leroy,” a 20-year-old boy with a troubled past and sordid present who went on to write novels, stories, magazine articles, and screenplays, was actually the nom de plume of Laura Albert, a former punk rocker and phone-sex operator. When the presumed Leroy appeared in public, disguised by a wig and sunglasses, he was actually Savannah Knoop, the half-sister of Ms. Albert’s then-husband.

Now 50, Ms. Albert tells her own story for the first time in “Author: The JT Leroy Story,” a documentary by Jeff Feuerzeig that will be shown at Guild Hall on July 9 at 7 p.m. as the opener of this year’s SummerDocs series, a program of the Hamptons International Film Festival. Mr. Feuerzeig will speak about the film with Alec Baldwin and David Nugent, the festival’s artistic director, after the screening.

Mr. Feuerzeig and Mr. Nugent were vaguely aware of the story when it broke. “And then I sort of lost the thread,” Mr. Nugent said recently. “It was complicated, and you had to follow it along, and I just didn’t. When I saw it at Sundance, it was such an eye-opening experience.”

“I had not heard of JT Leroy or the story,” said the director. “But a friend of mine, a journalist, turned me on to it, and I’m very attracted to truth-is-stranger-than-fiction stories. It generated a lot of ink at the time, and all these publications weighed in on it. But Laura had held her story back, and nobody had heard her side of it. I thought, ‘That’s the voice I’d like to hear.’ ”

Mr. Feuerzeig made contact with Ms. Albert and sent her his film “The Devil and Daniel Johnston,” which won top-documentary directing honors at Sundance in 2005. A portrait of a schizophrenic musician and outsider artist, “it deals quite vividly with the intersection of madness and creativity,” said Mr. Feuerzeig. “It really spoke to her, so she decided to share her story with me.” Ms. Albert had previously been approached not only by other documentarians but also by Hollywood, but she turned everybody down.

Mr. Feuerzeig’s approach to his subjects reflects the influence of the New Journalism of writers such as Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Terry Southern, Joan Didion, and Nick Tosches, among others, who discarded objectivity for a more subjective and literary approach. “It’s a subjective film,” said Mr. Feuerzeig, “which I’m proud of. She chose to share everything.” Ms. Albert likes the film and attended both the Sundance premiere and a showing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music two weeks ago.

“Jeff is a very powerful filmmaker,” said Mr. Nugent. “I think he did such a good job of capturing and crystallizing something that’s not such an easy story to tell. And I think audiences who are media-savvy and into fashion, literature, and celebrity will find it to be a very interesting film.”

Mr. Nugent and Mr. Baldwin start planning the SummerDocs series by watching many of the films at Sundance, “where a lot of the best docs premiere,” Mr. Nugent said. “I see as many as I can, and afterward follow up and request many of the films I missed. We look at them and talk about them.” He noted that in addition to quality, a film must lend itself to discussion, since SummerDocs question-and-answer sessions are expected to take half an hour or longer. They also seek a balance each year “so that people who are really passionate about documentaries, as Alec and I are, will get a good sample of the variety of films out there.”

Sandra Bernhard, always provocative and topical, is bringing her latest mix of comedy, rock ’n’ roll, cabaret, and a little burlesque to Guild Hall on Friday, July 8. 

“Feel the Bernhard” is a show in the spirit of protest, not just of the current state of affairs in general, but specifically of the lead poisoning of the water supply of her hometown, Flint, Mich. The Flawless Zircons will provide backup music.

Ms. Bernhard is one of those multi-hyphenate performers who has made a name for herself in film, television, stand-up comedy, cabaret, and theater. Her latest venture into media is a radio show on Sirius’s Andy Cohen channel.

In a phone conversation last week, Ms. Bernhard, who moved to Arizona when she was 10, said she still felt a strong connection to Flint, which once had a profitable manufacturing economy through the car industry, but famously imploded once it left. “It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “People can’t just migrate all over the place when an industry leaves.”

The mismanagement of the water supply, which she continues to bring attention to and helps raise money to address, “just adds insult to injury,” she said. “It’s terrible and the governor should be recalled and thrown out on his ass.”

More locally, Ms. Bernhard is a regular visitor to the South Fork and has “stayed all over the place, going on and off for years, renting a place, nothing extravagant.” She hates “the McMansions, those gross places taking over the open space.”

She agrees with most that out here, “August is hell. The biggest crime that people commit in the Hamptons is being so entitled and rude to the people who live there year round. It’s hideous and awful.” Preferring the weeks here before the high season and in September, she said, “If you go at the right time with the right people, it’s gorgeous.”

Each of her shows is modified slightly for the audience, and the Guild Hall show will be no exception. “Whether I’m in New York, the Hamptons, or L.A., I want it to be fun and insider-y.” She likes to laugh at the obvious things without insulting people.

Her last performance at Guild Hall was two years ago, and this one will be completely different. “The Sandy Land squad will take people on a trip, a fun provocative journey that will take you out of your rut whether you are a billionaire or someone suffering in Flint.”

“Feel the Bernhard” will be presented at 8 p.m. and is recommended for audiences 16 and older. Tickets are $45, $43 for members, and are available at the Guild Hall box office and online.