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Changes for Bay Street’s Season

Changes for Bay Street’s Season

“Other People’s Money,” which was to run from June 23 to July 26, will no longer be presented, and two new productions will take its place
By
Star Staff

In the wake of Jason Alexander’s departure from Bay Street Theater’s “Other People’s Money” to replace Larry David in his Broadway show “Fish in the Dark,” the theater has had to do some tweaking of its summer season.

“Other People’s Money,” which was to run from June 23 to July 26, will no longer be presented, and two new productions will take its place. “Five Presidents,” a drama by Rick Cleveland and directed by Mark Clements, will run from June 23 to July 12. It is set at Richard Nixon’s funeral, where the current and former presidents in attendance offer a glimpse into the private frustrations and public defeats of the office. The play will follow Alena Smith’s “The New Sincerity,” directed by Bob Balaban and running from May 26 to June 14.

After “Five Presidents,” Bay Street has added “The Darrell Hammond Project,” the self-told story of what made the comedian and impersonator who he is. The monologue is a blend of harrowing history, humor, emotion, and the impressions that made him a star of “Saturday Night Live.” It is directed by Christopher Ashley, who added supplied material along with Elizabeth Stein. It will run from July 16 to 26.

The season closes with “Grey Gardens,” a musical, from Aug. 4 to 30. Scott Frankel composed the music with lyrics by Michael Korie. The book is by Doug Wright and the play will be directed by Michael Wilson. The play is based on the 1975 documentary film by Albert and David Maysles about Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The play covers two time periods, 1941 and 1973, at Grey Gardens, their East Hampton home.

Tickets are currently available only for season subscriptions. Single-ticket sales will begin on May 15. More information about the productions and pricing as well as ticket sales can be found on the theater’s website.

Salon Series Returns with Tim Fain at Parrish

Salon Series Returns with Tim Fain at Parrish

Tim Fain
Tim Fain
At the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill
By
Star Staff

The Salon Series, a program of concerts by award-winning young classical musicians, will return to the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill tomorrow evening at 6 with Tim Fain, a violinist who has not only performed with orchestras in the U.S. and abroad but has also appeared on screen in “Black Swan” and as a violin double for Richard Gere and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Mr. Fain, who plays an instrument made by Francesco Gobetti in Venice in 1717, will be accompanied on piano by Tanya Gabrielian, who was featured in the Salon Series last spring.

Subsequent concerts will feature Kimball Gallagher, a pianist who has played 300 concerts in 30 countries on his current tour, on April 24; Daria Rabotkina, a pianist who will perform with the Wasmuth String Quartet on May 1, and Yoonie Han, a South Korean pianist, whose program will include several compositions by George Gershwin. Tickets to the programs are $20, $10 for members.

Also at the Parrish, Jules Feiffer, the celebrated artist whose artwork from “Kill My Mother,” his noir graphic novel, is currently on view there, will have a conversation with Terrie Sultan, the museum’s director, and sign copies of his book on Saturday at 11 a.m. Tickets are $10, free for members, students, and children. An additional $30 will secure a copy of the book.

 

On Herbs

On Herbs

At the Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack
By
Star Staff

Madoo Talks, the Sagaponack conservancy’s program of spring garden talks, will conclude Sunday at noon with a talk by Stephen Orr, author of “The New American Herbal,” published last fall by Clarkson Potter.

Mr. Orr will examine the long tradition of herbals, while adding layers of new information about the herbs used today in homes and gardens. His book covers the entire spectrum of herbaceous plants, from culinary to ornamental to aromatic and medicinal, presenting them in an alphabetical format.

In The New York Times Book Review, Dominique Browning wrote, “Orr’s affection for herbs shines through every well-researched page of this book; his wonder and delight are infectious. . . . And he knows that just because a book is useful and intelligent, it doesn’t have to look scholarly and dull.”

Tickets are $30, $25 for members. A reception and book signing will follow the talk.

 

‘Bach to Broadway’

‘Bach to Broadway’

At the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor
By
Star Staff

“Bach to Broadway,” a free concert by Barbara Fusco-Spera, a mezzo-soprano, and Walter Klauss, a pianist and conductor, will take place at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor on Sunday at 4 p.m.

The program includes music by Bach, Barber, and selections from Bizet’s “Carmen,” as well as the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Sondheim, Bernstein, and others. Several familiar spirituals will conclude the concert.

Ms. Fusco-Spera, a member of the voice faculty at Long Island University’s C.W. Post campus, has performed concerts and solo recitals throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, and Africa. Mr. Klauss has a dual career as guest conductor of choral and orchestral works and as an organ recitalist. He was the minister of music at the Unitarian Church of All Souls in Manhattan for 28 years.

Any free-will offerings received will benefit the church’s Community House Fund.

 

Welcome to the Tiny Room

Welcome to the Tiny Room

Andy Aledort will be the first performer in the Tiny Room Show at Crossroads Music.
Andy Aledort will be the first performer in the Tiny Room Show at Crossroads Music.
An intimate concert in which an audience of 30 can see and hear a celebrated musician up close and extremely personal
By
Christopher Walsh

Crossroads Music, the Amagansett shop offering musical instrument sales and repairs as well as lessons, has once again expanded its event offerings with the introduction of the Tiny Room Show, an intimate concert in which an audience of 30 can see and hear a celebrated musician up close and extremely personal.

Andy Aledort, a guitarist who performs with Dickey Betts, a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, will inaugurate the concert series on Tuesday at 8 p.m. Mr. Aledort, who is also a senior editor of Guitar World magazine and the creator of popular instructional books, CDs, and DVDs including “Jimi Hendrix Signature Licks: A Step-by-Step Breakdown of His Guitar Styles and Techniques,” previously led several workshops at Crossroads.

The series will continue on April 28 with Kerry Kearney, a blues guitarist who will perform with a small band. Mr. Kearney was inducted into the New York Blues Hall of Fame in 2013. Jeff Allegue, a member of New Life Crisis and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, will perform instrumental acoustic music with his son, Grant, on May 19.

Michael Clark, the owner of Crossroads and, earlier this month, grand marshal of the Am O’Gansett Parade, said that National Public Radio’s Tiny Desk Concert series was an inspiration for these events. With chairs provided by Bermuda Parties of East Hampton, which is sponsoring the series, just four rows of seating will accommodate the audience. Performers will be “barely miked, because you’re right there,” Mr. Clark said.

Mr. Aledort will perform for 60 minutes, or perhaps 90. “Andy will play all night,” Mr. Clark said, adding that he hopes for feedback from the audience, the better to craft an engaging event that people will want to experience again.

From its founding, on North Main Street in East Hampton, Crossroads has served as a meeting place for both player and listener. The store, now at Amagansett Square, has hosted many informal jam sessions and, for a time, a concert series called “On the Air at Crossroads” that was hosted by Cynthia Daniels, the music producer who owns and operates MonkMusic Studios in East Hampton. Ms. Daniels recorded and mixed the performances for later broadcast on WPPB/Peconic Public Broadcasting. Musicians, especially, appreciated the “On the Air” format, Mr. Clark said. Audiences “were coming to listen to the music — this is what it’s about.”

“I just want this to be different,” Mr. Clark said of the Tiny Room Shows. “There’s so much good music going on all over the place. I picked Tuesday because I don’t want to compete with anything. We just think it will just be a different thing for the community.”

Tickets for Tuesday’s Tiny Room Show featuring Andy Aledort cost $20 and are available at Crossroads Music. Reservations are required for seating, and standing-room tickets will be available on Tuesday evening.

A Casual Venue for Contemporary Art

A Casual Venue for Contemporary Art

Colin Ambrose, above, the owner and chef of Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor, has a longstanding relationship with the region’s artists. Barbara Thomas, below, will exhibit paintings of vegetables from her garden, including a variety of carrots, at the restaurant during April and May.
Colin Ambrose, above, the owner and chef of Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor, has a longstanding relationship with the region’s artists. Barbara Thomas, below, will exhibit paintings of vegetables from her garden, including a variety of carrots, at the restaurant during April and May.
Photos Morgan McGivern and Gary Mamay
Over the years, Colin Ambrose, the restaurateur, has developed relationships with hundreds of artists, many of whom are regulars at Little Estia
By
Mark Segal

Slow food, sustainable agriculture, organic farming, and farm-to-table are terms that are so ubiquitous in the ever-expanding culinary world that hardly a restaurant opens today that doesn’t tout its use of locally sourced organic ingredients.

Several chefs on the East End were early proponents of those practices before they became commonplace, among them Colin Ambrose, who purchased Estia in Amagansett in 1991 and planted a two-acre organic garden close by, on the property of Lorne Michaels, the producer of “Saturday Night Live,” which provided produce for the restaurant.

“One of the reasons I felt so comfortable going to Amagansett in 1991 was that I had just finished reading a book called ‘Striper’ by John Cole,” Mr. Ambrose said. The late Mr. Cole, a noted conservationist and the longtime editor of The Maine Times, grew up on Long Island and worked for years as a commercial fisherman on the South Fork, where he befriended many baymen, artists (among them Jackson Pollock), and writers.

Within two years, Estia began showcasing the work of local artists. It continued to do so until 1998, when Mr. Ambrose sold it and opened Estia’s Little Kitchen on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike. As they have been for many years, art and food are intertwined in his restaurants. (He opened a second in Darien, Conn., three years ago.)

“When I bought Estia’s Little Kitchen, I wanted to work hard on making its imagery tight with the striped bass,” he said, “because the striper story has always been a fundamental part of my connection to this community.” Two bass weathervanes by Bill King spin outside the restaurant. A large installation by Ross Watts of bass swimming in front of a haul seine spans a wooden fence in the backyard. A scrimshaw surfboard by Peter Spacek, etched with an image of what baymen call the “money fish,” hangs from the ceiling of one of the dining rooms.

Over the years the restaurateur has developed relationships with hundreds of artists, many of whom are regulars at Little Estia, and he now has a collection of some 120 artworks. “I call a lot of the work cheeseburger art, because many of the customers who are artists tend to eat cheeseburgers. John Torreano loves my cheeseburgers, Jim Gingerich likes to have a cheeseburger and a beer, Dan Rizzie prefers it in a salad with blue cheese and no bun.”

While Mr. Ambrose has always had art on his walls, he decided last year to mount recurrent exhibitions. On a recent Friday morning the walls featured photographs by Mansell Ambrose, his daughter, and watercolors by Mr. Torreano. “It’s a two-man show,” he said, “and what’s interesting about it is that it has accomplished my goal, which is to bring my garden into the restaurant for the winter.”

Last summer, Ms. Ambrose managed the raised beds in the garden, which grew the flowers for the restaurant’s tables. She photographed the garden, so that summer’s table flowers are winter’s wallflowers. Mr. Torreano’s photographs of the Sunburst squash bed were the basis for his watercolors.

The next exhibition, which will be on view from April 8 through June 1, will feature paintings by Barbara Thomas of Springs, a friend of Mr. Ambrose’s who has been painting local gardens and landscapes since the mid-’80s and growing vegetables herself for the past four years — carrots, kale, eggplant, acorn squash, cabbage, and more. For the show at Little Estia, she will exhibit a series of new paintings of the vegetables she has grown, working sometimes from photographs, sometimes from life.

“After I painted the red beets and red cabbage, I made some borscht,” said the artist. “Colin would have been proud of me. I felt like I really had a relationship with the vegetables through growing them, painting them, cooking them, eating them, and having them become compost.” She paints her subjects against solid backgrounds that complement their colors and bring out their brilliance, rather than in a garden or landscape.

Mr. Ambrose thinks of the disparate people who have threaded through his restaurants and his life as strings being sewn together into a community patchwork quilt. In June, that quilt will come to a new level of engagement with art and food, when the restaurant will host an exhibition, auction, and garden party fund-raiser to benefit Springs Seedlings and Project Most.

Project Most was founded in East Hampton in 2000 as a small program serving children at the John Marshall Elementary School. While the organization has grown, it remains dedicated to providing children a range of after-school enrichment activities, one of which is Springs Seedlings, a garden classroom and greenhouse at the Springs School. Joe Realmuto, the chef at Nick and Toni’s, and Bryan Futterman, late of Foody’s and now also at Nick and Toni’s, were among the founders of the program, which gives kids a place to go when classes end where they can grow, harvest, and taste food raised sustainably.

“We’re hoping that as the event starts to simmer and come to a boil, we’ll not only be selling tickets to the event and selling artwork,” said Mr. Ambrose. “We’ll also draw attention to the fact that kids in Springs have an opportunity after school to learn about growing food, to taste green beans off the vine, to study herbs and learn the differences between them. The idea is to support Project Most’s commitment to the edible schoolyard.”

The Art Scene: 04.02.15

The Art Scene: 04.02.15

"Misty Morning" by Jerry Schwabe, left, and "Low Tide Pool, Wainscott" by Kirsten Benfield will be on view at Ashawagh Hall this weekend as  part of "Duo Tuo."
"Misty Morning" by Jerry Schwabe, left, and "Low Tide Pool, Wainscott" by Kirsten Benfield will be on view at Ashawagh Hall this weekend as part of "Duo Tuo."
Local art news
By
Mark Segal

Talk at Parrish

The next installment of “Brain Food,” the Parrish Art Museum’s lunchtime series of illustrated talks, will feature Scott Howe, the Parrish’s deputy director, who will discuss the museum’s landscape design and its connection to the geology and history of Long Island and to the artists inspired by the natural beauty of the East End. Tickets cost $10, free for members, students, and children.

Free Admission

Guild Hall has announced that all of its museum exhibitions and opening receptions will be free through April 2016, thanks to funding from Suffolk County National Bank and Donald and Barbara Zucker.

Coming up are the 77th annual Artist Members Exhibition, which will open May 2 and remain on view through June 6, and “Selfies and Portraits of the East End,” which will include work by Ross Bleckner, Chuck Close, John Hardy, William King, Joan Semmel, and Cindy Sherman, among many others. “Selfies” will open June 20, as will solo exhibitions of work by Hal Buckner and Nicole Bigar.

Calls for Artists

Two upcoming exhibitions are now accepting entries. The deadline for submissions to the Springs Mystery Art Sale, which supports the school’s Visiting Artists Program, is April 12. Interested artists who have not received application packets by mail have been asked to email [email protected]. Information is also available on the Springs Mystery Art Sale Facebook page.

For the first time, Guild Hall will not be mailing application packets for its upcoming members exhibition. All members wishing to participate can apply online at guildhall.org. Registration must be completed by April 20.

Spring Exhibit at S.C.C.

The Southampton Artists Association will hold its spring art exhibition at the Levitas Center for the Arts in the Southampton Cultural Center from today through April 12. An opening reception will happen Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m.

The exhibit will include photography, paintings, pastels, drawings, sculpture, and three-dimensional constructions. The association, which includes artists from Remsenburg to Montauk, holds four membership exhibitions each year and conducts classes, workshops, and other programs.

Full Day at Watermill Center

An exhibition of “Draped, Hollow Figures,” a site-specific work by Daniel Arsham, will open at the Watermill Center on Saturday at 4 p.m. and remain on view through June 7. The opening reception will be part of Saturdays @ WMC, an occasional series that opens the center for a full day of public programs and activities.

Mr. Arsham’s work straddles the line between art, architecture, and performance. He has created environments with eroded walls and stairs going nowhere, landscapes where nature overrides structures, and seemingly flat walls that morph into three-dimensions.

According to Robert Wilson, artistic director of the center, “Arsham challenges our perceptions of physical space in order to make architecture perform the improbable.”

Other programs on Saturday will include a puppet workshop with Julian Crouch and Saskia Lane from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; tours of the building, grounds, and collection from 12:30 to 1:30 and 3:30 to 5; a picnic lunch on the grounds at 1, weather permitting, and Performance Art 101, a workshop conducted by Kembra Pfahler, from 2 to 3:30.

Ashawagh Duo

“Duo Tuo,” an exhibition of paintings by Jerry Schwabe and Kirsten Benfield, will take place tomorrow through Sunday at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. A reception will be held Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m.

Mr. Schwabe is a painter, photographer, and sculptor who will be represented in the show by watercolors, oils, and acrylics, including a new series of watercolors, “Wet Pavement,” which features soft, muted colors.

Born in New Zealand, Ms. Benfield came to New York City at the age of 26 and now lives and works in East Hampton. Her paintings are inspired by the region’s oceans and bays and informed by her study of color. 

The gallery will be open tomorrow from 1 to 7 p.m., Saturday from noon to 8, and Sunday from noon to 4.

Pollock-Krasner House

The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center will reopen on May 1 with an exhibition of sculpture by Neil Noland (1927-2013), who had a studio in Amagansett for many years. The season’s second show will be “Elaine de Kooning Portrayed,” which will feature portraits of her by such friends as Arshile Gorky, Ray Johnson, Fairfield Porter, Robert De Niro Jr., and her husband, Willem de Kooning. It will open Aug. 6.

The 2015 John H. Marburger III Memorial Lecture will take place at Guild Hall on July 26. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, a filmmaker, will preview and discuss her latest film, “Peggy Guggenheim: Art of This Century.” Ms. Vreeland directed “Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel,” a cinematic portrait of her grandmother-in-law.

The Lichtenstein lecture series will take place on Sunday afternoons in July and August, and “Artists on Film” will return on Friday evenings in September.

Although the Pollock-Krasner House is currently closed, its membership drive is on all year. Membership supports public programs, educational activities, and museum operations. One project under way is the renovation of the garage to accommodate a handicapped-accessible office and restroom. In addition to new members, the organization is always looking for volunteer docents.

More information can be found at sb.cc.stonybrook.edu/pkhouse.

 

Shorts at John Drew

Shorts at John Drew

Kat O'Neill
Kat O'Neill
At the John Drew Theater Lab at Guild Hall
By
Star Staff

The John Drew Theater Lab will present a free staged reading of “Life Is Shorts,” an evening of short plays by Kat O’Neill, on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. The program will weave together 18 brief plays written and directed by Ms. O’Neill.

The flavor of the plays is suggested by some of the titles: “A Drama in Five Words,” “I Met Frida Kahlo at a Diner and What a Bore She Turned Out to Be,” and “It Ain’t Over Till the Old Lady Stops Screwing.” Ms. O’Neill, who lives in East Hampton, has written for stage and screen and was named Best Emerging Playwright by Playwrights Preview Productions in New York City.

The production will star Joe Pallister, Lydia Franco-Hodges, Nick Fondulis, Dina Morgan Lotito, and James M. Lotito.

 

Drama at Drew

Drama at Drew

At Guild Hall
By
Star Staff

The John Drew Theater Lab will present a free staged reading of “In a Roundabout Way,” a play by Kim Sykes, an actress, writer, and artist from New York City, on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

The play is set at a time of political partisanship, financial chaos, and the struggles of women and African-Americans for a place in the American dream. Two women, Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave who became a civil activist and confidante of the president’s widow, try to rekindle their friendship amid the upheavals of late-19th-century America.

Directed by Paul Hecht, the production stars Cynthia Darlow (Mrs. Lincoln), Ms. Sykes (Ms. Keckley), Anthony Michael Hobbs, and Peter Connolly.

Next Thursday evening at 7, the East Hampton Film Society will present “Chinatown,” Roman Polanski’s 1974 noir mystery set in Los Angeles in 1937. The film received 11 Academy Award nominations, including best picture, and won the award for best original screenplay.

The stellar cast includes Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston, and Mr. Polanski in a brief but chilling cameo. Tickets are $8, $6 for members of Guild Hall.

 

Doc Fest Call

Doc Fest Call

At the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor
By
Star Staff

The Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival, which will take place in December at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, will begin accepting submissions on Wednesday. Now in its eighth year, the festival celebrates the rich world of documentary films, with a particular emphasis on filmmakers from New York City and Long Island. Details about how to submit work can be found on ht2ff.com.

HT2FF also holds screenings throughout the year at different venues on the East End. A special showing of “Iris,” a documentary by Albert Maysles, who died on March 5, will be shown in his honor at Bay Street Theater on April 19 at 2:30 p.m.