“Follow your impulses” was the dogma dished by Simon Doonan during a conversation Sunday in one of the many outdoor gathering nooks at his Shelter Island house on Gardiner’s Bay. The fun-loving fashion writer and “creative ambassador” for Barneys New York shares the delectably appointed retreat with Jonathan Adler, his husband, a ceramicist and home-design guru, who retails and wholesales his creations worldwide.

    It makes for the perfect weekend respite for the fashion commentator and writer, who has just finished his latest book, due out next month, “The Asylum: A Collage of Couture Reminiscences . . . and Hysteria,” which he called a humorous love letter to the fashion industry and a “good-natured romp through my 40 years in the fashion world.”

    Mr. Doonan will be at Guild Hall on Sunday at 11 a.m. for Fashion Insiders With Fern Mallis, and the interview will be broadcast in the future on SiriusXM radio. Tickets are available online at guildhall.org.

    The two designers have been coming to Shelter Island since their first summer together almost 20 years ago. After getting enough glitz and glamour in the city, the two spend their time as amphibious creatures on their paddleboards and kayaks, running, or at the waterfront pool and cabana, where they often host family members. Mr. Doonan said that when their nephew visits, seeing a New York kid having Huckleberry Finn moments is “very touching.”

    He said he and Mr. Adler even enjoy the long car ride out east on the Long Island Expressway, savoring the opportunity to chat and catch up on details. Mr. Doonan sometimes reads aloud his most recent Slate column for Mr. Adler’s feedback.

    The loyal Shelter Islanders dine out at the Vine Street Cafe and “thank God for Marie Eiffel” for opening Reddings Market. “The people here who have these businesses, they are my heroes,” he said. “To serve food to people at the best of times is difficult. During the summer, it is not an easy way to make a living.”

    Mr. Doonan said he also spends a lot of time cuddling Liberace, the couple’s 15-year-old terrier. He took him out in the kayak last weekend, he said, though the pooch’s blindness prevents the explorations by paddleboard of his younger years.

    “Johnny and I do the 10K every year,” Mr. Doonan said, and this year, “Johnny had a record time.” Mr. Doonan himself has always been athletic, he said. As he prepares to turn 61 in October, “I celebrate being able to participate.”

    “Shelter Island is getting a teensy bit groovy, but not really,” he said, something he is grateful for. “It will always be authentic . . . that’s what’s great about it.”

    While island life is simple and sweet, Mr. Doonan also feels free to walk into the hardware store with one of his big toenails painted blue, a small souvenir of his “glam rock years.”

    Reminiscing about those early days living in London, when he went from David Bowie concerts to the punk scene, he said, “Those two grassroots-style movements were very influential. . . . The idea that men could be that flamboyant was extremely liberating and meaningful to me.”

    As for women and fashion, from a man’s perspective, he said, it is uncomfortable to hear the self-criticism. “American women are harder on themselves than European chicks.” He encourages women to be playful and non-masochistic, uninhibited, to experiment with their personal styles.

    “There are no rules; pretending that there are is weird to me.” Today’s fashion landscape, he said, “has millions of voices . . . everyone now can do their own thing.”

    “Fashion is a refuge, but it is also a nuthouse,” he said, adding that humor has always been important to him, whether he was writing, working in advertising, or designing windows.

    Since “putting down the glue gun” of window design, he has had the time for a second career as a columnist for Slate, the online magazine, and has written two new books, the other one being “Gay Men Don’t Get Fat.”

    His former creative director position at Barneys now belongs to Dennis Freedman, who lives in East Hampton. Mr. Doonan said he loves to see his window creations and is pleased to remain with Barneys, which he said has recently gone through a glamorous reinvention.

    He is proud of having been a part of the huge leap fashion has taken, from its tiny industry roots to its current “spectator sport” status.

   Sometimes it can be hard to tell when a project or company has reached a tipping point. So often things can appear on the brink of a breakthrough and then fall just short of the last leap.

    This is not the case with Art Intelligence, a relatively recent start-up that takes the best of old school art historical research and marries it to the latest in app technology to create a seamless narrative devoted to some of the more inventive and cross-cultural artists of the past few decades.

    Bridget Goodbody, a Columbia University-trained art historian and former professor, art critic, and manager of Julian Schnabel’s studio, is the founder and curator of Art Intelligence, which has released two apps for iPad, one on Patricia Piccinini and one on Keith Haring, just launched this summer, with two more in the works on Cai Guo-Qiang and Cindy Sherman.

    The part-time Amagansett resident has left the classroom behind for a new kind of teaching, one that crosses generational and technological divides to deliver a dynamic and fluid timeline of history focused not just on the artists in the app, but on their milieu, bringing to bear on their work’s meaning the world and cultural events happening at the time of its creation as well as key moments in the artist’s life.

    “I’ve spent a lot of time in the classroom and as an art critic. When looking at an artwork you need to tell the viewer what it is, but everybody wants to know something different,” she said recently. “It’s not necessarily clear what it is that people are getting from a work of art, but they want it to be meaningful to them.” An app can allow for a personalized experience that can grow and deepen with continued use.

    She said she worked with developers to design apps for the casual consumer, who can purchase them in the Apple App Store, as well as for educators who want to incorporate them into the classroom to study art and history and even as a way into scientific concerns. As an educational app in iTunesU, the company can offer discounts to high schools and universities. She said Apple has been very supportive of her efforts because they help raise the standard of what can be done with the format and how its visual and interactive components can be utilized in different ways, such as answering visual questions visually.

    “People want an understanding of art. I think a lot of them are baffled by art experiences — ‘What am I supposed to think about it? How am I supposed to think about it?’ — There’s this hunger to ‘get it’ in so many ways.”

    The Haring app, for example, incorporates a monograph’s worth of research but in ways that are purely interactive and not didactic. For more information on a particular painting, click on it. Up comes the title, date, medium, and some descriptive context. Then click above it for the historical events that were shaping the artist’s life and point of view at the time. Click below it on the timelime of the artist’s life to see what Haring was doing at the moment he was conceiving and realizing the work.

    There is no omniscient narrator prating on about why this or that is important. All of the information presented is important, or at least pertinent. Its actual import comes from the particular interest of the viewers and where their exploration of it takes them on any given day.

    The artists she has chosen have been eclectic, but they are tied to each other in that they transcend many genres and cross over into other concerns, be they science or science fiction, human rights, politics, music, popular culture, symbolism, or whatever else comes to mind. She credits her undergraduate work in anthropology for a more global and rounded approach to the artists she has chosen so far.

    Ms. Piccinini, an Australian artist, is fascinated by the natural versus the manufactured as it is realized in biotechnology and consumer culture. Her invented cross-species mutations are very popular with science fiction enthusiasts as well as art audiences. “She gets people to think about the relationships between animals and humans. Artists are good at bringing different things together,” Ms. Goodbody said.

     Haring, famously, had the whole ’70s and ’80s art and music scene as his backdrop. It is hard to imagine him out of the context of the Village People, Madonna, and Boy George, Danceteria, Mudd Club, and the Palladium. If he wasn’t in the clubs, his art was, and it was everywhere else as well: public murals and his Pop Shop store’s clothing and accessories. He was also an ardent member of the anti-apartheid movement and a voluble spokesman for gay rights and the understanding of AIDS, the disease that took his life.

    Cindy Sherman, the latest to approve an app, offers a perfect platform to examine the image of women, from the earliest manifestations of her “Untitled Film Stills” to her recent “Society Portraits” series. In her long career, she has explored the essence of clowns, classical narrative painting, the fashion world, the semiotic power of mannequins, and other digressions of interest. Her active digestion of cultural norms and historic and current depictions of women can be placed in multiple contexts, shaped by endless events of recent history and should be a natural and dynamic subject for this format.

    Ms. Goodbody won’t say which other artists she is working on getting, but she admits she has a long list. “The platform can work for a lot of different kinds of artists and even movements such as Abstract Expressionism.” Her work with the artists she has so far is keeping her rather busy these days. Although Ms. Sherman only recently signed, Ms. Goodbody has been in the stacks and reading rooms at the Columbia University library already, gathering research that predates the 1990s, which seems to be a cutoff point for a lot of digitization.

    She has taken it upon herself to familiarize herself with at least the basics of the technology she is working in so that she can better discuss her needs with developers to make suggestions and describe formats she is reasonably certain can be achieved. She has also been active at various tech conferences and Apple’s own worldwide developer conference, which had 5,000 tickets that sold out in a minute (she credits her old concert-going days to making sure she was able to get one). “I’m the art historian among all of the engineers. It’s great to be around the makers, building and experimenting. . . . They’re really down to earth and interesting.”

    What she has learned is that building an app is like constructing a building, and technology needs those with broader insights to help it reach its greatest potential. “You can make it do a certain thing, but will people like to live in it? Will they move around in it? Will it answer their needs? These are all humanities-based questions.”

    Timing is everything in music, dance, and comedy. Marcia Milgrom Dodge, the director-choreographer of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” running at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor through Sept. 1, has always had a perfect sense of timing, onstage and off.

    Born in Detroit, she started dancing when she was a child.

    “My mother took me to tap and gymnastics, in Oak Park, Mich., when I was 3 years old,” she said Friday. She continued studying dance until she went away to college.

    “I went to Ann Arbor as a liberal arts major. I wasn’t dancing, and I was unhappy.” She transferred to the dance department at the University of Michigan, and dance, and theater, have been at the center of her life ever since.

    She began choreographing in college.

    “In the beginning, I would watch Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly. But, I learned on my feet,” she said.

    On her feet, and on the floor, as well, she took the time to study modern dance with Martha Graham for three months over the course of a summer in New York. Anybody who has studied with the legendary Graham carries with them a sense memory of doing contractions. Ms. Dodge actually choreographed a brief homage to Ms. Graham’s technique in the current production of “Forum,” she said laughing.

In terms of launching her career as a choreographer, her timing couldn’t have been better. It was at the same time, in the 1980’s, that regional theaters across the country began to realize that musicals were an attractive, popular, and very doable alternative to straight theater.

    A pivotal moment in her career came in 1989. “I was given the opportunity to choreograph ‘On the Town.’ ” Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the authors of the book and lyrics to the seminal Leornard Bernstein musical, were involved in the production, which was produced at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. She also met with Sono Osata, the lead from the original 1944 Broadway production, which was choreographed by Jerome Robbins.

    While giving her own take on the material, she was careful to respect the characters. She spoke about her interaction with Ms. Osata in a 1993 interview with Playbill.

    “She emphasized the naivete and sweetness of the show,” she told Playbill. “She warned me not to camp it up and make fun of these people, and I really took that to heart.”

    It was a lesson that carried her through her transition to director-choreographer.

    Initially, when she would direct a show that she had previously worked on as only choreographer, she would borrow from her experience in the previous production. She quickly changed her approach.

    One of the big steps in her career was taking on the Fats Waller revue “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” in 1991. She felt the show was too formulaic. “We wanted to do it as a musical, not a revue,” she said.

   It was her goal to create a “Harlem rent party” on stage. Rent parties were held in Harlem in the first half of the 20th century to, as the name implies, pass the hat to raise rent money during a jazz party.

   “I am a crazy researcher. I read and read and read,” she said. “If I’m going to be a director, I have to have my own vision.”

    This production of “Forum” is the completion of many different cycles.

    For one, it marks Ms. Dodge’s return to Bay Street after a four-year hiatus. She has worked at the Sag Harbor theatrical oasis many times over the years. “I have a great love and affection for this theater,” she said.

    “Forum” opened on Broadway in 1962. It was the first musical in which Stephen Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics for a show. He had previously written lyrics only for “West Side Story” and “Gypsy.”

Ms. Dodge worked on “Merrily We Roll Along,” with music and lyrics by Mr. Sondheim, who was on hand for the production. The show, which was considered a flop when it opened and closed on Broadway in November of 1981, has since achieved something of a cult status in the theater community. “It is one of his best scores ever,” Ms. Dodge said.

    “I got to work with the master,” she said of the experience. Mr. Sondheim, she said, was always listening, open to new ideas.

    Directed by George Abbott with a book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, “Forum” was an immediate hit when it opened in 1962, starring, among others, Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford.

    Above all else, the show is fun.

    “I have a theory of summer theater,” Ms. Dodge said. “It’s vacation; it’s escape.” For dreary reality, she said,    “All we have to do is pick up The New York Times.” She is promising something quite different. “Go to the theater and laugh and carry on.”

    At the same time, as with all great musicals, the show has a serious core. “Pseudolus sings about being free,” Ms. Dodge said.

    She has worked on several productions of “Forum” and found that each different cast brings out new delights, as they put their own stamps on the show.

    The Sag Harbor cast is incredible, she said. “Peter Scolari is a great leader of the company.” He plays the role originally created by Mr. Mostel.

    Bringing a musical with a large cast into the intimate Bay Street Theatre is a challenge Ms. Dodge relishes.

“I have great respect for the space,” she said. “Right at the top of the show, we break the fourth wall,” she said of the imaginary separation between audience and players.

    Asked if she was grabbing the audience’s hearts, she laughed. “We’re grabbing them a little lower than that. We’ve got a few surprises. Just when you thought it was safe to go to the theater!”

    The goal of the production, from what Ms. Dodge said, can be summed up in the opening number, with those famous four words: “Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight!”

    Timing is everything, and the time for comedy, Ms. Dodge says, is now.

   The Hamptons Theatre Company is holding open auditions for “Other Desert Cities,” a drama by Jon Robin Baitz. The story follows a family gathering at which a controversial memoir threatens to tear the family apart. The auditions will be on Aug. 25 from 2 to 4 p.m., and on Aug. 26 from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Quogue Community Hall on Jessup Avenue.

    Available roles include that of the protagonist, Brooke Wyeth, a mentally fragile author who is trying to write a book detailing the most explosive chapter in the family’s history. Information on other roles is available from hamptontheatre.org.

    Rehearsals will begin on Sept. 16, with performances in October and November. Sarah Hunnewell will direct the production at the Quogue Community Hall.

   The Hamptons International Film Festival’s Summer Docs series will continue on Monday with “Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me,” which follows the story of the Broadway legend in a documentary by Chiemi Karasawa. Ms. Stritch, now 87, is shown performing her one-woman cabaret act, torturing Alec Baldwin on “30 Rock,” and speaking about her present and past. (See related story).

    Tickets are $22, $20 for Guild Hall members. More details can be found elsewhere in this section.

   Surf Movie Night will return to Guild Hall on Tuesday with Jack McCoy’s award-winning “A Deeper Shade of Blue: The Greatest Surfing Story Ever Told.” The film is about the sport’s deepest roots, and its footage is “stunning,” said The New York Times. Mr. McCoy has won many awards for his feature and short films about surfing.

    The 7 p.m. film is presented by the Surfrider Foundation, Eastern Long Island Chapter, and the evening’s proceeds will benefit its new water quality monitoring program. Tickets are $15, and are available in advance at the Air and Speed Surf Shop, Main Beach Surf Shop, Sunrise to Sunset Surf Shop, or at Guild Hall half an hour before the event.

   The Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor will have a Sunday recital this week by Walter Klauss, and next week by John Walker, both at 3 p.m.. The musicians will use the church’s historic 1844 Erben pipe organ.

    Mr. Klauss, who made his debut as an organ recitalist at 17 at the Cleveland Museum of Art, is making his third appearance at the church. Mr. Klauss has been minister of music at All Souls Unitarian Church in Manhattan since 1976, while appearing as a recitalist with various symphonies. On Sunday, he will perform works by Bach, Buxtehude, and Langlais, as well as a piece he arranged for organ and handbells.

    Mr. Walker will present his first recital at the church. He has appeared in recitals with orchestras and choruses across the country, including several seasons with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and is currently Minister of Music Emeritus at the Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church in Baltimore.

    His performance will include an 1845 Mendelssohn sonata and concert variations on the National Anthem.

    Each performance will be followed by a reception to meet the artist. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children 12 and younger.

The Aviva Players, one of the first chamber ensembles to feature the music of women composers, will perform at the Montauk Library on Sunday afternoon at 3:30.

Part of the library’s “Women Celebrating Women” series, the free concert will include Piano Trio in D minor (Op. 11) by Fanny Mendelssohn and piano rags by Adaline Shepherd and May Francis Aufdeheide. Several works for voice will be performed, as will selections with music and lyrics by Mira J. Spektor, the group’s co-founder.

Also at the library, Dorothy Leeds, an actress, playwright, and film critic, will perform “Memoirs and Boudoirs,” a 60-minute journey through the ballrooms, backrooms, and bedrooms of queens, consorts, heroes, and heels, on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

   Italian food, Mozart, and Beethoven are on the menu at Guild Hall this week.

    On Sunday at 11 a.m. Florence Fabricant will host the first of a series of discussions called “Stirring the Pot: Conversations With Culinary Celebrities,” this one featuring Lidia Bastianich, the chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, and star of her own public television cooking show.

    Ms. Bastianich has been an owner and partner in restaurants such as Felidia, Becco, Esca, and Del Posto. Along with her son, Joe Bastianich, and teammates Mario Batali and Oscar Farinetti, she opened Eataly, the largest artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace in New York City. Admission is $15, and $13 for members. A limited number of $75 tickets will include brunch with the speakers at 10 a.m.

    On Sunday night, the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble will perform Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A major, K.581, and Beethoven’s Septet in E flat major (Op. 20). The orchestra performs approximately 70 concerts each year.

    Prime orchestra and V.I.P. reception tickets are available at $75 and $70 for members. Orchestra seats are $40 and $38 for members; balcony seats are $25, and $23 for members.

    “Summer Roses III,” a classical and operatic recital, will be given on Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Southampton Cultural Center. Sarah Moulton Faux, a soprano, and Junko Ohtsu, a violinist, will perform works by Paganini, Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, Puccini, and Donizetti.

    Ms. Ohtsu has been featured as a soloist with orchestras such as the St. Louis Symphony and the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra. Ms. Faux made her operatic debut at the age of 12 with the Opera of the Hamptons. She has also appeared with the New York City Opera and the Pocket Opera of New York.

    Admission is $40, $20 for children 14 and under. Ten dollars of every ticket will benefit the Southampton Animal Shelter.