The dog days of summer — and the game that has long been an East Hampton institution — are not here yet, but an exhibition opening on Saturday at Guild Hall will bring together and celebrate artists, writers, and their work.

    “Artists & Writers: They Played in the Game,” which runs through July 28, compiles and displays the work of many of the more than 400 men and women who have played in the annual softball game that will mark its 65th contest on Aug. 17. Though it is common knowledge, this gathering of creativity makes clear the sheer quantity and level of talent on the South Fork: Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Eric Fischl, Ben Bradlee, and George Plimpton are just a few of the artists and writers who have work represented.

    The exhibit will include book signings by Ken Auletta, who has led the writers team for many years, on June 23, Roger Rosenblatt on June 30, and Mr. Fischl, who will also read, on June 26. A July 21 panel discussion will be moderated by Ed Bleier and feature the writers Mort Zuckerman, Mike Lupica, Juliet Papa, and Carl Bernstein, and the artists Ed Hollander, Walter Bernard, Eric Ernst, and Lori Singer, as well as the longtime skipper of the artists, Leif Hope.

    On June 28, Rene Auberjonois will star as Tom Wolfe in the one-man show “Big Bad Wolfe!”

    “The exhibition is going to be amazing,” said Christina Mossaides Strassfield, a co-curator of the exhibit and Guild Hall’s director and chief curator. “Because we are a museum that focuses on artists of the area, we are showing a number of pieces from our permanent collection. What we didn’t have, we went to the artists or the galleries and asked them to lend material.”

    “It’s exciting to see the variety of work that’s been created, and the art movements that have happened over the years,” Ms. Strassfield said. We had everything from the Abstract Expressionists to the pop artists to the contemporary artists — a little bit of everything. We have Eric Fischl, Eric Ernst, Pollock and de Kooning and Franz Kline. These are top-level artists.”

    “It’s not about pigeonholing these artists into one school,” said Elena Prohaska Glinn, a co-curator. “The only thing they have in common is that they played in the softball game and they live here.”

    Mr. Hope, a driving force behind the game for almost a half-century, first suggested an exhibition a couple of years ago, said Deb McEneaney, president of the Artists and Writers board and content curator. Work began last August.

    “One of the first things we came up with was a photo of Franz Kline in 1950,” Ms. McEneaney said. Then, a photo of Kline, Howard Kanovitz, and de Kooning at an early game. “Our hope was that this would be really great for East Hampton and the East End, bringing two institutions together that normally wouldn’t be, and that we’re going to make a lot more people aware of Guild Hall, and of the charities that we support,” she said. “It’s not just a fun game — which it is — it’s a fund-raiser.”

    Artworks by Adolph Gottlieb, Ross Bleckner, Mr. Hope, Dan Rizzie, Billy Strong, Randall Rosenthal, and Robert Gwathmey are also featured. Mr. Gwathmey’s 1970 arrest in East Hampton, for displaying an American flag to which he had affixed a peace symbol, was the catalyst for the Artists and Writers game becoming a fund-raiser, Ms. Mc­Eneaney said.

    Ninety-six writers will be represented in the exhibition, Ms. Strassfield said, some by first-edition books in showcases, while other books will be available to be read by patrons. A video loop will depict still photographs from games throughout the years, and a timeline, prepared with no small assistance from Jack Graves, the sports editor of The Star, will detail scores and other information.

    “I also had a quilt made with old T-shirts of all of Walter Bernard’s designs by a quilter in Georgia, Lynne Corwith Fraas, originally an East Ender,” Ms. Mc­Eneaney said. “That’s going to be in the show, and then we’re going to auction it off for our charities.”

    A poster commemorating the exhibition includes a photograph of de Kooning, Kanovitz, and Kline, along with a watercolor painting by Mr. Bernard derived from a photo of Mr. Ernst at bat in last year’s contest. “We wouldn’t look nearly as good as we do for the last 25 years if it wasn’t for Walter Bernard, who plays a great second base and also is an incredible graphic designer,” Ms. McEneaney said.

    Last year, money raised from the game meant sizable donations to East End Hospice, the East Hampton Day Care Learning Center, the Phoenix House counseling center, and the Retreat. This year’s game will benefit the same groups. “Our mission is that we provide funding for organizations that provide vital human services on the East End,” Ms. McEneaney said. “It’s kind of a family, or community, we’ve built around this game.”

    Planning and curating the exhibition, Ms. Strassfield said, “has really been fun because we’ve discovered and reconnected with a lot of different artists that I knew early on but didn’t know played in the game, people who have such fond memories. It’s very exciting.” Ms. McEneaney, she said, “has really helped us pull so many different things together.”

    “It’s been fun,” Ms. McEneaney replied. “I love this game, and I love this group, and I’m so happy that it’s getting the recognition I feel it deserves.”

Mannix at Hampton Hang

    In a new show opening tomorrow, Karyn Mannix is looking beyond the beloved South Fork medium of painting to find other artistic inspiration that falls outside that two-dimensional form.

    At Karyn Mannix at Hampton Hang, her summer exhibition space in Water Mill behind Suki Zuki, she has brought together four artists: Maria Bacardi, Charles McGill, Gabriele T. Raacke, and Claire Watson, who use unusual mediums to approach art from a more conceptual viewpoint.

     Ms. Bacardi, also known as Maria Pessino, is a Cuban-born artist, actress, singer, and poet who was raised in Europe and now raises her family in East Hampton. Her glass-domed troves spotlight found objects that allude to stories or drama.

    Mr. McGill uses golf bags to engage with issues of “race, politics, sex, and class,” according to the gallery. He also incorporates found objects, graphic design, performance, essay, photography, appropriation, digital arts and collage.

     Ms. Raacke collects items such as eyeglasses, buttons, knitting needles, or glass bottles, and rearranges their relationships in different ways to discover new meanings and, perhaps, make a humorous comment on matter, humans, or nature.

    As a model-maker, scenic artist, decorative painter, and art educator, Ms. Watson had several decades to develop a vision for her artistic expression. In her present work she is using tobacco pipes and gloves to explore traditional notions of the masculine and feminine with a French accent. She lives and works in Water Mill.

    The show will remain on view through July 7. A reception will be held on June 29 from 6 to 9 p.m.

Talk at Ille

    In conjunction with “Raw and Refined,” a group show of four artists at Ille Arts in Amagansett, there will be a talk with the artists on Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. The four, Monica Banks, Suzanne Goldenberg, Janet Nolan, and Nicole Parcher, will participate in a question-and-answer session about their work.

Kendrick, Shields

At Drawing Room

    The Drawing Room gallery is showing work by Mel Kendrick and Alan Shields through July 8.

    Mr. Kendrick, a resident of North Haven, is a sculptor whose recent work is in wood and cast concrete. His monumental concrete black-and-white jacks were recently shown at the Parrish Art Museum’s former location in South­­ampton. This new series, “Red Block,” is more human-scaled. According to the gallery, it “offers a dazzling circus of forms and a multiplicity of sight lines to bring the viewer closer.”

    Mr. Shields, who died in 2005, was a long-time resident of Shelter Island known for his stitched and beaded canvases and wall hangings. He was also a prolific maker of print editions; the show, titled “Inventive Editions 1973-2001,” includes 21 prints that show his inventiveness within the medium. These editions also incorporate stitching and collage with more traditional forms of printmaking. The result is multicolored geometric forms, with playful titles.

    Guild Hall will be the home of a literal variety of events beginning tonight with the visiting group Our Fabulous Variety Show presenting “An Eclectic Cabaret,” an evening of burlesque, melodies, comedy, and dances, hosted by the Rev. Ricky Ray and featuring a large ensemble of local talent. Shows will begin at 7:30 tonight and tomorrow. It is a benefit for Your Day Away, which gives parents of children with special needs a day of rest and pampering. Tickets start at $15 and are available on the group’s Web site.

    On Saturday, Guild Hall will present Paul McCartney’s “ROCKSHOW: From the Wings Over America Tour,” a concert film from the group’s 1975 and 1976 world tour. The film has remastered video and audio and is a full-length version of the concert. Tickets are $12, or $10 for members, with free student rush tickets available through the box office or the museum’s Web site. The film starts at 8 p.m.

    On Sunday, Ken Auletta will give a reading and book signing at 11 a.m. Mr. Auletta writes the “Annals of Communications” columns and profiles for The New Yorker magazine. He has written 11 books, including “Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way” and “Greed and Glory on Wall Street: The Fall of the House of Lehman.” Admission is free.  

  On Wednesday at 7 p.m., Eric Fischl will read from his new autobiography and discuss his work with Phyllis Tuchman, a guest curator of Mr. Fischl’s show last year at Guild Hall. This event is free.

   LongHouse Reserve’s annual container invitational, “Planters: ON+OFF the Ground VI,” in which top landscape designers, artists, and other horticultural professionals compete to see who can create the most striking “container” of plant material, will open to the public on Saturday. Visitors may vote for their favorites for the People’s Choice Award starting at 2 p.m. This year’s judges, all of them well known in the field, are Tovah Martin, Paula Dietz, and Jack deLashmet.    

    Tomorrow at 5 p.m. at LongHouse Dan Farrenkopf of Lunaform LLC will speak about the steel-reinforced concrete planters, fountains, and basins that he makes in Sullivan, Me., in a lecture titled “The Art and Craft of Lunaform.”

    Lunaform Concrete Planters will be on exhibit at the Reserve throughout the summer season.

    Tours are now being given at LongHouse by cellular device. Visitors can listen to Jack Lenor Larsen’s narration as they stroll the grounds.

   The Wellness Foundation of East Hampton will be the beneficiary of an event to be held on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. at a private residence on Dunemere Lane. Joe Cross, the star of the award-winning documentary “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead,” and founder of Reboot with Joe, will be honored.

    Vegan hors d’oeuvres and wine will be served, and Jane Hastay, Peter Martin Weiss, and John Cataletto will provide live music. Tickets cost $150 and can be ordered through wfeh.org or by calling 329-2590. Tickets will not be sold at the door.

   There is an oft-repeated assertion by the late historian Jacques Barzun that starts, “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.” Perhaps less known is the full quote, which includes the suggestion that one learn the game “by watching first some high school or small-town teams.”

    This came to mind during a viewing of “The Only Real Game,” an engrossing and deeply stirring documentary depicting the popularity of our national pastime in what would seem an unlikely place: Manipur, a poor and embattled state in northeastern India.

    In “The Only Real Game,” Mirra Bank, an award-winning filmmaker and resident of East Hampton and New York City, delivers a fascinating portrait of America’s enduring influence in the world, particularly its cultural impact and the emotions it stirs in people harboring big dreams but little hope.

    “The Only Real Game,” as Babe Ruth called it, explains that “in the land of cricket and soccer, baseball arrived in Manipur on the wings of war.” In response to the 1942 bombing of Manipur by the Japanese — in preparation for an invasion — President Roosevelt sent air support. Some American servicemen took advantage of the downtime and warm, sunny weather to “put on an exhibition of our national pastime,” as one surviving veteran says, and a love affair was born.

    Following India’s postwar independence from Britain, Manipur, which had existed as a princely state under the British Raj, was effectively annexed by India after a plebiscite was dismissed as illegal. This gave rise to a protest, which morphed into an entrenched and violent separatist movement that persists to this day. One of the most heavily militarized places in the world, more than 30 armed insurgent groups operate in Manipur, according to the film. These groups, marked by a corruption that rivals that of the government, may spend as much time smuggling drugs and guns as they do fighting for sovereignty.

    The Indian government responded to the insurgency with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, or the “black laws,” as Manipuris refer to it. “It means you have no rights,” Ms. Bank said. “You can be shot, arrested, and have no legal recourse.”

    It is in this environment, “caught in a vise between two evils,” as one resident says, that young people — men and women alike — cling to an obsessive love of baseball and the potential for escape that it represents.

    “I found out about it and dug into it,” said Ms. Bank, who was short-listed for an Academy Award for “Last Dance,” her previous documentary. “It’s a great human story, and with baseball as the vehicle, the metaphor, it’s an unexpected way to get into the culture and find out these very surprising things. There’s a real love story that develops between people there and two baseball coaches.”

    “The Only Real Game,” which is narrated by Melissa Leo of Springs, follows the effort by L. Somi Roy, a native Manipuri living in the United States, and Muriel (Mike) Peters as they visit Mr. Roy’s childhood home and discover a rabidly enthusiastic but threadbare outpost of the American game. Back in New York, they establish the nonprofit venture First Pitch, ultimately dispatching representatives including Jeff Brueggemann, a former major league pitcher, and Dave Palese, both with Major League Baseball International, to Manipur to train players and coaches and organize the construction of infrastructure befitting a professional sport. The Spalding sporting goods company donates equipment to the fervent but poorly outfitted players.

    Results were mixed. The effort produced many Manipuri coaches, including women, but promising players were denied visas for a visit to the U.S., and funding for a proper baseball complex, promised by a government official, did not materialize. The film, however, is an overwhelming success in detailing the human connection and love that develop between people from radically differing worlds.

    A striking feature in “The Only Real Game” is its depiction of the almost unimaginable resilience of Manipuri women. Frustrated by decades of strife, corruption, and poverty, women emerge as the strongest force in their society, vocal in their rage against all oppressors. This strength is reflected in their participation, as equals, on the baseball field. Women both play and coach baseball, and their athletic ability, like their love of the game, rivals that of the men and boys crowding the field. “The role women play in leadership was very unexpected, certainly for me,” Ms. Bank said.

    “The Only Real Game” premiered last month at Tribeca Cinemas as part of the New York Indian Film Festival, where it took Best Documentary honors. “We’re very much trying to get the film back to India,” Ms. Bank said. “We’re just now beginning to do festival submissions.”

    The documentary has been submitted to the Dharamsala Film Festival in Himachal Pradesh, she said. “We’re going to try to get the film into public consciousness, first through festival exposure, and hopefully find the appropriate way to get it televised.”

    In addition to the “Artists & Writers: They Played in the Game” exhibition, Guild Hall will open its summer season with two other new shows: works by John Alexander and Joel Perlman.

    Mr. Alexander is known for his Surrealist paintings of natural phenomena and the human form as well as his biting social commentary. In a solo show opening on Saturday he will present recent natural landscapes.

    The 2012 Guild Hall Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award winner in the visual arts, he has lived and worked in Amagansett for more than three decades. Yet, he maintains a Southern drawl he picked up as a child growing up in Texas, where he lived until the 1970s before moving to New York. He received an M.F.A. from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

    A retrospective of his work was mounted by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., in 2007, and he most recently exhibited in Beijing. His work is in the collections of major museums around the world. The show will be on view through July 28.

    Mr. Perlman’s steel sculptures can be seen in the museum’s sculpture garden and in the Wasserstein Family Gallery, also beginning on Saturday. The Water Mill artist’s work is about cutting away and then reconfiguring forms out of steel in reference to the early Constructivists. He also works in bronze, aluminum, and iron. He wants viewers to have an interactive experience with his art by moving around or even touching it.

    Mr. Perlman was born in New York and received a bachelor’s degree in art from Cornell University and a master’s from the University of California at Berkeley. He was represented by André Emmerich for many years and has work in the collections of several major museums. His show remains on view through Oct. 14.   

Lights, Camera, Action

    QF Gallery in East Hampton will open Annika Connor’s show “The Hitchcock Kiss” on Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.

    Ms. Connor’s colorful paintings, which are based on fantasy, have an illustrative quality. Her subjects are abundant gardens, opulent rooms, regal animals, and  humans in their finery alone or as a couple.  She blends “contemporary moments with cinematic nostalgia,” according to the gallery. She also has an acting career, which tends to inform her artwork. The show will be on view through June 30.

Duo at Ashawagh

    Phyllis Kriegel and Gabriele Raacke, artists who have complementary visions, will exhibit their work at Ashawagh Hall in Springs beginning Saturday, June 15, with a reception on Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. and on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.

    Ms. Kriegel will show her series “After Baubo,” inspired by a fifth century B.C. stone figure.  Ms. Raacke will exhibit reverse paintings on glass inspired by circus performers.

Bast: Seafoam

    The Eric Firestone Gallery in East Hampton will open “Seafoam,” a solo exhibition of work by a Brooklyn artist called Bast, who otherwise remains anonymous, on Saturday.

     Bast is known in the art world for painted sculptures with a childlike sensibility made from objects found around Coney Island. New York City residents know him from his graffiti tags and posters on the streets. He uses collage and layering to fulfill his visions of competing and contradictory ideas of the city.

    The show will open with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. and will remain on view through July 3.

Zeigler at Marcelle

    “Gavin Zeigler: A 30-Year Retrospective of Painting and Sculpture, 1983 to 2013” is on view at Bridgehampton’s Peter Marcelle Gallery through June 23. A reception for the artist will be held on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

    Mr. Zeigler takes his inspiration from Kurt Schwitters, Jasper Johns, and David Smith, in mixed-media paintings of everyday objects such as pennies, keys, stock certificates, and bank checks. In his Minimalist sculptures, the surface and color of bronze are the subject.

     Mr. Zeigler, who is from Tennessee, went to school at Fordham University and works out of a Shelter Island studio.

Mallory Samson’s World

     “Extraordinarily Ordinary! Photos by Mallory Samson,” will open at the Southampton Historical Museum on Saturday between 4 and 6 p.m.

    The show is a group of photographs of the collections at the museum that the Southampton artist chose to document. The antique objects include dolls, toys, tools, vintage clothing, china, silver, 19th-century keys, antique horse-show ribbons, and other objects. A collage of about 150 of these images, ranging from five inches to five feet, will cover the museum walls.

     Ms. Samson was previously a fashion editor at Avenue, J. Crew, and Brides; the photography editor at Nike; and a member of the fashion staff at GQ and Self. She is a graduate of Kenyon College. The show will remain on view through Aug. 2.

Blooms of June

    On Saturday and June 29, Lois Bender will teach classes in watercolor using roses, lavender, and herbs taken from the garden at Bridge Gardens from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Participants have been encouraged to take along a chair and a snack as well as art supplies, which can also be purchased from the instructor. The class costs $35 plus materials. To register, which is required, those interested can e-mail [email protected].

New Show at Canio’s

    Canio’s book store in Sag Harbor will display the photographs of Val Schaff­ner beginning Saturday with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. “Mindscapes” will include images of New York City and the South Fork, combining hard-edged buildings and a softer natural environment.

    Mr. Schaffner was the co-owner of the Nabi Gallery in Sag Harbor from 1996 to 2002 and New York City from 2003 until 2011. He has been taking pictures since the age of 15.

    “Millions know their voices, but no one knows their names” is the tagline for “Twenty Feet From Stardom,” a new documentary to be shown as part of the Hamptons International Film Festival’s SummerDocs series on Saturday.

    Morgan Neville has made a film highlighting the names, faces, and stories of those whose voices are inextricable from the songs they helped make famous. Singers such as Merry Clayton, who provided the backup vocals on the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” and Darlene Love, who sang backup on “Da Doo Ron Ron” and other Phil Spector hits and also scored her own credited lead performance on the seasonal anthem “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).”

    In the film these singers share their stories and aspirations from, in Ms. Love’s case, cleaning houses until a rediscovery in the 1980s to Lisa Fischer, who despite winning a Grammy for her own song, decided she preferred the background and returned to a supporting role for bands and performers such as the Stones, Sting, and Aretha Frank­lin.

    The movie is also punctuated by reflections from artists like Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Sting, and Mick Jagger on the importance of their role. Archival footage and an impressive sound track round out the presentation in the film, which was nominated for a grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

    Ms. Fischer will be on hand for a post-screening discussion with Dick Cavett, who will fill in for Alec Baldwin this time. She will also perform. Tickets are $22 and $20 for members. The screening begins at 8:30 p.m.

   Bay Street Theatre’s Comedy Club will feature Kenny Garcia, Vic Henley, Chris Clarke, Mark Riccadonna, and Marina Franklin, all rising stars on Monday, as part of the All Star Comedy Showcase.

    The event will be hosted by Joseph Vecsey, who hosts “The Call Back” podcast, on which he satirically discusses the business of comedy with weekly guests. Mr. Garcia has also seen success in comedy clubs across the U.S., while Mr. Henley has made debuts on late-night shows with Conan O’Brien and David Letterman and co-authored a national bestseller with Jeff Foxworthy. Mr. Clarke is a favorite at the Las Vegas Comedy Festival, and Mr. Riccadonna has toured with the Armed Forces Entertainment over six different continents.

    Tickets cost $25 and are available at baystreet.org or by calling the box office, which is open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. till show time.