Arts

   As an art photographer, Mary Ellen Bartley may have had a long gestational period, but after finding her muse not all that long ago, her career has taken off on a steady upward trajectory.

    Her still-life images of books have been recognized five times in Guild Hall member shows, four years in a row for best photograph, and this year with top honors by Lilly Wei, a critic for Art in America and other publications. In return she will receive a solo show at Guild Hall in 2014.

Buckley at Bay Street

    Betty Buckley will return to the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor with a new show, “Ah Men! The Boys of Broadway,” on Aug. 4 at 8 p.m.

     Ms. Buckley, a Tony Award-winner, is known for her roles in “Cats,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “1776,” and “Pippin.” Her new show will include “Maria” from “West Side Story,” a medley of three songs from “Sweeney Todd,” “Luck Be a Lady” from “Guys and Dolls,” “Corner of the Sky” from “Pippin,” and a comedy piece that was written specifically for this show.

    Guild Hall’s screening of “Babette’s Feast” at 8 tomorrow night will be followed by a conversation with top chefs and a complimentary dessert provided by, of course, Babette’s restaurant. Tickets are $22, $20 for members.

    Before the movie starts, a cocktail reception featuring Scandinavian cuisine will be held at c/o The Maidstone.

    The Watermill Center will present a show of the work of the California artist Mike Kelley, who died this year, beginning at its benefit on Saturday night. The tribute to the artist will be open through Sept. 16, by appointment on the center’s Web site. A $20 donation will be suggested; $10 for students.

Halsey Mckay Presents Three

    The Halsey Mckay Gallery in East Hampton is presenting Ryan Travis Christian in “Something, Something, Black Something,” and “Friends,” a two-person show of new work by Sara Greenberger Rafferty and Andrew Kuo, through Aug. 7.

    Mr. Christian, who is from Chicago, renders “psychological whimsy and madness” in graphite, recalling the work of the British artist Paul Noble, according to the gallery. He will be exhibiting his experiments with sculpture and painting.

   Suddyn, a band led by two brothers from Montauk, now has a new drummer, a new name — the Rebel Light — and a new gig: the July 28 and 29 Catalpa music festival on Manhattan’s Randalls Island. Alan and Jarrett Steil will fly home from Los Angeles this week for the show. With the new drummer, Brandon Cook, they will join headliners such as the Black Keys and Snoop Dogg.

    “#whilewewatch,” a documentary film by Kevin Breslin, will be featured at 8 p.m. tonight at Guild Hall in East Hampton as part of the John Drew Theater’s Red Carpet film series. There will be a talkback discussion with the director after the film.

    Mr. Breslin directed the award-winning “Living for 32,” the story of Colin Goddard, a survivor of the massacre at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. The film was about how Mr. Goddard’s terrible experience caused him to advocate for changing the liberal gun laws in this country.

Rocking the Farm

    Steel Pulse, the Grammy-winning reggae ensemble, will headline Rock the Farm at Ocean View Farm in Amagansett on Saturday starting at 6 p.m. The concert is a fund-raiser for the Wounded Warrior Project. Soldier Ride the Hamptons takes place earlier that day.

   Tomorrow at 8 p.m., a staged reading of “The Glint” by Matt Hoverman will be presented at Guild Hall. Directed by Lonny Price, who just oversaw the production of “Luv” at the John Drew Theater, it will star Richard Benjamin, John Ratzenberger, and Aya Cash. Tickets are $30, $28 for members. The play is about men at 60 who refuse to give up their dreams of success, both in their  careers and with women.

   “Good times,” yelled Inda Eaton to the Stephen Talkhouse crowd last Thursday — which she is indeed known for creating, with her music, raspy soulful voice, truthful storytelling, and sense of humor.

    With a gift for connecting with an audience, Ms. Eaton, who has lived in East Hampton for seven years, showed the locals she gets it, saying how thankful she was for being able to walk into the I.G.A. after the frantic holiday weekend “and load up for next weekend.”

   The 29th season of concerts by the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival begins next Thursday and will showcase a mix of well-known and up-and-coming musicians performing both classical and new music.

   It was a Thursday afternoon, and Monica Banks was home listening to NPR. But it could have been any day, really, as long as she was at work in her East Hampton Village studio or in the workroom she keeps in her house.

    The fact that the artist works to the jumbled sounds of nations crumbling, world economies sputtering, talking heads debating health care reform, or, perhaps in lighter moments, the poignant oral histories of “Storycorps” resonates in her artistic output and seems to urge her along in her practice.

Fireplace Opens Koh

    A solo show by Terence Koh, “yes, pleased,” will open at the Fireplace Project in Springs tomorrow. In his first presentation at the gallery, Mr. Koh will offer a variety of mediums drawn from his work in drawing, sculpture, video, performance, and the Internet.

   Scott Sandell grabbed one of a dozen baseballs from a tall glass vase on his desk and began rubbing the red stitching as he held the ball up for inspection. “It’s a good design,” he said, admiring the ball’s leather cover, “a beautiful thing.” The Sag Harbor artist said that the driving force in his life is his “quest to make a beautiful object.”

‘The Tempest’

    “The Tempest” will storm onto an outdoor stage at Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island for a two-night run this weekend. The 90-minute show, a presentation of the Green Theatre Collective, will start at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, with tickets sold at the door, $15 for adults and $5 for children. The production will take place in a field at the manor, 80 North Ferry Road, unless it rains, in which case it will move indoors to Havens House, 16 South Ferry Road.

   Films, thought-provoking talks, cab­aret, and pop music are on the schedule at Guild Hall this week.

    The Red Carpet film series will present two documentaries by Albert Maysles — “Gimme Shelter” tonight and “The Love We Make” tomorrow, both at 8 p.m.

    “Gimme Shelter,” tells the story of the tragic 1969 concert featuring the Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway at which a fan was stabbed to death in a near riot. Ali Wentworth will moderate a discussion after the screening with Mr. Maysles and other guests to be announced.

   Stony Brook Southampton announced last week that Christine Vachon, an independent filmmaker, has joined its faculty to begin the process of establishing a graduate program in film on the campus.

   If the East End teems with hidden artistic talent, then the annual studio tour sponsored by the Artists Alliance of East Hampton is one of the summer’s singular pleasures of discovery. In the era of slow food and organic harvest, it feels spot-on to find a studio at the end of a country road, discuss art with the artist, and perhaps leave with that gem for your empty wall space.

   When George Frederic Handel presented his newly composed anthems for the coronation of George II and Queen Caroline in Westminster Abbey in 1727, the Archbishop of Canterbury is said to have commented, “The Anthems in confusion; all irregular in the music.”

   Beginning this weekend a series of July art fairs will erect tents in a variety of fields from Bridgehampton to South­ampton, offering attendees a pleasant environment to see work from galleries from the East End to Europe and beyond under one roof while benefiting some local nonprofit organizations.

    First up is the oldest, ArtHamptons, which will begin its fifth iteration today at Nova’s Ark Project in Bridgehampton with two benefit previews for the LongHouse Reserve. It will remain open through Sunday.

Green Fashion

    Barbara de Vries’s design collection “Plastic Is Forever,” which incorporates plastic collected from beaches into fashion, jewelry, and lifestyle products, will be available at Flying Point Surf and Sport in Sag Harbor.

    A film about her project “One Beach” will be screened at the store on Monday from 5 to 7 p.m. It is sponsored by Barefoot Wine and the Surfrider Foundation,

   Guild Hall has a full lineup of films, concerts, and other events for this week that should appeal to everyone in one form or another.

   Filming on “A Maid’s Room,” a movie set on the East End and featuring details that will be entertainingly familiar to Hamptoners, wrapped up last week in Bellport.

   The summer benefit season is in full swing and residents are enjoying parties galore while supporting their favorite charities and organizations.

     If the walls are bare or need a change, the ArtHamptons preview party next Thursday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. might be of help. Guests can purchase artwork offered by 75 galleries from around the world at Nova’s Ark in Bridgehampton during a cocktail reception to benefit the LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton. Admission donations are $125.

    Not everyone played Ping-Pong with Leona Helmsley and lived to tell about it. No, she wasn’t quite that dangerous, said Brian Leaver, but she lived up to her infamous reputation more often than not. He and his brother, Rusty, rubbed elbows, gingerly, with Ms. Helmsley while working in her Greenwich, Conn., mansion.

Pollock Lecture

    Bobbi Coller, a co-curator of “The Persistence of Pollock,” will present a gallery talk on the exhibition at the Pollock-Krasner House on Sunday at 5 p.m. A reception will follow.

    Ms. Coller is an art historian and the chairwoman of the Pollock-Krasner House advisory committee. She will discuss how the committee selected the 13 artists in the show and the ways in which those chosen address Pollock’s legacy.

    The lecture is free; no reservations are necessary.

Art Walk Returns

    Guild Hall will present “Escape” a video art exhibition featuring the work of Laurie Anderson, Burt Barr, Lynda Benglis, Jonathan Horowitz, Joan Jonas, Tony Oursler and Constance DeJong, Keith Sonnier, Andy Warhol, and William Wegman, beginning on Saturday with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m.

Perlman Music Program

    The Perlman Music Program celebrated the opening of its new Kristy and James H. Clark Arts Center last week, on its Shelter Island campus. Programs this summer include, in addition to the summer music school, a chamber music workshop, an alumni concert, the “Tutti Suonare” chamber music concert weekend, and the annual summer benefit.

   The summer concert of the Choral Society of the Hamptons will take a British theme to mark the Queen of England’s Diamond Jubilee and the opening of the Olympic Games in London in July.

    The group will perform on July 7 at 7 p.m. at the parish hall of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton. Joining the members will be the South Fork Chamber Orchestra and four soloists: Anita Johnson, a soprano; Charlene Marcinko, a mezzo-soprano; Eapen Leubner, a tenor, and Frank Basile, a basso cantante.

   Joe Pintauro’s adaptation of Peter Matthiessen’s book “Men’s Lives,” which had its premiere as the inaugural production at the Bay Street Theatre 20 years ago, will be revived there again beginning with previews on Wednesday with an opening night on July 7. The play, directed by Harris Yulin, will run through July 29.