What's Happening At Guild Hall This Summer

Guild Hall is bringing yet another jam-packed season to the East End this summer.

The cultural center for visual and performing arts in East Hampton is making big additions this year, including several ongoing series of conversations, staged readings, musical performances and film screenings.

Currently being exhibited in all three museum galleries are works by Laurie Anderson, the recipient of the 2011 Guild Hall Lifetime Achievement Award known for her performance art and multimedia projects. Her exhibition highlights three components of the artist’s skills: video performance, drawings and an interactive virtual reality exhibit, which is the only one of its kind on Long Island, according to Chief Curator Christina Mossaides.

“This woman is just constantly doing something different and exploring the edges of art to new barriers,” Ms. Mossaides said of Ms. Anderson.

The next gallery exhibition will be by painter, sculptor and printmaker Ellsworth Kelly, beginning on August 11 and on view through October 8.

Beginning this month and continuing into August is the “Summer of Stories” series, featuring first-person accounts, comedic anecdotes and interviews with a diverse range of guests.

Coming up in the series on Friday, June 22, is an evening with Philippe Petit sharing his experience of tightrope walking between the World Trade Towers, and on Sunday, June 24, animator Miwa Matreyek will give a performance combining projected animations and the artist’s videos.

Next month will feature songs and stories by composer Zoe Sarnak on Thursday, July 12, messages of peace and hope by Musicians for World Harmony founder Samite on Friday, July 13, and a “campfire concert” by award-winning musician Heather Christian on Thursday, July 26.

“It’s sort of part séance, part spiritual evening, part performance and part storytelling,” Artistic Director Josh Gladstone said of Ms. Christian’s upcoming performance.

Later in the summer there will be a community conversation about mass incarceration and the criminal justice system titled “Vengeance” with Sarah Koenig, Zach Lazar and Garnette Cadogan on Wednesday, August 8. An evening with humorist David Sedaris is planned on Saturday, August 4, and a live taping of “Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin” is on Saturday, August 18.

Another special series this summer is “Guitar Masters,” which will celebrate the artistry of guitar with a talk by Ken Parker on guitar making on Saturday, July 7, concerts by Andy Summers and Ralph Gibson on Thursday, July 5, by G.E. Smith with Richard and Teddy Thompson on Friday, July 6, and by David Broza, Badi Assad and Brandon Ross on Saturday, July 7. The series also includes screenings of “Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police” on Thursday, July 5, “Badi” and “History of Electric Guitar” on Friday, July 6, and “East Jerusalem West Jerusalem” on Saturday, July 7. Later, Mr. Smith will present “Portraits,” featuring performances and conversations with singers Sophie B. Hawkins and Trevor Hall on Friday, July 27, and Scott and Seth Avett of The Avett Brothers on Sunday, August 19.

There will be staged readings this summer of “Betrayal” by Harold Pinter on Monday, July 30, “Daughters of the Sexual Revolution” by Dana Leslie Goldstein on Thursday, August 2, “Locura” by Michael Marrero on Tuesday, August 14, and “Thursday, Three” by Eugene Pack on Tuesday, August 21.

Featured comedians this year are Hasan Minhaj of “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” on Saturday, June 23, actress Sandra Bernhard on Saturday, June 30, Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter of The Roots on Friday, August 3, and stand-up comic Tig Notaro on Saturday, August 18.

Upcoming conversations will feature inspirational stories with Questlove of The Roots and special guests on Sundays, July 29 and August 12, talks presented by the Montauk Observatory about space exploration on Wednesday, June 27, and a family-friendly event on life as an astronaut on Friday, June 29, and a talk by Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad on equality in the Hamptons on Friday, July 13.

“Stirring the Pot,” a special conversations series with culinary celebrities hosted by New York Times writer Florence Fabricant on Sundays, will feature Sam Sifton on July 29, Masaharu Morimoto on August 5, David Bouley on August 12 and Carla Hall on August 19.

The Hamptons International Film Festival will present “Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind” on Friday, June 29, “Chef Flynn” on Saturday, August 25, and “Bathtubs Over Broadway” on Saturday, July 21, all of which will be followed by a Q&A session with HIFF Co-Chairman Alec Baldwin.

In Guild Hall’s John Drew Theater this summer will be “Let’s Misbehave: The Music and Life of Cole Porter” on Sunday, July 1, “Baby, Dream Your Dream: The Great Women Songwriters” on Sunday, July 8, a solo concert by banjo player Béla Fleck on Sunday, August 5, a performance by gun safety advocacy band Young Musicians Unite on Thursday, August 9, an evening with “Hamilton” star Anthony Ramos on Saturday, August 11, and a performance by Canadian musical group Choir!Choir!Choir on Friday, August 17.

The New York City Ballet will return to Guild Hall on Friday, August 24, for a unique and intimate look into the famous dance company.

Also presented in the theater will be something different from what has ever been done before: a two-week-long experimental play commissioned with actor Christian Scheider, the son of “Jaws” actor Roy Scheider.

“It’s a play involving puppetry, technology, projections … It uses the whole theater space,” Mr. Gladstone said. “It’s about artificial intelligence, the end of the physical body and the mind being uploaded into the Cloud. It’s going to be this trippy, science fiction happening. It’s not a play in the traditional sense—they won’t even allow me to call it a play, they insist we call it an experimental performance.”

The experiment will run from August 31 to September 9.

From music to storytelling to dance, Guild Hall has something for any fan of the arts this summer.

“We’ve really been trying to expand the reach of our partners,” Mr. Gladstone said. “There’s going to be stuff that’s original and new, and there’s the classic stuff we’ve had for ages. There’s something for everyone.”

For more information on upcoming events at Guild Hall, call 631-324-0806 or visit guildhall.org.