Music, Film, Dance
Musicians from the New York Philharmonic will perform an evening of chamber music on Saturday at 8 at Guild Hall. Titled “In an Italian Garden,” the program will feature compositions by Handel, Rossini, Paganini, Mendelssohn, Bottesini, Brahms, and Glinka. The performers are Yulia Ziskel and Kuan Cheng Lu, violins; Rebecca Young, viola; Patrick Jee, cello; Timothy Cobb, double bass; Anthony McGill, clarinet, and Eric Huebner, piano. Tickets are $30 to $100, $28 to $95 for members.
The Retreat will hold a benefit screening at Guild Hall of “Donna: Stronger Than Pretty” next Thursday at 7 p.m., months before the film’s national release. Directed and co-written by Jaret Martino, it is the story of a young mother’s struggles to break free from a husband who refuses to be responsible for her, his children, or his own actions.
A cocktail reception with the filmmaker will take place beforehand. After the screening, a panel of survivors of domestic abuse will answer questions and tell their stories. Tickets start at $60 on eventbrite.com.
Another benefit, this one in support of the Actors Fund and its various services, will take place on Friday, July 19, at 7 p.m., when Dancers for Good will perform at Guild Hall. The show will include members of Madboots Dance, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Carolyn Dorfman Dance, Amy Marshall Dance, and Buglisi Dance Theatre.
Cady Huffman, an actress, will host the evening, which will honor Jerry Mitchell, a Broadway director and choreographer whose credits include “Kinky Boots.” Tickets, available at dancersforgood.org, are $150 for the show only, or $250 for front orchestra seating and a post-show reception.
Madness and Genius
Roger Keizerstein, a pediatric clinical social worker and certified trauma professional, will give three lectures on “The Majesty and Mystery of the Relationship Between Mental Illness and Artistic and Scientific Genius” starting on Monday at 7 p.m. at the Southampton Cultural Center.
The first talk will focus on the traumas and posttraumatic stress endured by three iconic American writers, J.D. Salinger, Truman Capote, and Maya Angelou. On July 22, Mr. Keizerstein will consider the forms of mental illness that afflicted Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Delmore Schwartz.
The series will conclude on July 29 with a discussion of the contributions to American society of three gay, Jewish historical figures, the composer Aaron Copland, the neurologist Oliver Sacks, and the mathematician Edith Windsor. Tickets are $10 at the door.
An Eco-Musical
“Eco the Musical” will be performed outdoors and for free on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Southampton Arts Center. The action is set in the future, when humanity is faced with the ravages of climate change and a young woman named Eco is searching for her family amid the chaos.
The play, which has a contemporary pop soundtrack, was written by
Refreshments and bar service will be available for purchase. Guests have been encouraged to take blankets and chairs.
Halston Documentary
The Hamptons Doc Fest will screen “Halston,” a new documentary by Frederic Tcheng about one of America’s first superstar designers, on Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Southampton Arts Center. Halston first became famous when Jackie Kennedy wore a pillbox hat of his design to her husband’s inauguration. Other iconic Halston designs included hot pants, the Ultrasuede shirtwaist dress, and the halter dress.
Mr. Tcheng combines rare archival footage with interviews with the designer’s family and friends, among them Liza Minnelli, Andy Warhol, and Iman. Tickets are $15, $12 for SAC and Doc Fest members.
On Chinese Art
Two documentaries on contemporary Chinese art by Lana Jokel, the Shanghai-born filmmaker whose subjects have included Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, and Larry Rivers, will be screened at the Keyes Gallery in Sag Harbor.
“Chinese Contemporary Art: Artists Working in China,” which covers the flourishing of innovative, challenging contemporary art during the past 15 years, will be shown Thursday at 8 p.m. “Chinese Hand Laundry and Field of Waste,” set for next Thursday at 8, follows two Chinese avant-garde artists on a trip to New York in 1993 for a show at the New Museum of Contemporary Art.