A welcoming round of applause greeted Danny Glover and Roy Scheider as they stepped onto the Bay Street Theatre stage in Sag Harbor Saturday evening for a Hayground School benefit appearance. By the end of the show, however, the applause was as much for the people who helped make them the men who they are as it was for the performers themselves.

"Who's Gonna Be There?" a dramatic dialogue about mentors, was created by Mr. Glover, Mr. Scheider, and Belvie Rooks, who also directed the piece. Proceeds from the tickets, which started at $125, will go toward offsetting expenses at the fledgling Bridgehampton school. A dinner for contributors of $5,000 or more was held following the performance at Jayni and Chevy Chase's East Hampton house.

The Hayground School first opened for students in September in temporary quarters in the Bridgehampton Methodist Church. A permanent structure now is under construction on Mitchell's Lane in Bridgehampton. Fifty-five students signed up for the school's first year, ranging in age from 3 to 14 years. Two-thirds of the students are on full or partial tuition assistance.

Personal Stories

The spare set, on a black stage, consisting of two stools and two large easels, each supporting three rectangular, poster-sized boards whose flipsides would be revealed during the performance, helped focus attention on the actors. As befits an era in which introspection rules the day, the two men shared personal memories of the people who served as mentors in their lives.

Mr. Glover went first, describing his father, whose greatest gift to his child was a strong sense of identity. "He made me feel like a son," Mr. Glover remembered, "and this is something I am trying to pass on to my daughter - that she's my daughter." While he spoke, Mr. Scheider rose from his stool and turned one of the poster boards around. It held a black-and-white picture of Mr. Glover and his 5-foot, 2-inch father, dressed in shirtsleeves and ties, enjoying a smiling conversation. An audible sigh rose from the audience.

Carried With Care

Despite his small stature, the elder Mr. Glover would carry young Danny, then nearly as big as himself, on his back to Stanford Hospital from south Oakland in California on a series of bus rides to get treatment for his son's enlarged heart. "We'd ride one line to the end, then he'd put me on his back and carry me over to the next," Mr. Glover recalled.

Smiles were present in Mr. Scheider's first photograph as well; however, the picture was not of his father but of Friend Avery, the man who provided a sense of support and joy that Mr. Scheider said he never found in his own father. He recalled how he was able, in turn, to give Mr. Avery affection he was not able to show his father.

This early relationship, Mr. Scheider said, "helped validate me." The idea of validation resonated for Mr. Glover as well. "Validation is critical," he said.

In Second Grade

That he had worth in the world was a lesson Mr. Glover gained from the next person he described, one of his grade school teachers. He spoke about the difficulty he had in school due to undiagnosed dyslexia. His teacher saw that he was good at math and encouraged him in that area. Mr. Glover said that it was the first time in his life that he felt good at something in class. She also urged her students to be good citizens and taught them about responsibility.

Mr. Glover was appointed milk monitor, a job he described as a source of pride for a second-grader. He was also given his first theatrical role: one speaking line in an Easter pageant. But when the young Mr. Glover misbehaved and lost both the part and the monitor's job, he learned the meaning of responsibility. The actor said his punishment was was appropriate: "She's shadowed me all my life," he explained.

Key Professor

Mr. Scheider also had a teacher in his life that he considered a mentor, a college theater professor, Darryl Larsen, whom he fondly described as having "a grin like Jabba the Hut." From Professor Larsen, Mr. Scheider obtained "a good kind of arrogance" that helped him in a very difficult career later in life.

"Darryl was the first person who treated me like an adult," Mr. Scheider said. It had been planned that Mr. Scheider attend law school after obtaining his bachelor's degree, but near graduation he broke the news to his father that he would follow a different path.

"I'm an actor," he told his father, who replied simply, "You're a damn fool." Mr. Scheider then went to Professor Larsen's office, a cubicle off the university stage. "Darryl, do you think I can make a living as an actor?" Mr. Scheider recalled asking. "He launched into a long tirade about how I wasn't exceptionally tall, or handsome, or leading man material, and when he was done, I said, 'But do you think I can make a living?' and he said, 'Yes, I think you can make a living.' "

Mr. Scheider also described Harold Clurman, founder of the Group Theater, as a personal mentor and a mentor to American acting in general. Mr. Scheider's stage experience came to light as he walked through memories of early auditions, mimicking Mr. Clurman's accent and gestures.

For Mr. Glover, a most important mentor was Margie Wade, a friend and committed civil rights activist who introduced him, indirectly, to both his wife and the path his life would follow.

"I had a real anger inside about the things that were going on," he said, and "she helped me use these feelings in a positive way." At her urging, Mr. Glover became involved in a mentor project himself at a California university.

In The Spotlight

There he met Amiri Baraka (Leroy Jones), who gave him his first part in a play. During this period Mr. Glover discovered the work of Athol Fugard, who, he felt, "wrote just for me." "That's the good kind of arrogance I was talking about," Mr. Scheider interjected.

How appropriate that this discussion about mentors, the people who help young people develop and blossom, was created to benefit a school that is dedicated to a broad engagement of teachers, parents, and the community in students' lives.

At the evening's close, Mr. Avery and the elder Mr. Glover were invited onto the stage, major players in the lives of two impressive, inspirational, and generous actors and human beings. On Sunday, a special Mother's Day performance was presented for families in the area at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor.

He helped draw thousands to Montauk's Deep Hollow Ranch, and now Southampton College is hoping the legendary James Taylor will do the same for this year's All for the Sea concert. The college this week announced Mr. Taylor as the headliner for the sixth annual outdoor benefit, scheduled for July 28.

Mr. Taylor was the featured act at the Back at the Ranch concert in Montauk in 1995. His return to the area will catch him on his 35-city, Summer '97 Hourglass Tour. The singer's new album, "Hourglass," is set to be released on Tuesday.

Over and above his 25 years' worth of soft-spoken folk-rock classics like "Carolina on My Mind," "You've Got a Friend," and "Fire and Rain," the All for the Sea organizers said they were attracted to Mr. Taylor's record of environmental involvement; the popular concert raises money for the college's scholarship program in marine sciences.

Environmental Credentials

Mr. Taylor serves on the National Resources Defense Council and has supported and appeared in the Rain Forest Foundation's annual fund-raising concerts. The song "Gaia" on "Hourglass" is a plea for environmental awareness.

"We're thrilled," said the college's chancellor, Robert F.X. Sillerman, predicting "another blockbuster evening" on a par with last year's sold-out appearance by Jimmy Buffet.

"[Mr. Taylor] is a spectacular talent, but he's also a humanitarian and a supporter of environmental causes," Mr. Sillerman added. "When those two come together, you have an ideal situation."

On Sale Today

Tickets for All for the Sea are $35 for general admission. They can be purchased, starting today, through Ticketmaster, at the college bursar's office, and at Long Island Sound branches. The Westhampton Beach Music Experience will also carry tickets.

A limited number of V.I.P. tickets will be sold as well, entitling their holders to preferred seating and parking and admission to a pre-concert party. Those wishing to reserve V.I.P. tickets or to advertise in the concert program can call the college's development office.

All tickets must be purchased in advance; none will be available at the gate.

The All for the Sea concert has attracted big crowds in its six years. Last year's appearances by The Allman Brothers and Jimmy Buffet drew roughly 6,000 and 8,000 concertgoers respectively. Past headliners have included Tina Turner, Foreigner, and Tony Bennett.

Guild Hall Series

In other concert news, another name was added this week to the Absolut/Seagram's concert series at Guild Hall: Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy will bring their blues unit Hot Tuna in for a show on Aug. 30 at 8 p.m.

Tickets for the entire Guild Hall series went on sale May 3 through Ticketmaster and the Guild Hall box office. More acts are expected to be announced.

As for this year's Back at the Ranch concert, its chief organizer, Gardner (Rusty) Leaver of Deep Hollow Ranch, said the lineup would be announced possibly in the next week or two. "We're not ready to release anything yet," said Mr. Leaver. "We're still planning and waiting to hear back on a couple of offers we put out."

The Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett has pretty much solidified its summer lineup. Some noteworthy shows include The Band (Friday, May 23), The Commitments (May 29), Freddy Johnston (June 12), The Average White Band (June 21), Peter Wolf (of The J. Geils Band - June 29), The Bogmen (July 3 and 4), Beausoleil (July 19), and The Fabulous Thunderbirds (Aug. 14).

In two weeks, on June 1 at Radio City Music Hall, the movers and shakers of the theater world will gather for their great evening, the annual Tony Awards. Among the attendees will be Donald Brooks, a three-time Oscar nominee for his costume designs and a man whose name has been synonymous with classic fashion for men and women for nearly four decades.

As a member of the 25-person nominating committee for the Tonys, Mr. Brooks sees more Broadway shows than most people. It's lucky, he loves the theater.

"I've attended 33 shows this year," he says, "and this is my fifth year on the committee."

He admits that so many plays and musicals packed into a few months, even weeks, is "a little frantic," but says it can't be helped. With the Tonys in mind, said Mr. Brooks, many shows open late in the season to be "closer to the nominations, so their productions are fresh in everyone's minds."

Grueling Schedule

"I suppose there is logic to that, except that nominating committee members have 17 or 18 new show openings just in the month of April, just prior to a six-hour day of nominations in 22 theatrical categories."

The grueling schedule "can become wearing," said Mr. Brooks, "when you are analyzing and remembering performers and performances and comparing one to the other, seeking the serious, the worthy, the valuable, the beautiful, the stunning."

Mr. Brooks is a director of the American Theater Wing, under whose auspices the Tony Awards are presented. He has had a lifelong affair with the theater, and his career is as much associated with Broadway and Hollywood as Seventh Avenue, though his name may be more familiar to the fashion-conscious from the labels of many a black cocktail dress or gentleman's sports jacket.

Something In Theater

Born in New York City but reared in Cheshire, Conn., near New Haven, Mr. Brooks remembers himself as an "unpopular little kid, ambitious, strange, and artistic, who, when on my own, read or went to the movies and often to the Schubert Theatre in New Haven with my parents."

As a boy, he was fascinated by the "look" of movies - by what the designers had done to make them "glorious." "I knew I wanted to do something in the theater, either design theaters themselves, be a scenic designer, a costume designer, or do all three. And I wanted to do the same for the movies."

After studying English, fine arts, and textile design at Syracuse University and attending the Parsons School of Design, Mr. Brooks landed a summer internship at Lord & Taylor in the mid-'50s. He was guided by the department store's president, Dorothy Shaver, whom he recalls as "that brilliant visionary," not just for her talent but because "she made sure I had a crack at Seventh Avenue."

The Brooks Look

"I was interested only in theater design," he said. "But they sent me to Seventh Avenue, and that was how I got into the fashion business."

A big break came in the late '50s when the Townley Corporation invited him to take over after Claire McCardell died. It was at Townley that the "Brooks Look" was created. It "had to do with really very simple clothes and beautiful fabrics that supported women with confidence and flair. The lines depended on the character of the woman wearing them to make the clothes seem more important then they really were."

His work caught the attention of the fashion press, and over the next few years Mr. Brooks won three Coty Awards, the most prestigious prizes in the American fashion industry. Those were among the most creative years of his design life, he said, the years when he added evening and dinner clothes to the sportswear he had become noted for - making, he said, "a well-rounded collection."

Live Audition

But never, even during his early success as a fashion designer, did he lose sight of his dream of designing for the theater and the movies.

Having read in a newspaper that Richard Rodgers was writing a new musical about a black model in Manhattan, he asked Mr. Rodgers's daughter, Mary, a friend, for an introduction.

"Instead of showing up with a bunch of sketches of pretty dresses, I engaged six models, including one black model, Mozella Roberts, and a black model, Mozella Roberts, and a couple of porters, and we took steamer trunks loaded with clothes. Twelve of us turned up, and Mr. Rogers's receptionist was thrown off - she was expecting just me and some sketches."

"I also brought a windup Victrola, some Richard Rodgers music, cranked the thing up, put on the music, and the models showed off the clothes."

"No Strings" And After

Within 48 hours he signed a contract to design the costumes for "No Strings" and its star, Diahann Caroll. It was his first Broadway show and it won him the New York Drama Critics Design Award.

As a result of "No Strings," Otto Preminger asked Mr. Brooks to design costumes for the movie "The Cardinal." An Oscar nomination for costume design followed.

So did many more Broadway shows, more than 30 of them. Among them: "Barefoot in the Park" with Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley, "Promises, Promises" with Jerry Orbach and Jill O'Hara, "Baby Want a Kiss" with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, and "Flora the Red Menace" with Liza Minnelli.

He has also designed for Ethel Merman, Tammy Grimes, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and Alice Faye, among others.

"Star"

Two of Mr. Brooks's most successful movies starred Julie Andrews. One of them, 20th-Century Fox's "Star," the story of Gertrude Lawrence, was his "most elaborate job," he said.

"Its time frame covered the years 1917 to 1954 and required 3,500 costumes - 150 of them for Julie alone." His work earned him his second Oscar nomination.

On the heels of "Star," Mr. Brooks did Ms. Andrews's costumes for "Darling Lili" and received another nomination for an Academy Award.

Mr. Brooks lived in Hollywood that year, commuting back to his fashion design business in Manhattan a total of 78 times. In Hollywood, he rented Lee Remick's house, had offices at both 20th-Century Fox and Paramount, met every star, writer, composer, and director imaginable, and went to parties with such as Cary Grant, Loretta Young, Claudette Colbert, and Gary Cooper.

Among his closest friends were Judy Garland and Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner. He was working on a project with Ms. Wood at the time of her death.

Donald Brooks Inc.

In 1966 Mr. Brooks set up his own fashion business, Donald Brooks, Inc. "As a creative person," he said, "I was never interested in being a recreative person, so I didn't follow the Paris shows or succumb to the European influence. I was strictly a local boy trying to keep pure."

He acknowledges, though, the influences of Adrian, Norman Norell, and Mainbocher.

During the 20 years he maintained his business, he designed swimsuit, sleepwear, sunglasses, lingerie, and menswear collections. He also designed his own fabrics - "the only way I could control the way my clothes would look in the stores."

In 1986 Mr. Brooks closed the business and "backed away slowly" from fashion. He felt tastes had stalled, he said, and clothes were becoming standardized. "All those separate tops and jackets - it became arduous and boring to design the same things over and over again."

These days, besides the Tony Awards and the American Theater Wing, which brings Broadway to schools and hospitals, he maintains an active and meaningful schedule.

He is on the board of the Parsons School of Design and teaches theatrical design there. His students undertake an annual project, constructing costumes of Ziegfeld proportions, that blossoms into a full-fledged show at the Marriott Marquis hotel, an annual fund-raiser for the school. This year it raised just under $2 million for scholarships.

Mr. Brooks is also a director of the Theatre Development Fund, helps raise money for the Actors Fund hospital and retirement home in Englewood, N.J., and serves on the board of the Theatre Hall of Fame.

No Time For Fashion

On the East End, where he has had a house since 1954 (he lives in Bridgehampton when not in Manhattan), he raises money for the Southampton Fresh Air Home and for Southampton Hospital.

In his leisure time he reads murder mysteries (Ross McDonald and Raymond Chandler are his favorites), paints (abstracts and geometrics), and is researching 1940s Hollywood for a possible musical based on the life and career of Rita Hayworth.

He occasionally designs clothes for private customers, but says these days he gives fashion "as little thought as possible" and sees "little that is really fascinating or wonderful or beautiful."

Recommended

He admires Armani, however, and thinks the designer Geoffrey Beene's clothes are distinguished. His own creations are showcased in the Smithsonian, at the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Collection, and in the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Mr. Brooks says if you miss the Tony Awards at Radio City or on television, Broadway is teeming with fine productions.

He recommends "Titanic" ("scenery design the likes of which has never been seen: You almost see the ship go down before your very eyes"), "Barrymore" with Christopher Plummer, a revival of "The Gin Game" with Julie Harris, Rip Torn in "The Young Man From Atlanta," "The Life," a new musical by Cy Coleman, and "London Assurance"

An Oedipus myth retold with a touch of a 1960s television show? People "camping out" till the box office opens for tickets to hot summer concerts? A gallery exhibit that dances? Short films, French films, musicals, internationally significant art shows, acclaimed authors, and major American artists!

Consider this the calm before the season-long cultural storm at East Hampton's Guild Hall. While the Absolut Vodka-Seagram's Tonic concerts will bring a wide range of artists such as Willie Nelson, George Carlin, Hot Tuna, George Shearing, and Joe Williams to Guild Hall's intimate John Drew Theater, its galleries will be host to three major exhibits this summer.

The first, an important show focusing on women and Abstract Expressionism, opened last week. It features seven prominent female artists - Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Betty Parsons, Perle Fine, Dorothy Dehner, and Ethel Schwabacher - who were assigned only minor roles in the movement they had participated in from the start.

Three Installations

The show, said the museum's interim curator, Donna Stein, "is a redressing of the period." Five of the seven had close connections to the East End and the others are said to have been occasional visitors.

The next exhibit in line, in late June, is a show of three installations by two major artists - Alice Aycock and Ilya Kabakov - both of whom have houses on the East End, Ms. Aycock in Noyac and Mr. Kabakov in Mattituck.

Mr. Kabakov, who comes from the former Soviet Union, is one of the most widely exhibited Russian artists today. He was the subject of a panel discussion at the museum last year and his installations, which are included in this year's Whitney Biennial, have received much attention.

"Waltzing Matilda"

Mr. Kabakov creates installations that reflect the transitions of the Soviet Union in the past decade, and to some his work symbolizes the displacement of generations who grew up under Soviet rule.

The pieces featured in this show are from two major series - "Holidays" and "Incident in the Corridor on the Way to the Communal Kitchen." They will be created specifically for Guild Hall.

Ms. Aycock's piece, "Waltzing Matilda," is a "dancing" work inspired by the Australian folk song of the same name. When the piece moves it traces the outline of contra dances from the 19th century. Ms. Aycock will give a talk at Guild Hall on July 13.

The third exhibit of the season will feature the work of Childe Hassam, an early 20th-century American Impressionist painter and etcher who was one of East Hampton's most celebrated artists. The show, "East Hampton Summers," will focus on the paintings he did while on the East End. It will open on Aug. 9.

Visitors to the gallery will recognize much of his subject matter, for, despite the changes in East Hampton's landscape, much of what he depicted has been preserved. The exhibit catalogue will compare Hassam's East Hampton to today's.

A fourth show, "The Moran Family Legacy: The 12 Apostles of Art," will open in the fall. It will feature paintings by 14 members of Thomas Moran's family and documentary photographs. Moran lived in East Hampton for some 50 years and though he is the best known of the family, many of his relatives were also highly prolific artists.

Art Talks

Landscape designers might want to save Aug. 10 for a panel discussion on contemporary landscape architecture that will accompany the Hassam exhibit. Panelists will include Frances Levine, George Hargreaves, Patricia Cobb, Mary Miss, and Peter Wirtz.

Also included in the art talks this summer will be an interview of Larry Rivers by Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, a talk by Eric Fischl, and a discussion of the gardens at LongHouse in East Hampton by Jack Lenor Larsen.

Three new series will liven up the Guild Hall schedule this summer - a play-reading series held at the Art Barge last summer, a revival of the Hot Topics discussions, and "92nd Street Y Goes to the Beach."

Three New Series

The play-reading series, presented by the New York theater group Birnam Wood, was a sell-out at the Art Barge last summer and has decamped to the John Drew for a little more elbow room this year. The new plays are sometimes works in progress, sometimes completed products scheduled to open Off Broadway in the coming year.

Among the playwrights who will present their works are David Magee, Catherine Gillet, Kelly Gwin, Ron McLarty, and Christopher Durang. Mr. Durang, who wrote "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All to You," will read one of his newest plays for the first time on June 27 in the John Drew.

"92nd Street Y Goes to the Beach" will come to the John Drew in July and feature performances by Dick Hyman with Derek Smith July 7 and with Ruth Laredo on July 14. Carol Woods and the Barry Levitt Trio with the Manhattan Rhythm Kings will bring the show "Who Could Ask for Anything More?" on July 28. And, on Aug. 11, Joy Behar will interview the controversial feminist author Camille Paglia.

Literary Heavyweights

Guild Hall's Hot Topics series in July should spark some heat. On July 13, panelists will ask the question "East Hampton: Are We Building It Up or Tearing It Down?" The issues in subsequent weeks will be the influence of American media and culture and the performance of the Clinton Administration.

Impressed yet?

As it has in years past, Guild Hall will also host a number of famous poets and writers. Dava Sobel, the author of "Longitude," will read, as will Edward Klein, editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine for many years, and Mary Karr, who wrote the acclaimed memoir "Liars Club."

Peter Matthiessen, who wrote "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" and "The Spirit of Crazy Horse," among many works, will appear at the museum. The poets John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch will give a rare joint reading in July, and E.L. Doctorow will read from his new book. That's just a sampling of the literary talent that will grace Guild Hall's writers series.

Film Series

August will bring the American Musical Theater's tribute to Peter Stone. A writer for Broadway, television, and films, Mr. Stone has won Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Awards. His "Titanic" is now playing on Broadway.

Also in August, the Oedipal comedy "Tempting Fate" comes to the John Drew. In this play, when characters ask their Magic Eight Ball for guidance, the answer "You're going to kill your father and marry your mother" is what they get. Debbie Troche and Ted Baus created and will perform in "Tempting Fate."

For those with a passion for film, there will be at least two opportunities to indulge. A French film series with the theme "Before there were American films there were French ones," will take over the screen beginning July 10 with "Les Miserables," loosely based on the book by Victor Hugo.

Summer Shorts, a series of short films presented by the Long Island Film Festival, will be launched on Aug. 13.

Guild Hall will offer its traditional Clothesline Art Show, classes in the performing and visual arts for children and adults, and special programs for children.

And a Labor Day rock-and-roll concert by Leslie Gore will close out the summer season - although the Guild Hall beat will go on in September.

Tuesday's school board elections and budget proposals, no matter how you feel about the specifics, are cause for satisfaction.

In almost every one of the eight districts in this area, interest seems to be on the increase, and for good reason. What happens today in the classroom affects what is going to happen tomorrow in the town, and there is plenty happening this year, from tiny Wainscott, which is contemplating adding two more members to its single-trustee board, to populous East Hampton, where tougher state educational standards and a series of administrative turnovers seriously challenge board members.

The difference between the 1997 school elections and last year's is reflected in the number of candidates running for board seats - 22 of them from Wainscott to Montauk at last count. Last year, seats on four of the six large district boards (Wainscott and Sagaponack excepted) were uncontested. This year, the only district where a candidate is unopposed is Springs. It would seem that the contentiousness of board proceedings in Springs during the last few years has made serving there seem like a nightmare.

In East Hampton and Bridgehampton, the question of leadership is paramount. East Hampton is about to choose a new high school principal and probably will have to hire a new District Superintendent as well, within a year. Bridgehampton is already in the midst of a Superintendent search, a commendable months-long effort that has reached out to the community at large.

Both high schools, like others across New York State, must prepare also to make some hard decisions about educational policy. There are limited dollars with which to meet stringent new Regents standards and to equip some of the schools with the computers and other materials needed.

The decades-old debate over the consolidation of local districts versus home rule also looms very large this year in East Hampton Town, where the new school boards will have to digest the results of a forthcoming state study and opt for further examination of the possibilities or for the status quo.

The duties of school board members have never been easy, but they seem to get harder every year. All these public-spirited citizens, who serve without pay, are owed a large debt of gratitude by their communities.

Because the questions confronting them are so complicated, incumbent candidates, with the advantage of years of experience, are often to be preferred to newcomers. Such is the case in Sag Harbor, where the fiscally conscious Thomas Horn and the child-centered Darlene Semlear deserve re-election.

In East Hampton, we have one clear choice. She is Laura Anker-Grossman, making another bid for a board seat after serving two terms and then losing an election last year.

Amagansett's race, where two people are vying for the seat being vacated by Patrick Bistrian after 30 years of service, has drawn a good deal of interest, as letters to the editor this week attest.

Both candidates have organizational skills. Rick Slater, Mr. Bistrian's son-in-law, is a past president of the East Hampton Village Police Benevolent Association and is interested in computer education, a pressing issue for all schools. His opponent, Lucy Kazickas, is a member of Amagansett's School's long-range planning committee and a former president of the White Plains, N.Y., League of Women Voters. We believe her fresh outlook would be valuable and favor her election.

In Montauk, where four candidates are vying for one seat, we lean toward The Star's former correspondent, Eileen Bock. She has been well informed on school affairs for years and is a moderate representative of the retired community. We also think Steve Pomerantz is a very good candidate, however.

In Bridgehampton, one of the incumbents, James Spooner, is only running reluctantly, while two others with new enthusiasm have stepped forward. We endorse the other incumbent, Patricia (Paddy) Noble, and Damon Darden, the more experienced of the new candidates. Although we are not endorsing him this time around, we also have to express admiration for Henry Hodge who, at 22, is a most welcome addition to the community.

Last, but not least, this year's budgets deserve to be passed.In Springs, there is actually a decrease and the others have risen only within reasonable bounds.

The happy combination of a strong candidate showing and a relatively uncontroversial set of budgets will, it is hoped, presage a large voter turnout on Tuesday and relatively smooth sailing in the next academic year.

What would you do if you found something on the beach painted battleship gray, shaped like a rocket or some kind of torpedo, with writing on its side that read: "Do not touch, report your find to the military, or local police?"

The person who found what turned out to be a United States Navy white phosphorous flare recently picked it up, put it in her car, and drove it to the East Hampton Town Police station.

WRONG!

Fishermen have been known to do similar things after dragging up an occasional piece of ordnance from the ocean floor. In one case, a bomb, which authorities later determined was live, sat in the office at a commercial dock for days.

WRONG!

And, we know of a Montauk resident who found an old artillery shell buried in his backyard and carried it around in the trunk of his car to show people.

WRONG!

In August, the Navy will visit the Ruins, an old fortification on what was once the north end of Gardiner's Island, to search for dangerous devices. The Ruins was used for a target practice during World Wars I and II.

The wars the East End prepared for may be over, but the remnants of the all-but-forgotten gun emplacements, anti-aircraft guns, and torpedo firing ranges remain. And there are other sources. The flare brought to town police headquarters probably was left over from the search for the downed TWAFlight 800 last summer.

Take heed. Believe it when something suspicious-looking carries a "Don't Touch" message. And, indeed, it's time for the schools to teach the same lesson to our children.

RIGHT!

The Empress . . . was dazzlingly beautiful. Where else would one see a red . . . robe like this? Beneath it she wore a willow-green robe of Chinese damask, five layers of unlined robes of grape-colored silk, a robe of Chinese gauze with blue prints over a plain white background, and a ceremonial skirt of elephant-eye silk. I felt that nothing in the world could compare with the beauty of these colors.

So wrote Shonagon Sei, a lady-in-waiting to a 10th-century Japanese empress. One thousand years later, the description speaks to us as vividly as if it had been written yesterday - we're still intoxicated by beautiful clothes.

"The Kimono Inspiration: Art and Art-to-Wear in America" at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton is a heady treat both for those who get weak-kneed over hand-dyed silk and elaborate embroidery and also for those who know that art doesn't always come on a pedestal or in a square frame.

Antique Kimonos

The lighting has been lowered in the first gallery at the museum to protect the antique kimonos, which are displayed on a dais of raw wood and river stones.

One robe in particular, a silk furisode from the mid-19th century with long, swinging sleeves, is the kimono at its most breathtaking. Against a background of plum-colored silk an entire rhythmical embroidered landscape swirls and flows.

Here and there among the stylized trees, reeds, and blossoms - whose patterns are never exactly repeated - is a small house, a bridge, or a perching bird. One could weep for the loss of such skills.

The serious and well-disciplined will take their time in this room, which documents with photos, postcards, drawings, and paintings the influence of the kimono on Western fashion over the last century.

After Commodore Perry pressured Japan to open its borders in 1854, travelers began to return with kimonos and other artesania and a craze for everything and anything Japanese swept the West: Japonisme became the big word in art, architects were influenced by Japanese simplicity, "Madame Butterfly" died on a thousand stages, and the Three Little Maids from Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado" appeared in advertisements for soap.

But above all, the symbol of the exotic East was the kimono, representing to Victorian minds - male minds, of course - three titillating concepts: the eroticism of the unknown, the rumored sexual skills of the geisha, and the totally submissive behavior of Japanese women.

Monet, Renoir, Tissot, van Gogh, Merritt Chase, and Whistler all painted Western women wearing ki monos, and it wasn't for the beautiful embroidery.

Modern Art-To-Wear

There is also a lovely series of Japanese wood block prints here which includes the stunning "Young Woman Behind Sliding Panels" by Yoshitoshi (1839-92).

But by this point, visitors of a less-disciplined turn of mind may find themselves having trouble with gallery one, which is beginning to look like the spinach which must be eaten before the chocolate cake.

For there in the distance, beckoning with a gluttony of color, the main gallery has the raison d'etre of the exhibit - a breathtaking collection of 35 modern art-to-wear kimonos.

The two-dimensional, rectilinear form of the kimono offers an ideal shape for artists to work with and its ceremonial connotation means that it can accommodate any leap of imagination. Those you can see at the Parrish will give you an idea of what can be achieved.

Elegy To Loss

Some of the kimonos are exquisitely delicate. There is Carter Smith's "Fire and Ice," a shimmering shibori resist-dyed robe whose patterns are like petrol on water, and Ris‰ Nagin's "Fog Area," a diaphanous geometrical composition of silk, cotton, and polyester in whites and grays.

In Danielle Ray's "Snow Kimo no," made of woven wool, snow-laden branches stretch across the sleeves.

Ben Compton's stunning "Ma dame Butterfly" robe is a haunting composition of stained silk and faded lace, strangely appliqued with jagged threads of black yarn, glossy mussel shells, and charred fabric. It is a mute and moving elegy to loss.

"Sweltering Sky"

And then there are the bright and the bold, like Yvonne Porcella's "Pasha on the 10:04," a larger-than-lifesize patchwork-quilt kimono in black and white and red where the main interest, a partly hand-painted collage of naked figures, is on the inside of the kimono.

Or Judith Content's "Sweltering Sky," a beautiful conflagration of dyed, quilted, and appliqued silk burning against a night sky of blue and purple.

There are boldly simple kimonos, like Deborah Valoma's black and white "Following Ariadne's Thread," and light-hearted kimonos, like Linda Mendelson's multicolored woven wool robe whose sleeves read, "Just around the corner there's a rainbow in the sky" and "So let's have another cup of coffee, let's have another piece of pie."

And then there are the offbeat and non-functional. Christine Martens's "Vestment II" is heartstopping in its heavy ritual glory of woven and pieced fabric, glittering with gold and silver thread. It is "kimono" in the abstract - too heavy to wear, just as Jan Janeiro's "Skeletal Kimono," a gossamer web of knotted raffia, is too fragile to wear.

It doesn't matter if it's 20-ton steel sculpture or ceramic teacups, a good exhibit should evoke pleasure, awe, and that odd sensation of mental creaking as the brain struggles with something complex and excitingly different. "The Kimono Inspiration" does that.

The show can be seen through May 31.

Score another first for the East End! There will be a world premiere on Wednesday at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor of "Make Someone Happy," a musical comedy celebrating the lives and lyrics of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, one of the longest-running creative partnerships in the theater.

"On the Town," written in collaboration with an unknown youngster named Leonard Bernstein, was the team's first show. That was in 1944. Fifty-three years later, they're still working - though not living - together. The common supposition is that Comden and Green are married; they are not and never have been.

"Make Someone Happy"

In fact, it was Phyllis Newman, Mr. Green's wife of many years - he has been blessed, he is the first to say, in the two most important partnerships of his life - who thought of the idea for "Make Someone Happy." The show will run at Bay Street through June 9.

Ms. Newman wrote the book with David Ives, and will direct. Mr. Ives's "All in the Timing" recently won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Playwriting.

Ms. Newman's credits, of course, include such smash hits as "Broadway Bound," "Bells Are Ringing," and "Wonderful Town."

"There's no linear plot" in "Make Someone Happy," said Mr. Green, a longtime summer resident of East Hampton who, with Ms. Comden, has often performed at Guild Hall and Bay Street benefits, "though it does have a thread of a story and, of course, tons and tons of numbers."

"It's not based on reality in any way," insisted Ms. Comden, whose vacation house is in Bridgehampton. "It's more of an attempt to capture our characters - nothing exact, nothing factual."

There's a cast of six - three Bettys and three Adolphs - who portray Ms. Comden and Mr. Green at three different points in their career. The actors are Jim Bracchitta and Melissa Ericco, Adam Grupper and Dee Hoty, and Paula Newsome and Max Perlman. All have experience on Broadway.

"They all have terrific singing voices," said Ms. Comden.

"And what could be better," said Mr. Green, "all the girls are lovely and all the guys are charming and funny."

Behind The Scenes

The award-winning set designer Tony Walton did the honors for "Make Someone Happy." Sharon Sprague designed the costumes and Kirk Bookman the lighting; the sound effects are by Randy Freed. The production stage manager is Perry Cline.

Musical direction and orchestration are by Andrew Lippas, who comes fresh from "Stanley," and choreography is by Sarah Miles, who worked on "Victor/Victoria." The vocal arrangements are by Jeannine Tesori, who did the same for "The Secret Garden."

Tickets for "Make Someone Happy," which will run through June 15, can be charged by calling the theater box office. Performances are Wednesday through Monday at 8 p.m., with Saturday shows at 5 and 9 p.m. There will be matinee performances on some Thursdays and weekends, including May 24 at 2 p.m.

"We feel just great about it," said Ms. Comden of the production. "It's funny, charming, and interesting."

Flipping His Wig

Also at Bay Street next week will be a one-night-only performance by the transvestite actor and playwright Charles Busch, called "Flipping My Wig."

The show, a series of original musical numbers and sketches in which Mr. Busch transforms himself into a number of female characters, will take place at 8 p.m. on Sunday, May 25. The author was last seen at Bay Street in an autobiographical show called "Moonlight and Mascara."

The boundaries of parcels in East Hampton Town may seem firm, but subdivision regulations have only been around a few decades and many older lots were created by a far less precise process. Old wills, barely legible handwritten agreements, or ancient quitclaim deeds - unreliable sources that may at times conflict - are often used to document the boundaries.

Take the case of a 4.7-acre parcel off the corner of Northwest and Old Northwest Roads. Long and narrow like a bowling alley, wedged between another bowling alley and a strip of two-acre house lots along Old Northwest Road, the lot is owned by investors grouped under the name Fiona Inc.

A Bargain, But. . .

It is part of the disappearing white pine forest that once covered most of Northwest, highly coveted now by builders and homeowners for its soft light and graceful terrain. At the rear is Joshua's Hole, a freshwater wetland at the hub of trails used occasionally by hikers but mostly by thirsty deer. There are nature preserves on two sides of Joshua's Hole, with a third side about to be preserved.

The Fiona parcel is recommended by the town open space plan for preservation, not just for its wetland and white pines but as a link in the Northwest Woods trail system. However, the town has so far made no move to buy it.

Zoned for three-acre residential use and in a water recharge district, which restricts clearing, the parcel was priced at a firm $135,000. So firm, in fact, that when an offer came in a couple of months ago the principals of Fiona balked at anything under $150,000, to cover the broker's fee.

The deal went to contract. Michael DeSario of Cook-Pony Farm, the broker, said the price was a great bargain by current Northwest standards - for a buyer who was willing to wade through the complications and wait eight months for the permits.

Not So Simple

"It's not so simple to buy land anymore. All the easy lots are going, going, gone. What we have left are lots of pieces that are difficult to get to the bottom of. It shows you how small this town has become," said Mr. DeSario.

The Fiona lot's narrow width and proximity to wetlands could make it a tight fit for a house. Its length necessitates up to 1,000 feet of drive way, which could add $20,000 to the cost. The wetlands need to be flagged. And, the title is hazy.

Fiona Inc. paid just $1,000 for it in 1987, after obtaining a quitclaim deed from Howard T. Finch, a resident of Ridge. Mr. Finch inherited the property from his father, who bought it for $1 from James and Margaret Gay and their son, John Gay, in 1915.

Muddy Waters

That may sound straightforward enough but a card in the Town Assessors Office contains a cryptic note, dated 1987, saying the owner had theretofore been unknown but was believed to be the estate of John Gay.

It doesn't mention the Finches, but goes on to say that a bygone developer, Algonquin Realty, may have intended to include the parcel in a series of old filed maps in the neighborhood. It never did.

To further muddy the waters, one Margaret Gardiner sued Fiona Inc. in 1989 to resolve a dispute over the north boundary. Howard Finch has died, and his estate, which retains an interest, has not gone to probate yet.

"This lot definitely would have been more valuable if all the questions were answered and there was no risk . . . . It could take eight months of work to clear it all up, and then you're not really sure of what you're going to get," said Mr. DeSario.

He said a similarly-sized lot nearby without such physical and legal complications sold recently for $200,000.

One of the pleasures of visiting the group shows at the Elaine Benson Gallery in Bridgehampton is to wander through the galleries looking for favorite artists who have appeared there before.

Bingo! There in the last room of the back gallery is another collection of the sculptures of Linda Marbach - all variations on molds made from a traditional dressmaker's dummy. The black, leathery body shapes are cut, slashed, divided, strapped together, welded, pierced with wire, or enclosed in a strange openwork coffin woven with copper wire.

Ms. Marbach has a strange vision - half obsessive, totally delicious - that doesn't have to be entirely understood to be enjoyed. At first sight, one is tempted to cry, "It's the new spring bondage line from von Sacher-Masoch!" but that would be way off mark - there's a more delicate sensibility at work here.

Vonnegut's Trout

As you enter the gallery, the writer Kurt Vonnegut has some strong screenprints on display, including a fearless and successful still life of red, yellow, and green fruit in a stone urn.

There is also a portrait of Kilgore Trout as a many-eyed Argus that made me wish I knew just what it was that Mr. Vonnegut was telling us about the enigmatic Trout.

Anthony Harvey, film director and editor, is showing a series of photographs, including a spot-on shot of a hurricane approaching Key West, with grim clouds, troubled sea, and a fragile, scudding sailboat fleeing the storm.

"New York Waterfront" is a spiky, gripping composition of rusted and broken girders against a yellow sky with an exploding bullet of red sun breaking through the dark metal debris.

Collages By Tarr

Yvonne Tarr had another life as a writer of 28 cookbooks and how-to-entertain books before she turned her hand to the pretty (but pricey) collages on display here, incorporating images from Gauguin and Michelangelo, Victorian cherubs, cutouts from Hustler magazine, and figures from 1920s burlesque shows and circuses.

A young architect, Lawrence Saul Heller, has a series of intricate three-dimensional, Mondrianesque constructions of circles, squares, rods, and triangles.

The primary-colored "Kid's Room" is great fun and the little prototype for "Peaks and Valleys," which seems to lose some of its charm when seen on a larger scale, is captivating.

Next, you come across a little grove of Mara Gross's totemic painted sculptures. Like so many multicolored pistils from a giant alien plant, they send out a cheery, phallic message, "Here I am. Come and get me."

One rear gallery is given over to the delicate abstract collages of June Carrera and Edith de Chiara.

Ms. Carrera works with high-gloss paint in delicate colors. Ms. de Chiara uses soft, neutral colors which she works and reworks, in some cases over photos.

Occasionally, the obscured image in the photo - a door, a piece of bark - bleeds over into the background.

Pastel Landscapes

Next door are two more artists who work in similar styles, materials, and subject matter: Dana Little Brown and Cheryl Wright Green.

Ms. Green's pastel landscapes of wetlands repeat again and again the rhythmic movement of grass and water. Ms. Brown's include the strong "Dune Architecture," where the severe lines of a modern house are set off by the flow of beach grass.

In another part of the gallery, Stephanie Joyce, also working in pastels, has some lyrical, stylized seascapes.

Age-Old Show

The exhibit's name was changed to "Emerging Artists" to bring in some older artists who, like Mr. Vonnegut, Mr. Harvey, or Ms. Tarr, have become artists later in life. Most of the other artists aren't particularly young either and most could be incorporated into the other group shows at the gallery.

The work ranges from pleasant to very good, but there's nothing, except Ms. Marbach, that makes you go "Wow!"

Above all, for an exhibit of emerging artists it's a very "safe" show. It would be so nice to see this opening-season spot set aside for unsafe artists, very young artists (maybe some of the graduating students from Southampton College) who are risky, brash, and still hit-or-miss - a show that would grab us by the scruff of the neck and shake us like a terrier with a rat.