Guild Hall Brings the Noise to Summer 2018
There seems to be an element of sound in almost everything at Guild Hall this summer, including the artwork. With talks, films, theater, dance, and music, the multitasking institution will offer plenty to keep us busy through Labor Day.
The crowd-pleasing events, which will likely sell out, include the return of David Sedaris; Questlove’s Midsummer Night Conversations on Creativity; a taping of Alec Baldwin’s podcast “Here’s the Thing” with the “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” announcer Steve Higgins; “Let’s Misbehave: The Music and Life of Cole Porter”; an evening devoted to Jerome Robbins with the New York City Ballet; stand-up comedy with Sandra Bernhard and Hasan Minhaj, and a reading of “Betrayal” by Harold Pinter with Mercedes Ruehl and Harris Yulin.
The speakers in Florence Fabricant’s “Stirring the Pot” series of talks with culinary celebrities will include Masaharu Morimoto, David Bouley, Carla Hall, and Sam Sifton.
An exhibition by Laurie Anderson will take over the full museum beginning June 2 and will be divided into virtual reality, video performance, and drawing sections. Trained as a violinist and sculptor, she has been working in the fields of visual and performance art for decades. Her stage shows incorporate storytelling, sound, and music. Following her exhibition will be a show devoted to Ellsworth Kelly’s time in the Hamptons, where he spent summers in 1960 and ’61 and 1968 and ’69. The exhibition opens Aug. 11.
New this year is Guitar Masters, a festival scheduled for July 5 through July 7 that will feature live concerts, talks, and film screenings with an emphasis on the guitar. The performers will include Andy Summers of the Police and Richard Thompson, as well as the international musicians David Broza, Badi Assad, and Stormu Takeishi.
Choir!Choir!Choir! is a more participatory event, a group sing-along founded by Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman (a.k.a. DaBu) in 2011. Guests are given a lyric sheet, taught the arrangement, and a video is recorded of the result. Well-known singers have been known to show up to add their voices to the mix. Previous participants have been David Byrne, Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, and Rufus Wainwright.
Sophie B. Hawkins and Trevor Hall will be guests of the G.E. Smith Portraits series in July. Bela Fleck will perform a solo banjo concert in August. Also in August, three bands — Big Karma, the Sectionals, and Earthreal — hope to raise awareness of gun safety with Young Musicians Unite for Gun Sanity. Proceeds from the concert will benefit gun law reform efforts.
Guild Hall has taken some of its talks and interviews and grouped them as the Summer of Stories series. In addition to Mr. Sedaris’s and Mr. Baldwin’s events, there will be discussions with Philippe Petit known for walking a tightrope between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, Samite, a flutist from Uganda, and more. It has partnered with the Montauk Observatory for two space-themed programs in June with Randolph James Bresnik, a NASA astronaut, and Rebecca M. Bresnik, the associate chief counsel for NASA. Mr. Bresnik will discuss space exploration with Ms. Bresnik and in a follow-up program for adults and children will describe his life as an astronaut.
The Hamptons Institute will return in August with discussions on the opioid crisis, the prevalence of plastics in our daily lives, and the next steps for the “Me Too” movement. In July, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a professor of history, race, and public policy at Harvard, will discuss “Equality Matters in the Hamptons: Burying Our Heads in the Sand?” The free conversation will be moderated by Ken Miller, a writer, financier, and political activist. It is part of the Thinking Forward Lecture Series presented by Guild Hall and the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center.
There will be one-night staged readings of “Daughters of the Sexual Revolution” with Timothy Busfield and Melissa Gilbert, “Locura” by Michael Marrero, and “Three,” a comedy by Eugene Pack. In addition, a fully staged production of “The Summit,” written and directed by Isla Hansen, Tucker Marder, and Christian Scheider, will have a run from Aug. 31 to Sept. 9. An experimental performance, it describes a world where the global elite plan to leave their bodies for a virtual reality beyond them.
Guild Hall’s comedy schedule is rounded out by Black Thought’s “Delirious,” a presentation of new comedic talent by the rapper and M.C. of the hip-hop group the Roots. Tig Notaro will close out the series in August.
During the summer, Guild Hall will also continue its popular Game Night series on the last Monday of each month. Hosted by Noah Salaway, the evening will feature modern tabletop games involving creativity, problem solving, social skill, and dexterity — and no screens!
Full descriptions, pricing, ticket purchasing, and other information on these and other events are available at Guild Hall’s new website.