Pintauro Moves 'Heaven And Earth'

Joe Pintauro dramatized the vanishing world of the East End's haulseine fishermen when he brought "Men's Lives" to the stage of the Bay Street Theatre. The Sag Harbor playwright's new play, "Heaven and Earth," which will be staged at the theater during the month of August, was inspired by another threatened Long Island community: the farmers of the North Fork.

The play, based on Steve Wick's nonfiction book of the same name, is about an East End very different from the one most people come in contact with.

It is about the farmers who sell flowers and apples, zucchini and melons at small farmstands and who still farm the same acres as their forebears, right back to the first settlers.

Three Cultures

"It's also about the extraordinary circumstances of farming on land whose boundaries are marked by water on three sides," said Mr. Pintauro, "and how the arrival of different groups of European settlers have played out in our present culture."

The English were the first, farming on land previously cleared by the Shinnecock and other Native American tribes. Then came the Irish, who didn't mix with the English because of religious differences, and the Poles, who didn't mix because of language differences.

The three European cultures grew into the North Fork farming community.

The Vanishing Farmer

"Today," said Mr. Pintauro, "the stresses of time, technology, and the limitations of the land have combined to construct a family drama."

Though the play is about the North Fork, it is also about America, he said, and even the world as a whole, as large-scale technological farming drives the small farmer off land cultivated for centuries in more or less the same manner.

And the disappearance of the small farmer raises bigger questions, said Mr. Pintauro:

"What is the soil? Who are we? What have we done to interfere with the relationship of man and the earth?"

Comden And Green

"Heaven and Earth" will be Bay Street's main theatrical offering of the summer.

It is only one of three major attractions, however. Coming up in May is the world premiere of "Make Someone Happy," a musical comedy celebrating the lives and lyrics of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, longtime East End residents and songwriting partners.

The musical will feature the lyrics of Mr. Green and Ms. Comden and music by Leonard Bernstein, Cy Coleman, Jule Styne, Roger Edens, and Larry Grossman.

Phyllis Newman, who wrote the book with David Ives, is the director.

Laurents's "Good Name"

The other major production, also a world premiere, is Arthur Laurents's "savage high comedy" about greed, identity, and family honor, "My Good Name." The play, by the author of "Gypsy," "West Side Story," and "The Way We Were," will run from June 25 through July 20.

Bay Street's season will open on April 5 with a performance by the Shanghai Quartet, a celebrated young ensemble whose program will include Haydn's Quartet in G major and Schubert's "Death and the Maiden."

The cabaret singer Phillip Officer will return to the theater on April 12 and the following weekend, April 19, Susannah McCorkle, a jazz-pop singer, will perform. The theater's spring weekend series will conclude on April 26 with "Julie," an evening of comedy and song with Julie Halston.

Conversations

The theater has a starry lineup planned for its August "Conversations With. . ." series.

Promised for these informal discussions are such big names of the stage and screen as Anthony Hopkins, Lauren Bacall, Roddy McDowall, Terrence McNally, and Jon Robin Baitz, all subject to confirmation.

Bay Street will also continue its series of Sunday-morning play readings, starting on April 27. The season will end with a fall cabaret series.