Awards and Improv
Guild Hall has announced the honorees for its 35th annual Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards dinner, which will be held at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan on March 3. Dorothea Rockburne will be the honoree for visual arts, Salman Rushdie for literary arts, Barry Sonnenfeld for performing arts, and Ted Hartley will receive a special award for leadership and philanthropy. Tickets, which are available on Guild Hall’s website, start at $1,500, $500 for those 21 to 40 years old.
For those who aspire to serve as a future M.C. for the dinner — last year it was Adam Green, the theater critic for Vogue magazine — or simply hone their theater craft, Guild Hall is offering A Taste of Improv, a two-hour workshop that will introduce participants to the tenets of short-form improvisation through ensemble exercises, games, and imaginative scenarios.
The session will be led by Tina Jones, who has a master’s degree from the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and has studied at the improvisational training center Upright Citizens Brigade and with the Barrow Group in New York City. The workshop is $20, $10 for members, and is open to those 21 and over.
Improv 1, a six-session workshop designed for all levels, also led by Ms. Jones, will begin on Jan. 21.
Atlas Returns
Fireside Sessions With Nancy Atlas and Friends have become a January tradition at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. For the first of this year’s programs, set for Saturday at 8 p.m., Simon Kirke, the rock drummer for Free and Bad Company, will join Ms. Atlas and her band members Johnny Blood, Brett King, Richard Rosch, and Neil Surreal.
Subsequent programs will feature New Orleans piano funk with Brian Mitchell and Clark Gayton (Jan. 11); Randi Fishenfeld, violinist for the Wildfire Band (Jan. 18); Jonny Rosch, the lead singer of the original Blues Brothers band (Jan. 24), and Danny Kean, a Long Island singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist (Jan. 25).
Tickets are $35 and often sell out in advance.
New Film Series
The Amagansett Library will lunch a new weekly film series on Sunday afternoon at 2 with “Spirited Away,” a 2001 animated coming-of-age fantasy whose many awards include the Japan Academy Film Prize for best film and the Oscar for best animated feature. Directed by the acclaimed animator Miyazaki Hayao, the film is the story of a 10-year-old girl who wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits and where humans are changed into beasts.
The series will continue with “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” on Jan. 12, “Selma” on Jan. 19, and “Avatar” on Jan. 26. Hot chocolate and cookies will be served at each screening.
Brazilian Drama
HamptonsFilm’s Now Showing series will present “Invisible Life,” an award-winning Brazilian drama, on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Guild Hall. Set in Rio de Janeiro in 1950, the film is the story of Eurydice and Guida, inseparable sisters whose parents’ conservative rules and expectations are at odds with their own secret dreams.
Directed by Karim Ainouz, the film is Brazil’s official submission for the best foreign language film at the 2020 Academy Awards. Tickets are $15, $13 for members.
