Guild Hall is celebrating the spirit of hope for a new season with a virtual reading of poems of rebirth and creativity by a star-studded roster of actors, and an outdoor concert of romantic boleros, jazz, funk, and Latin chill.
“Reawakenings,” will take place Sunday at 8 p.m. on Guild Hall’s YouTube channel. The program was was conceived by the actor Paul Hecht and organized with Christina Mossaides Strassfield, Guild Hall’s museum director and chief curator; Amanda Kate Joshi, a director and producer, and Ralph Gibson, a noted photographer and guitar virtuoso.
Poems will be read by F. Murray Abraham, Karen Akers, Wyatt Cenac, Michael Cerveris, Cornelius Eady, Barbara Feldon, Lynnette R. Freeman, Joanna Gleason, Bill Irwin, Cherry Jones, Susan Lucci, Austin Pendleton, Tony Roberts, Mercedes Ruehl, Salman Rushdie, Chris Sarandon, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Harris Yulin. Images of artwork from Guild Hall’s permanent collection, selected by Ms. Strassfield, and music by Mr. Gibson will accompany the readings.
Mr. Hecht, a 1968 Tony nominee for Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” and an Obie Award-winner for Pirandello’s “Henry IV” in 1990, first met with Josh Gladstone, artistic director of Guild Hall’s John Drew Theater, last fall to share his idea for a poetry fund-raiser to mark the institution’s 90th anniversary.
“I had no idea it would turn into a 30-minute ‘Zoomie’ with such a wonderful and generous group of actors,” Mr. Hecht said. “My charge was to use anyone who was associated with Guild Hall,” including Ivy Brondo, the 5-year-old son of staff members Jennifer and Joe Brondo, who opens and closes the piece.
Tickets, which start at $20 per household, can be purchased on Guild Hall’s website.
In partnership with Organizacion Latino Americana of Eastern Long Island, Guild Hall will present “Latin Moon and Soul,” a concert featuring music by Danni Medina; Latin Moon with Hannah Chavez, and Four Billion Years, on Friday, May 28, at 8 p.m. in its backyard theater.
Mr. Medina is a composer and interpreter of Latin romantic music. An Ecuadorean national, he has been adapting boleros in the style of flamenco rumba for more than 15 years in the United States.
Latin Moon is a multicultural band that fuses Latin rhythms with funk, rock, and pop. Its six members, who hail from Colombia, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, and the U.S., are directed by the musician, composer, and music producer Willy Fuentes, along with his daughter Carolina Fuentes. A New York-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Ms. Chavez combines poetic lyrics with an indie-pop, acoustic sound.
Based on the East End of Long Island, Four Billion Years is composed of Jay Schneiderman on drums, Alessandro Giangola on vocals and guitars, and Mr. Fuentes on bass. Their music blends a wide range of influences including rock, blues, funk, jazz, pop, world music, and more.
Tickets are $35. While Guild Hall will no longer require six feet of distancing in the backyard theater, guests ages 5 and up must show proof of full vaccination or recent negative Covid-19 test results, and masks will be required for all patrons over the age of 2.
The Hamptons: A Changing Face
Guild Hall’s Community Artists-in-Residence, Brenna Leaver, Julian Alvarez, and Devon Leaver, will talk about the transformation of East Hampton’s storefronts, the death of mom-and-pop shops, local legends, and the future of the community on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The topics discussed will serve as source material for the artists’ short film, “Apex Ape.” The program is free.
