The Church will kick off the weekend Friday evening with a psychedelic bang. While "legendary" is a term often overused, for those of a certain age it applies to the Electric Circus, the St. Mark's Place nightclub in the East Village that existed from 1967 to 1971. It invited customers to "play games, dress as you like, dance, sit, think, tune in, and turn on."
"Psychedelicized: The Electric Circus Story," a new documentary by Larry Confino that will be screened tomorrow at 6 p.m., captures the club's brief but wild transit, with a mix of light shows, circus performers, experimental theater, and music by the Velvet Underground, Ike and Tina Turner, Little Richard, the Grateful Dead, and many more.
In his book "Radical Rags: Fashions of the Sixties," Joel Lobenthal called the Circus "New York's ultimate mixed-media pleasure dome, and its hallucinogenic light baths enthralled every sector of New York society." Among those so captivated were Andy Warhol, Leonard Bernstein, Liza Minelli, Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, members of the Black Panther Party, and Hell's Angels.
The evening will begin at 5 with a (strictly) acoustic guitar circle. The Church, which is in Sag Harbor, has invited guests to "come jam with other local fretheads, grab a snack, enjoy the music, and then kick back and enjoy the film."
A live performance of a song from the film by East Hampton's John Jinks, who wrote the entire score, and his band, Out East, will follow the screening, after which Mr. Jinks and Mr. Confino will hold a question-and-answer session. "The music was composed to sound like the music from the '60s—rock and psychedelia," Mr. Jinks said in an email.
Tickets are $20, $15 for members.
On Saturday evening from 6 to 9, The Church's Late Night Open Studio will morph into a Late Night Open House, with its two levels jumping with art-making and game-playing.
Tamer than the Electric Circus, perhaps, but fun nonetheless, the building's main floor will provide board game enthusiasts with Scrabble, Monopoly, Jenga, Apples to Apples, Battleship, Cranium, chess, dominos, GO, and Meta Mop.
The studio floor will be open to artists and other creatives, of all skill levels, who have been invited to fill in a coloring book, set up an easel to paint, or whatever else engages them. Socializing is encouraged; participants have been asked to bring their own supplies and are expected to clean up when finished.
Tickets for the art studio and game night will be sold separately. Each program will operate on a first-come-first-served basis, with spots guaranteed by registering or purchasing a ticket on the website. Studio tickets are $10, free for members; games tickets cost $10, $5 for members.
