Hamptons Pride, a nonprofit that celebrates LGBTQ+ people and their allies on the East End, has teamed up with Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater to present four LGBTQ+-themed films on the last Sunday of the months ahead.
“Bay Street is giving us a wonderful opportunity to create a fun and engaging new social outlet, just in time for the long winter months,” said Tom House of Hamptons Pride. “In the before-dinner hour on Last Sundays, we hope to grow what will become a vibrant community film series, and will work to make each screening one you won’t want to miss.”
The series will kick off Sunday at 4 p.m. with a screening of “Pride,” a 2014 British historical comedy-drama based on a true event, an alliance between a team of London-based gay activists and a small community of striking miners in Wales.
The film did not take shape overnight. While watching news about the Welsh miners’ strike of 1984 -- a time when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was determined to crush the power of Great Britain’s trade unions -- Mark Ashton, a gay activist played by Ben Schnetzer, arranges a bucket collection for the striking miners during a Gay Pride Parade in London. He then goes on to found Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners.
At first, L.G.S.M. faces not only homophobia from the mining community but anger from gay people whom miners have mistreated in the past. The group nevertheless decides to take its donations to Onllwyn, a small mining town in Wales. There, too, acceptance isn’t immediate, but after members help to get some illegally detained miners released from jail, the communities become close.
Ty Burr of The Boston Globe wrote, “ ‘Pride’ takes the story of the London chapter and its relationship with the people of the Dulais Valley in Wales, and fashions it into a funny, moving, audience-rousing experience, one that comes out of the closet without quite leaving the safety of the Britcom genre.”
“This film moves effortlessly from some pretty intense dramatic moments to hilarious scenes showcasing the contrasting lifestyles of the gay and straight worlds to some vignettes of incredible poignancy,” said Bill Zwecker of The Chicago Sun-Times.
Directed by Matthew Warchus and starring Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Paddy Considine, and Andrew Scott, “Pride” was screened as part of the Directors’ Fortnight section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and won the Queer Palm award. It also earned Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations.
Next up in the film series will be “Torch Song Trilogy” (1988), a comedy-drama adapted by Harvey Fierstein from his play of the same name, about a gay man who struggles to find love and respect in 1970s New York City. Directed by Paul Bogart, the film stars Mr. Fierstein, Anne Bancroft, and Matthew Broderick.
Tickets to Sunday’s film are $10 in advance, $15 the day of the screening.
New Winter Classes
Bay Street is also offering three new classes, starting next week. Improv for Everyone, led by Jude Treder-Wolff, is a six-session workshop for adults 21 and up that begins on Monday at 7 p.m. and runs through March 3. Open to both beginners and those with improv experience, the series will feature new games and exercises that tap spontaneity.
Ms. Treder-Wolff completed training programs at the Peoples Improv Theater and Magnet Theater in New York City and online with Second City and with Will Hines of World’s Greatest Improv School of Los Angeles.
Frank Cento, who has directed over 30 stage productions in New York City and regionally, will lead On-Camera Scene and Character Study, whose six classes will begin on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. The workshop will incorporate two to four minutes of video scenes from movies, plays, and television, both well-known and original, in each session. Each scene will be read twice, blocked, shot as an actual movie, and edited.
Mr. Cento studied at HB Studios and the Neighborhood Playhouse and was a member of the Actors Studio Playwrights Directors Unit in Manhattan.
The class, which is open to ages 16 and up, is limited to 10 students.
Mic Drop . . . Karaoke Edition, led by Eric Jacobson, a professional vocalist, will start on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and continue weekly through March 5, with an extra class set for March 11. The workshop, for adults 21 and up, will emphasize proper vocal performance techniques, including voice placement, breath control, diction, how to command a room, and how to engage an audience and use a microphone. It will culminate in a performance on March 12 that will be open to the public.
Holder of a B.F.A. in musical theatre from Point Park University, Mr. Jacobson has performed on national and European tours and in New York City and the Hamptons.
The cost of each of the three workshops is $300.
