Arts

As cookie-cutter mansions spread across the East End, the Architectural Sessions, a series of panels and presentations organized by the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill and A.I.A. Peconic, continues to provide fascinating perspectives on architecture’s many possibilities. Friday’s program, “Pro Bono: Architects Who Serve Humanity,” focused on two unique projects, one in Rwanda, the other in Brooklyn, that are, in different ways, about creating something of value for their communities.

Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor has kept South Fork residents both warm and entertained through the winter of 2015 with an active calendar of musical events that will continue through the coldest and quietest months. On Saturday at 8 p.m., the venue will vary the entertainment being offered with the fifth All Star Comedy Show, hosted by Joseph Vecsey.

Guild Hall will show the Met: Live in HD’s simulcast of “Les Contes d’Hoffmann,” an opera by Jacques Offenbach, on Saturday at 1 p.m. First performed in 1881, four months after Offenbach’s death, the opera is based on three short stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann, who is the opera’s protagonist.

The prologue shows Hoffman and his fellow students in Luther’s Inn at Nuremberg. He is persuaded to tell of his three love encounters, which form the three succeeding acts. The opera ends as it began, with an epilogue set in the tavern.

Lichtenstein Film

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will screen “Roy Lichtenstein: Tokyo Brushstrokes,” a 1995 film that documents the creative process, from concept to fabrication and installation, of one of the artist’s most important public sculptures, tomorrow at 6 p.m.

Lichtenstein became intrigued by a brushstroke he saw in a cartoon and started his “brushstroke paintings” in 1965. In the 1980s, he began work on the monumental sculptures, which became public works in Paris, Barcelona, and, in 1994, Tokyo.

“Mom, It’s MY Wedding!” is the latest collaboration between Ilene Beckerman and Michael Disher at the Southampton Cultural Center, following last year’s “Sex: What She’s Really Thinking!” In a striking similarity to that show, new ideas are not at the forefront of this script. Surprising poignancy lurks between the jokes, however, and audience members — those who have been brides, have daughters who have been wedded off, or have simply wandered into the theater by mistake — will find themselves reaching for the tissues between giggles.

The second production in the Hampton Theatre Company’s seasonal lineup proves to be as different as can be from the first. “Harvey” was a classic comedy, a tale of fuzzy humanity and warmth. “Time Stands Still,” another powerful work by the Pulitzer Prize-winner Donald Margulies, is a commentary on war, relationships, and the tragically intellectual.

An arts calendar listing last week for Fergus MacRoich’s appearance at the East Hampton Library with his book “Fried Chicken, Jesus and Chocolate” said he was “involved in the civil rights movement,” when according to the back of the book he “joined the Medical Corps and was sent to Selma, Alabama, during the civil rights movement.”

UPDATE: The following program has been canceled as of Jan. 23.

The East Hampton Presbyterian Church is offering film enthusiasts an opportunity to journey into the cinematic past with a screening of “Our Hospitality,” a 1923 film starring Buster Keaton that will be accompanied by Bernie Anderson on the church’s organ, on Saturday at 7 p.m.

The Bridgehampton Museum’s Parlor Jazz concerts will resume Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with “Home Is Where the Heart Is,” a performance by Pamela Luss, a contemporary jazz vocalist, who will be accompanied by Julie Bluestone on saxophone and flute.

Humanitarian Architecture

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, in association with A.I.A. Peconic, will present “Pro Bono: Architects Who Serve Humanity,” a discussion focusing on architects who volunteer their time for charitable causes, tomorrow at 6 p.m.

Maziar Behrooz, an East Hampton architect known for work that involves civic, community, and art projects, will moderate a conversation between Sharon Davis, a New York architect, and Jane Walentas, an artist and philanthropist.

John and Sarah Jaffe Turnbull both arrived on the East End in the early 1980s, but they didn’t meet until 15 years ago. “I heard that John taught a karate class for children, so I called him to see where the program was. My son Max started taking classes, and one thing led to another.”

Married for 13 years, each pursues a number of different interests, including ceramics for her and martial arts for him, and both are committed to public service. “We have a good collaboration,” Ms. Turnbull said.

The Watermill Center will inaugurate its 2015 residency season with a brunch Sunday at noon, followed by a tour of the center and an open rehearsal by Catherine Galasso, a choreographer and multimedia artist, at 3 p.m.

Ms. Galasso will present excerpts from “stabat,” “swan lac,” and “hiroshima,” three works by Andy deGroat, an important New York choreographer during the 1970s who collaborated frequently with Robert Wilson. The works will be performed by Rachel I. Berman, John Hoobyar, Anne Lewis, Sarah Sandoval, Austin Selden, and Connor Voss.

When the East Hampton Library’s new addition opened last June, it included the Baldwin Family Lecture Room, a versatile space for children’s programs, film screenings, poetry readings, lectures on local history, and author and book events.

The new space has supplanted the Bendheim Room as the locus of the library’s film programs and enabled its annual winter film series, previously held across the street at Guild Hall, to come home. While the Bendheim Room could seat only 30 people, the Baldwin Room accommodates 80 and boasts a state-of-the-art audiovisual system.

A screening of the National Theatre Live presentation of “John,” a work conceived and directed by Lloyd Newson and produced by London’s DV8 Physical Theatre, will take place at Guild Hall Saturday at 8 p.m.

DV8 Physical Theatre has produced 18 highly acclaimed dance-theater works and four films for television. The company’s new production, “John,” authentically depicts real-life stories, combining movement and spoken word to create an intense theatrical experience.

The John Drew Theater Lab will present a free staged reading of “What About Miami,” a new play by Rebecca Schull, on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Ms. Schull, a stage, screen, and television actress, was the founder and artistic director of Open World Theatre Company, which presented readings of plays banned in their countries of origin.

Jack Lenor Larsen at Parrish

Jack Lenor Larsen, renowned textile designer and founder of LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, will discuss art, craft, and design at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill tomorrow at 6 p.m. in conversation with Terrie Sultan, the museum’s director.

The East Hampton Library will present a tribute to the celebrated actor Eli Wallach, who died in June at the age of 98, on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Baldwin Family lecture room. The program will include a never-before-seen video of Wallach’s performance as Mr. Green, his last starring role on the stage. Jeff Baron, the author of “Visiting Mr. Green,” will discuss working with the actor for four years to bring the play to the stage.

Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor will present “Elvis 80: A Tribute to the King” on Saturday at 8 p.m. Gene Casey and the Lone Sharks and the Vendettas will celebrate Elvis Presley’s 80th birthday with a selection of his hits and other early rock ’n’ roll classics.

The Hampton Theatre Company will hold open auditions for “Clybourne Park,” Bruce Norris’s Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning drama about racism in a Midwestern city, on Monday and Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Quogue Community Hall. Union and non-union actors have been invited to attend.

The play has roles for four men and three women, ages late 20s to late 40s. Three men and two women are Caucasian; one man and one woman are African-American. Readings will be from the script. Neither monologues nor appointments are necessary.

“Time Stands Still,” the Tony Award-nominated drama by Donald Margulies, will open today at the Quogue Community Hall as the second production of the Hampton Theatre Company’s 30th anniversary season. The play will run through Jan. 25.

In the play’s opening scene, Sarah and James return from a hospital in Germany to their Brooklyn loft. Sarah, a war photographer, is recovering from serious injuries sustained in Iraq, while James, a freelance journalist who suffered a breakdown in Iraq, tries to come to terms with having left the war zone before his partner was injured.

Upcoming at the Parrish

In connection with their Parrish Art Museum exhibition “Mary Queen of the Universe,” Steven and William Ladd have for the past two months conducted a “scrollathon,” in which local students tour the exhibition and work with the artists to learn how to make and use scrolls. A talk by the Ladds today at noon will describe their involvement with the East End community and how it has affected their work. The program will also include a preview of their film “The Parrish Scrollathon,” which will document their residency.

Guild Hall will present the Met: Live in HD’s broadcast of “The Merry Widow,” an opera by the Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár, on Jan. 17 at 1 p.m. Premiered in Vienna in 1905, the comic opera concerns a wealthy widow from Ponteverdo, whose citizens fear their country will be bankrupted if she marries a foreigner and takes her money elsewhere.

“Law & Order,” a show in its last week at Harper’s Books in East Hampton, is perfectly appropriate for the milieu. Brad Phillips, a Canadian artist, makes visual art often using text as subject matter, and not just any text but deeply evocative, assertive, assaulting, and sometimes disturbing text.

He chooses a rather repetitive format. None of the works on paper in the show exceed 22 by 15 inches, and the paintings on canvas are only fractionally larger. The paper looks torn from sketchbooks and so the idea of loosening something bound is subtly reinforced.

Mizrahi at Vered

“Haim Mizrahi: Hope in the Shield of David” is on view at Vered Gallery in East Hampton through Jan. 29. An East Hampton resident, Mr. Mizrahi has developed his woven, abstract paintings through the use of acrylic and encaustics.

The gallery’s Holyday group show includes work by Ron Agam, Lili Almog, Larry Rivers, Hunt Slonem, Joan Miro, and Milton Avery, among others.

Two New at Halsey McKay

It wouldn’t be a Loudon Wainwright III album without a mix of exuberance and melancholy. In “Looking at the Calendar,” from his latest CD, “Haven’t Got the Blues (Yet),” the speaker throws up his hands and admits “there really is no day / That makes sense for us to end it, to throw it all away.”

It’s a breakup song with a sense of loss set to unusually (for the singer-songwriter) amplified, emphatic guitar, and Mr. Wainwright’s voice is at its full-throated best.

It’s been quite a year for Sarah Koenig. The Sagaponack native and Sag Harbor summer resident has gone from being known among a small, quirky subset of brainy public radio listeners for “This American Life” to what might be called an international sensation among a larger, quirky set of brainy podcast listeners. All for “Serial,” which has set iTunes records for being the fastest podcast to reach more than 5 million downloads and streams.

The popular series “Fireside Sessions with Nancy Atlas” will return to Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor on Friday, Jan. 2, at 8 p.m. and continue on Friday evenings throughout January and March. Each concert will feature a special musical guest, with Chad Smith, the drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, scheduled for the Jan. 2 show.

For Bryan Downey, a photographer, singer-songwriter, and restoration contractor who lives in Sag Harbor, musicians, artists, photographers, and poets on the South Fork were missing something important. That, he said, was a central hub that could serve as a cultural center for performers and audiences alike.

The ground beneath the Hamptons art fairs is shifting this summer. For the past three years, Art Southampton held its fair at the Elks Lodge on County Road 39 in Southampton and opened two weeks after ArtHamptons and Art Market Hamptons. Nick Korniloff, director of Art Southampton, said last year he liked being on the highway and opening later. Yet he announced recently that his fair will be moving to Nova’s Ark on Millstone Road in Bridgehampton in 2015 and will run from July 9 through 13, two weeks earlier than last year.

On Friday, Jan. 2, at 6 p.m., the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will offer a guided writing workshop inspired by the works of Alan Shields now on view in the exhibition “Alan Shields: In Motion.” Participants may create short pieces in any form, including stories, poetry, and descriptive writing. The format will be similar to a life drawing class, but with words as the medium.

The cost is $10, free for members, students, and children.