Arts

   Like the blues itself, “Big Maybelle: Soul of the Blues,” through Sept. 2 at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, is a terrible beauty. Born out of the horror of slavery and the ongoing march to overcome its far-reaching legacy, blues music gives voice to the dichotomies of uplift and anguish, hope and despair.

Opera, Cabaret, Poetry

    Mira J. Spektor’s “Road to November” will take place at the Montauk Library on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Ms. Spektor will read poems from her book “Road to November” and will introduce various cabaret songs and highlights from her operas and musicals, including “Lady of the Castle,” “The Housewives’ Cantata,” “Villa Diodati,” and her new folk opera, “Giovanni the Fearless.”

    Guild Hall will open its next museum show, “Eric Fischl: Beach Life,” at its annual summer benefit tomorrow night. A reception for the public will follow on Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m.

    A long-term resident of the South Fork, Mr. Fischl has returned to the beach for inspiration for most of his career. His focus is on the figure and a kind of sociological and psychological intensity created by its groupings and attitudes.

    “Meet Me in St. Louis” will be shown tonight at 8 in the John Drew Theater as part of Guild Hall’s ongoing celebration of Judy Garland’s film debut 75 years ago. “All Singin’, All Dancin’, All Judy” is the title of the series. Tickets are $12, $10 for members.

   Art Southampton, a new fair held on the Elks Club grounds in Southampton from July 26 to 30, did well in its first go-round, its organizers said, and they plan to return. The event drew 11,750 people, and galleries that participated reported strong sales, according to the organizers, who also put together Art Miami, a fair that occurs each December in Florida at the same time as Art Basel Miami.

Baby You Can Drive My Car

    The Eric Firestone Gallery in East Hampton will show “Parts & Service,” a show dedicated to the “glory of the garage,” on Saturday beginning with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. The theme is racing, motorcycle culture, mechanics, and other automotive concerns and fetishes. The show will include artifacts, photography, and mixed-media works with images of car wrecks, burning rubber, car designs, and pinups.

   It may seem hyperbolical to say it, but the exhibition “Men of Fire” at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs is incendiary in many ways, both obvious and implied. With fiery personalities and working styles, both Jackson Pollock and Jose Clemente Orozco resorted to flame-like forms and figures in their working styles in the 1930s.

   Ever wonder how to turn a mundane conversation into a dynamic interview? Patti Kaplan’s workshop, the Art of Documentary Interviewing, at the Applied Arts School for the Arts in Amagansett should provide some help.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” a tale of love and magic, is being presented by the Hamptons Independent Theatre Festival outdoors behind the Bridgehampton High School.

The production, conceived and directed by Joshua Perl, of the Naked Stage theater company, stresses the “dream state” that Shakespeare might initially have envisioned for the play.

   A year after Rocco Gardner and his partners brought their ambitious Escape to New York music, art, and lifestyle event to the Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton, they will make a more toned-down escape, this time to Montauk.

   Escape to Montauk, dubbed a “unique boutique event,” kicks off tomorrow on the grounds of the Solé East resort on Second House Road, with live music, art exhibits, yoga, kids activities, a speakers’ corner, outdoor theater, and a “fashion village” planned throughout the weekend

   After its second go-round on the grounds of the Bridgehampton Historical Society, the artMRKT fair announced steady sales and 7,000 visitors during its run from July 19 through 22.

   Max Fishko, who founded the fair with Jeffrey Wainhause in 2011, said in a release that this year’s event “once again proved that there is a need and a great opportunity for a contemporary fair like artMRKT.” He also let it be known that the pair would be planning another one for next year.

Love and Magic

    “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” a tale of love and magic, will be presented by the Hamptons Independent Theatre Festival starting tonight, outdoors behind the Bridgehampton High School.

    The production, conceived and directed by Joshua Perl, stresses the “dream state” that Shakespeare might initially have envisioned for the play.

    The cast includes Gerard Doyle, a Broadway veteran, as Theseus and Oberon; Clodagh Bowyer, an established actress both in Ireland and New York, as Hippolyta and Titania, and various local and regional actors.

    Film, music, or culinary arts, there is something for every taste at Guild Hall in East Hampton over the next few days.

    “The Wizard of Oz” will be shown tonight at 8 as part of a July Garland celebration in honor of the 75th anniversary of her feature film debut in the 1936 “Pigskin Parade.” Several more of her movies will be shown later on in the series, called “All Singin’, All Dancin’, All Judy.” Tickets are $12, $10 for members.

   Houston may seem a long way from Sag Harbor and the South Fork, but when one starts out in Freeport, it turns out not to be that far at all.

    Such is the experience of Andrea Grover, the curator of programs at the Parrish Museum. Brought up in western Long Island by a father who was a commercial fisherman, boat builder, and artist, she has an innate appreciation for the issues and lifestyle that this region holds dear.

“Men of Fire” Opens

    Today the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs opens “Men of Fire: Jose Clemente Orozco and Jackson Pollock,” an exhibition organized by Helen Harrison and Sarah Powers that examines how Orozco’s art influenced a young Pollock.

   As an art photographer, Mary Ellen Bartley may have had a long gestational period, but after finding her muse not all that long ago, her career has taken off on a steady upward trajectory.

    Her still-life images of books have been recognized five times in Guild Hall member shows, four years in a row for best photograph, and this year with top honors by Lilly Wei, a critic for Art in America and other publications. In return she will receive a solo show at Guild Hall in 2014.

Buckley at Bay Street

    Betty Buckley will return to the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor with a new show, “Ah Men! The Boys of Broadway,” on Aug. 4 at 8 p.m.

     Ms. Buckley, a Tony Award-winner, is known for her roles in “Cats,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “1776,” and “Pippin.” Her new show will include “Maria” from “West Side Story,” a medley of three songs from “Sweeney Todd,” “Luck Be a Lady” from “Guys and Dolls,” “Corner of the Sky” from “Pippin,” and a comedy piece that was written specifically for this show.

    Guild Hall’s screening of “Babette’s Feast” at 8 tomorrow night will be followed by a conversation with top chefs and a complimentary dessert provided by, of course, Babette’s restaurant. Tickets are $22, $20 for members.

    Before the movie starts, a cocktail reception featuring Scandinavian cuisine will be held at c/o The Maidstone.

    The Watermill Center will present a show of the work of the California artist Mike Kelley, who died this year, beginning at its benefit on Saturday night. The tribute to the artist will be open through Sept. 16, by appointment on the center’s Web site. A $20 donation will be suggested; $10 for students.

Halsey Mckay Presents Three

    The Halsey Mckay Gallery in East Hampton is presenting Ryan Travis Christian in “Something, Something, Black Something,” and “Friends,” a two-person show of new work by Sara Greenberger Rafferty and Andrew Kuo, through Aug. 7.

    Mr. Christian, who is from Chicago, renders “psychological whimsy and madness” in graphite, recalling the work of the British artist Paul Noble, according to the gallery. He will be exhibiting his experiments with sculpture and painting.

   Suddyn, a band led by two brothers from Montauk, now has a new drummer, a new name — the Rebel Light — and a new gig: the July 28 and 29 Catalpa music festival on Manhattan’s Randalls Island. Alan and Jarrett Steil will fly home from Los Angeles this week for the show. With the new drummer, Brandon Cook, they will join headliners such as the Black Keys and Snoop Dogg.

    “#whilewewatch,” a documentary film by Kevin Breslin, will be featured at 8 p.m. tonight at Guild Hall in East Hampton as part of the John Drew Theater’s Red Carpet film series. There will be a talkback discussion with the director after the film.

    Mr. Breslin directed the award-winning “Living for 32,” the story of Colin Goddard, a survivor of the massacre at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. The film was about how Mr. Goddard’s terrible experience caused him to advocate for changing the liberal gun laws in this country.

Rocking the Farm

    Steel Pulse, the Grammy-winning reggae ensemble, will headline Rock the Farm at Ocean View Farm in Amagansett on Saturday starting at 6 p.m. The concert is a fund-raiser for the Wounded Warrior Project. Soldier Ride the Hamptons takes place earlier that day.

   Tomorrow at 8 p.m., a staged reading of “The Glint” by Matt Hoverman will be presented at Guild Hall. Directed by Lonny Price, who just oversaw the production of “Luv” at the John Drew Theater, it will star Richard Benjamin, John Ratzenberger, and Aya Cash. Tickets are $30, $28 for members. The play is about men at 60 who refuse to give up their dreams of success, both in their  careers and with women.

   “Good times,” yelled Inda Eaton to the Stephen Talkhouse crowd last Thursday — which she is indeed known for creating, with her music, raspy soulful voice, truthful storytelling, and sense of humor.

    With a gift for connecting with an audience, Ms. Eaton, who has lived in East Hampton for seven years, showed the locals she gets it, saying how thankful she was for being able to walk into the I.G.A. after the frantic holiday weekend “and load up for next weekend.”

   The 29th season of concerts by the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival begins next Thursday and will showcase a mix of well-known and up-and-coming musicians performing both classical and new music.

   It was a Thursday afternoon, and Monica Banks was home listening to NPR. But it could have been any day, really, as long as she was at work in her East Hampton Village studio or in the workroom she keeps in her house.

    The fact that the artist works to the jumbled sounds of nations crumbling, world economies sputtering, talking heads debating health care reform, or, perhaps in lighter moments, the poignant oral histories of “Storycorps” resonates in her artistic output and seems to urge her along in her practice.

Fireplace Opens Koh

    A solo show by Terence Koh, “yes, pleased,” will open at the Fireplace Project in Springs tomorrow. In his first presentation at the gallery, Mr. Koh will offer a variety of mediums drawn from his work in drawing, sculpture, video, performance, and the Internet.

   Scott Sandell grabbed one of a dozen baseballs from a tall glass vase on his desk and began rubbing the red stitching as he held the ball up for inspection. “It’s a good design,” he said, admiring the ball’s leather cover, “a beautiful thing.” The Sag Harbor artist said that the driving force in his life is his “quest to make a beautiful object.”