Arts

   Life here on the South Fork differs from many similar areas across the country in several ways, one of the most important of which is the level of sophistication in the local art scene. This extends to the performing arts, including theater, even at the nonprofessional level, as is attested to by the Center Stage at Southampton Cultural Center’s current production of “Motherhood Out Loud,” a series of scenes examining modern motherhood in America, directed by the multitalented Michael Disher.

    The Long Island premiere of “The Drawer Boy,” Michael Healey’s play about two farmers whose lives are turned upside down when a young actor comes to visit, will be the third production of the 2012-2013 Hampton Theatre Company season. Opening at the Quogue Community Hall next Thursday, it will run though April 7.

   The winter lecture series at the Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack will begin Sunday with Charlotte Moss, an interior designer and gardener from East Hampton. Her lecture, “Outside Influences,” will include a slide-illustrated tour of gardens from her worldwide travels as well as her own grounds. She will also sign copies of her book “Charlotte Moss: A Visual Life,” which will be available for purchase for $60, $50 for members.

   Cynthia Daniels has been very busy. When not recording Broadway cast albums in a New York studio, she is mixing those projects at her own MonkMusic Studios in East Hampton or producing a local artist’s recording or hosting recording sessions for the likes of Paul McCartney or Beyoncé.

Ille Returns to Line

    After a midwinter absence, Ille Arts in Amagansett will present “Working the Line,” an exhibition devoted to the role of line in composition and style, beginning Saturday with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m.

   The Art of Song series of Bridgehampton Museum Parlor Jazz concerts will look at the “Songs of Daring Dames” on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The performance will feature Karen Oberlin, an award-winning and critically acclaimed vocalist, backed by Jane Hastay on piano and Peter Martin Weiss on bass. The songs by and about women are in honor of Women’s History Month.

    The concert will take place at the archives building near the southeast corner of Ocean Road and Montauk Highway. Tickets cost $25 and can be purchased online at bridgehamptonhistoricalsociety.org.

   Brian and Michael LeClerc, brothers who suffer from a genetic disease that causes blindness, have not lost sight of their dream to “make a splash” out here on the East End, they said in an interview on Saturday. Their goal is to “play good, interesting music that makes crowds happy,” Brian said. They play a combination of unique and challenging covers of songs they grew up with, mixed with their own originals.

    Ruth Albert Spencer will return to the Montauk Library to present “Johannes Brahms: His Life, His Loves, His Music,” a free lecture-concert, on Sunday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Ms. Spencer will perform a number of Brahms’s compositions for solo piano. Lilah Gosman, a soprano and a native of Montauk, and Milos Ripicky, a pianist, will augment the presentation. Previously,  Ms. Spencer spoke at the library about Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Chopin.

    Erin Hill, a singer and harpist, will return to the Montauk Library on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. for “A Celtic Celebration,” a free concert in which she will be accompanied by Mike Nolan on pedal steel guitar.

    Ms. Hill is also an actress, most recently appearing alongside Bebe Neuwirth and Christina Ricci as First Fairy in the Classic Stage Company’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” She has played and sung with Kanye West, Moby, Sinead O’Connor, Enya, A-ha, Cyndi Lauper, Joan Osborne, and Levon Helm, and has played solo at the Royal Albert Hall.

   When artistic talent is just a footnote in someone’s life, strange and extraordinary things can happen. When someone’s life is already legendary, the effect can be exponential.

    Guild Hall will screen a new production of Wagner’s “Parsifal,” starring Jonas Kaufmann in the title role, presented by The Met: Live in HD, on Saturday beginning at noon. The opera is staged by the director François Girard in his Met debut.

The Strands of Satz

    Glenn Horowitz Bookseller will display works by Matthew Satz, an East Hampton-based artist, beginning Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.

    “Matthew Satz: Strands” will focus on a series displaying the artist’s commitment to process and concept. According to the artist, he was inspired by both Jackson Pollock’s drip and Barnett Newman’s zip in making these minimal works, which reference both painting and sculpture.

    The exhibition will remain on view through March 23.

A Flourish of the Dramatic

    Center Stage at the Southampton Cultural Center will present the play “Motherhood OUT LOUD” from next Thursday through March 24 at its Levitas Center for the Arts. Michael Disher directs. The play entrusts the subject of motherhood to a collection of American writers who aim to shatter traditional notions about parenthood, unveil its inherent comedy, and celebrate the deeply personal truths that span and unite generations.

Bach & Forth Forms

    Bach & Forth, a new chamber music ensemble featuring Thomas Bohlert on organ and piano and Trudy Craney, a soprano, both of East Hampton, will perform on Tuesday at 8 p.m. at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in New York. The ensemble also includes Terry Keevil (oboe, English horn, duduk), Rebecca Perea (cello), and Linda DiMartino Wetherill (flute).

   Reductive yet expansive, abstract yet universally real, and with seemingly infinite possibilities, the unique tapestries of 3.25-by-4.25-inch Polaroid prints John Messinger has been making for the past year should, one might think, keep him occupied for many more to come.

    With a Watermill Center residency just recently behind him, however, Mr. Messinger is ready for his next act. He will continue to work in this format, but the project currently occupying him is a book, “The Estate of Joseph A. Porter,” to be published by Harper’s Books this year.

An Early Spring

    Painters looking for an early spring might enjoy Lois Bender’s art classes at Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton beginning in March.

    Spring Art Journeys: Sketching and Painting Nature from “skyscapes to flowerscapes” will be offered in four sessions, every other Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. beginning March 2. The first class will be Watercolor: Warm-up Skills to learn the basic skills in grid-style exercises. The class will cover washes, brushstroke use, and color blending.

King Speaks

    A rarely seen one-hour interview with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be screened tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill. The film will be introduced by George Silano, the North Haven cinematographer who made it.

    King speaks about the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. Also featured is a conversation with his wife, Coretta Scott King. The film had never been screened publicly until its premiere on Jan. 28 at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton. Admission is free.

Music, American Style

   What’s in a face?

   The answer, one finds after a walk through the colorful, compact, but powerful exhibit at the Suffolk County Historical Society in Riverhead, is the ability to define one’s self-image, both as an individual and as a people. “Hidden and Forbidden: Art and Objects of Intolerance; Evolving Depictions of Blacks in America” will be on display through June 1.

Love and Passion

    This weekend, Karyn Mannix Contemporary will present the eighth iteration of the “Love and Passion” series of Valentine’s Day shows at Ashawagh Hall. The subtitle this year is “The Naughty Show,” with mature themes of an erotic nature from more than 70 artists.

    The first season of Shine, a radio talent competition sponsored by Nvision Studios of Freeport, has ended and Ashley Reilly of Montauk was the first-place winner. Her prize was the gift of a song written just for her by Daryl Carter called “I Hope,” to be professionally recorded. She is presently learning breathing techniques and presentation from the songwriter, and will record the final version soon in Freeport’s Real Tyme Studio.

Talent Show Auditions

    “Talent Showcase,” a regional public access show broadcast on Cablevision, will be holding auditions on Feb. 23 at Cablevision’s headquarters in Hauppauge. The shows are taped at LTV Studios in East Hampton.

    The show typically holds auditions on a biannual basis and is in its eighth year. It is open to all Long Island residents. The show is looking for singers (but not bands), impressionists, comedians, magicians, and other acts of all ages. Those interested must register first online at talent-showcase.com. No walk-ins will be seen.

   “I went down to Alphabet City a few weekends ago, saw a guy walking with a guitar, felt like this was a bygone era.”

    That may sound like the opening lines of a song — and maybe it is — but in this context, Jamie Grubb, a Springs native, was musing about the state of rock ’n’ roll music, circa 2013.

    “There are no new, 25-year-old, not-so-much-money musicians moving to the East Village. It’s too expensive,” he said.

   A pineapple placed on the front gate of a returning whaling captain’s house symbolized a welcome to visitors who wished to view the treasures from his world voyages. Historical artifacts from these captains, who left the East End to hunt whales in hopes of becoming wealthy from their valuable oil, are on display in “Bridgehampton Whalers: A Farmer’s Life at Sea” at the Bridgehampton Museum, formerly known as the Bridgehampton Historical Society. Among them is a bottle of whale oil, a rare find according to Julie Greene, the curator, who offered a talk last Thursday on the exhibit.

Mostly Abstract at Ashawagh

    Cynthia Sobel has organized “Mostly Abstract” at Ashawagh Hall in Springs this weekend. The show at the art space opens Saturday afternoon with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m. It will be up through Sunday afternoon.

    Included are paintings, drawings, and sculpture from Barbara Bilotta, Beth Barry, Phyllis Hammond, Jana Hayden, Stephanie Reit, Sheila Rotner, Ms. Sobel, and Mark Zimmerman.

More Women, New Show

‘Living, Out Loud’

    Guild Hall and the Naked Stage will present an evening of essay readings on Tuesday at 7:30. “Living, Out Loud: Writers Dish on Love, Sweat, and Fears” will feature readings by Paula Ganzi Licata, Robin Eileen Bernstein, Iyna Bort Caruso, Michael A. Casano, Claudia Gryvatz Copquin, and Heather Dune Macadam. The event is free.

‘Out Loud’ Auditions

   Anyone pursuing a life in books in this digital age has to pause to consider the consequences. An entire generation has come of age learning to question the value of books or not even considering their tactile permanence.

    Still, there are some book experiences that digital facsimiles will never replace and most of those are visual. In the case of the photography books that Harper’s Books specializes in, Harper Levine said photographs are inextricable from that printed form.

Judge or Be Judged

    The eighth annual Crazy Monkey Gallery competition among its member artists will take place at the Amagansett gallery beginning tomorrow.

    Visitors are invited to vote for their favorite art works by secret ballot. Included in the show will be works in painting, drawing, mixed media, collage, photograph, or sculpture, one per each artist.

   When the Sunday afternoon jam proved impractical to continue in the confines of Crossroads Music, in Amagansett Square, it quickly found a warm welcome a half-mile to the east, at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church.

    Richard Barons, the executive director of the East Hampton Historical Society, has been named executive director of the Thomas Moran Trust following a vote in December. Joining him at the trust are new board members and a new chairman who are also with the historical society.

Guild Hall Happenings

    On Saturday at 8 p.m., Guild Hall will present a screening of “The Magistrate” by Arthur Wing Pinero. The National Theatre Live presentation stars John Lithgow as the magistrate and Nancy Carroll as his wife, Agatha.

    The Victorian farce is centered on a deception. Agatha lied about her son’s age as well as her own when she married Posket, the magistrate. But her son’s precocious predilections for alcohol, women, gambling, and smoking threaten to expose the five years she has shaved off their ages.