From Friday, November 6 through Monday, November 9, Sag Harbor, East Hampton, Water Mill, Southampton and Westhampton Beach host eleven events between them. The list includes a film restoration festival, two museum talks, two exhibition openings, a chamber trio, a stand-up comic, a memoir staged for two nights and the opening of a three-week run of "To Kill a Mockingbird."
The timing makes sense once you look at the October calendar. Hampton Theatre Company's "Finishing School" at Quogue Community Hall ran through November 1. So did "The Elephant Man," which Mirror & Masque Theatre Co. and Playwrights' Theatre of East Hampton staged in the round at LTV Studios in Wainscott. Five days after those two shows closed, several institutions opened their November programs on the same weekend.
Friday to Monday, Village by Village
The weekend is easiest to plan day by day, because the venues are spread out. The schedule runs from Westhampton Beach to East Hampton, and Sag Harbor Cinema's festival runs underneath all four days.
Friday, November 6
- Sag Harbor Cinema opens the sixth annual Martin Scorsese Presents: The Sag Harbor Cinema Festival of Preservation, which runs through November 9.
- Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill holds Arts & Eats.
Saturday, November 7
- Guild Hall presents Silkroad Up Close with Kaoru Watanabe, Kinan Azmeh and Maeve Gilchrist, 7 to 8:30 p.m.
- Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center at 76 Main Street hosts comedian Jessica Kirson at 8 p.m.
- Southampton Cultural Center at 25 Pond Lane stages the first of two performances of "Deep Down in Brooklyn" at 6 p.m.
- Parrish Art Museum hosts a book launch and talk with Will Ryman.
Sunday, November 8
- Guild Hall opens two exhibitions, the 86th Artist Members Exhibition and "Michael A. Butler: Somewhere in Time." Both run through January 10, 2027.
- Guild Hall also hosts The Cultured Collector, a conversation with Sarah Harrelson and Gordon VeneKlasen, from noon to 1:30 p.m.
- Southampton Cultural Center gives the second performance of "Deep Down in Brooklyn" at 6 p.m.
Monday, November 9
- Bay Street Theater on Long Wharf in Sag Harbor opens "To Kill a Mockingbird."
- Guild Hall holds an Art Social, Painting Tinier with Michael A. Butler, from 6 to 8 p.m., the day after his exhibition opens.
- Sag Harbor Cinema closes the preservation festival.
The Festival Underneath It All
The Sag Harbor festival matters most to the weekend because it is the only event that covers all four days. Every other event fits around it. As reported by 27east, the program is built from restorations, rarities and rediscoveries, and its guests include archivists, historians, collectors and filmmakers.
According to the festival announcement, the films include "Gone to Earth," "Obsession," "Citizen Ruth," "Letty Lynton," "Me and My Gal," "West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty," Elvira Notari's "A Santanotte" and George Pal's Puppetoons. The listed guests are archivists Grover Crisp, Kevin Schaeffer, George Willeman and Cassandra Moore, along with Mary Corman, Bruce Goldstein, Ashley Clark, Giuliana Bruno and Arnold Leibovit. Alexander Payne joins by Zoom.
A four-day pass costs $65 for members and $110 for nonmembers. That price makes it practical to mix the festival with other plans. Someone in Sag Harbor could watch a Friday screening, drive to East Hampton for Silkroad at Guild Hall on Saturday evening and still return for Sunday's programs without spending the whole weekend in one theater.
Two Stage Works on Two Schedules
"Deep Down in Brooklyn" is based on Ed German's memoir of mid-century Brooklyn and is directed by Bonnie Grice. 27east reports that the work explores the urban transformation that came with the migration of Black families from the South. General admission is $25, and admission is free for veterans and their families. It plays only on November 7 and 8, so missing that weekend means missing the show.
"To Kill a Mockingbird" works on a longer schedule. Bay Street is staging Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of Harper Lee's novel, directed by Bay Street co-founder Stephen Hamilton. 27east reports that the 12-member company includes actors from the East End and New York City. Kendra Foster McBride plays Scout Finch, Ryan Schaeffer plays Jem, Matthew Schiavoni plays Dill and J. Stephen Brantley plays Atticus. Judah Josiah Alexander Fabre plays Tom Robinson, and Erin Margaret Pettigrew plays Calpurnia.
In the same article, Hamilton said, "There has never been a better time in this nation's history for a re-examination of Harper Lee's Mockingbird, an essential chapter in the American cultural narrative."
The production is part of Literature Live!, Bay Street's educational program, which brings middle and high school students to staged works of literature at no charge. Shows are chosen from the New York State Common Core curriculum, and the program also provides study guides. Hamilton most recently adapted and directed "Fahrenheit 451" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" for the same program. The public performances, as the paper puts it, give families and audiences of different generations a chance to see the story together.
The Bay Street listing shows the run continuing through November 29, which is Thanksgiving weekend. No other event on this calendar runs as long. Tickets are sold through baystreet.org or by phone at 631-725-9500.
After the Weekend, the Calendar Thins to Single Nights
Once the festival ends on November 9, the rest of the month usually has one event at a time, spread across the same venues. These dates rarely overlap, so it is possible to attend most of them.
- Friday, November 13. Guild Hall screens National Theatre Live's "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The same evening at 8 p.m., Grammy winner Daniel Lanois plays the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center with his trio. This is the only night after the opening weekend with two choices.
- Saturday, November 14. Bridgehampton Chamber Music's autumn concert, "Love Stories: Beethoven to Gershwin," begins at 5 p.m. at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, 2429 Montauk Highway. Soprano Susanna Phillips performs with pianist Michael Stephen Brown, clarinetist Yoonah Kim and cellist Brannon Cho. 27east lists tickets at $87.50, $62.50 and $52.50, with student tickets at $12.50.
- Sunday, November 15. Guild Hall hosts Poetry and the American Conversation with Philip Schultz and Jill Bialosky, joined by David Rattray, from noon to 1 p.m.
- Friday, November 20. South Fork Performing Arts presents "The Drowsy Chaperone" at Guild Hall from 7 to 10 p.m. as a community presentation.
The other date Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center announced alongside Lanois, comedian Anthony Rodia, falls on December 5. For most of the second half of November, then, Bay Street's run and the two Guild Hall exhibitions are the only programs that are open on any given day.
A Wednesday Habit for the Weeks in Between
The calendar above is mostly on weekends. On Wednesdays, Nick & Toni's at 136 North Main Street in East Hampton has brought back its weekly wine workshops, which started October 21 and run from 5:30 to 7 p.m. That leaves something to do midweek between Bay Street weekends.
For a reader with one free weekend this month, November 6 to 9 is the one to plan around, and the Sag Harbor festival pass and the Saturday Silkroad tickets are the two to book first.
At the Michael Graves Team, we follow the East End's off-season calendar as closely as its sales data. If you are weighing how much of the year to spend on the South Fork, we would be glad to schedule a private consultation.
