Michael Cerveris, Joanna Gleason, Cherry Jones and More Featured in Guild Hall's 90th Season

Guild Hall has announced the artists and events for its landmark 90th season which begins at the end of May and will feature author Salman Rushdie, American Ballet Theatre, Emmy-winners Susan Lucci & Joy Behar, 5-time Tony-winner Susan Stroman, Oscar & Tony-winner Mercedes Ruehl, Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham, Tony-winners Michael Cerveris, Joanna Gleason, Bill Irwin & Cherry Jones, Drama Desk-winner Michael Urie, Emmy-nominees John Slattery (Mad Men) & Harris Yulin (Ozark), poet Cornelius Eady, artists Julian Schnabel and Laurie Anderson, plus exhibitions with new works from acclaimed American artists Alexis Rockman (Shipwrecks; June 12-July 26) and Robert Longo (A House Divided; Aug 7-Oct 17). This fall at the Academy of the Arts Dinner (Nov 8) at Cipriani Midtown, Guild Hall will present a special 90th anniversary-inspired revue.

The first main season event in May will be a virtual poetry performance, REAWAKENINGS, premiering online May 23 at 8pm with Rushdie, Lucci, Abraham, Cerveris, Gleason, Irwin, Jones, Eady, plus Tony-nominees Karen Akers, Tony Roberts & Michael Stuhlbarg, as well as Austin Pendleton, Chris Sarandon, Barbara Feldon & Lynnette R. Freeman. Directed by Paul Hecht, it will feature the cast each performing a favorite poem uniquely/visually paired with a piece of art from Guild Hall's permanent collection.

In June, Guild Hall will begin its outdoor PLAY IN THE GARDEN theater series with live performances at 8pm for a limited audience/Lawn Circle seats (to also be livestreamed/made available online). The series will showcase works of Edward Albee, Kurt Vonnegut, Wendy Wasserstein and Tom Wolfe (Albee was Artistic Director of Guild Hall's theater in the 70s, Vonnegut, Wasserstein & Wolfe were also involved with Guild Hall during their careers & all four are members of Guild Hall's Academy of the Arts). The series will kick off with a Weekend of Wasserstein June 4-5 (a mini-fest of Wendy's plays, two distinctive evenings filled with smart & shining treats from the voice of one of America's most beloved playwrights, $100 per Lawn Circle which seats 1-2 people). June 11 will be a staged reading of Happy Birthday, Wanda June by Kurt Vonnegut (his first play which premiered in 1970 and was adapted into a film in 1971; capturing his brilliantly distinct perspective, it's a darkly humorous, searing examination of the excesses of capitalism, patriotism & American culture in the post-Vietnam War era, $50 per Lawn Circle). The series will continue with Michael Urie and his partner Ryan Spahn starring in Albee's The Zoo Story July 1-4 ($100 per Lawn Circle), A Night with the Wolfe July 23 celebrating Tom Wolfe, also affectionately known as the Man in the White Suit (the evening will showcase his wit & cultural insights and will include excerpts from his novels, short works, articles & interviews, all told by performers each costumed in Wolfe's iconic white suit, $100 per Lawn Circle). 5-time Tony-winner and Academy of the Arts member Susan Stroman will direct three unique live theater events Aug 27-29, and Labor Day Weekend Sep 3-4 will be the premiere of new play Crisis in Queens by Academy member Joy Behar ($200 per Lawn Circle). Sep 16-18 will be Temptation and Other Tales: An Evening of One-Acts written & directed by Lyle Kessler starring Richard Kind, Raye & Sawyer Spielberg, and Margaret Ladd ($100 per Lawn Circle).

Other events include an outdoor film screening series ($35 per Lawn Circle) featuring films inspired by or directly connected to the artists and exhibitions on view, including Life of Pi (June 12/Alexis Rockman provided the inspirational drawings for director Ang Lee), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (July 10), and Johnny Mnemonic (Aug 14/directed by Robert Longo whose exhibition begins the week before); the return of the popular Stirring the Pot culinary series with Florence Fabricant; the 75th annual Clothesline Art Sale July 24 9am-4pm (a community benefit showcasing original works by East End artists); a star-studded Summer Gala (Aug 6) and 90th Birthday Celebration (Aug 19). The summer will also feature fun events for kids & families including Saturday Family Workshops June 12-July 10/Aug 14-Sep 4 at 12pm (the perfect way for families to take part in shared learning and creativity), a variety of KidFEST events July 7, July 21, Aug 11 & Sep 1 (3pm & 5pm), Burn the Stage: Teen Open Mic Night May 29 & June 18 at 8pm with Guild Hall Teen Arts Council, and the impactful GATHER series July 16-July 19 featuring conversations led by Black and Indigenous change-makers.

With over 40 new paintings and works on paper, Alexis Rockman: Shipwrecks (June 12-July 26), curated by Guild Hall's Executive Director Andrea Grover, will look at the world's waterways as a network by which all of world history has traveled. The transport of language, culture, art, architecture, cuisine, religion, and biology can all be traced along the routes of seafaring vessels. Through depictions of historic and obscure shipwrecks and their lost cargoes, Rockman addresses the impact-both factual and extrapolative-the migration of goods, people, plants and animals has on the planet.

Robert Longo: A House Divided (Aug 7-Oct 17) is a special two-part exhibition featuring images that represent both how America was once perceived--as a country at the peak of its power and influence--and images that echo its current state of chaos and conflict. Part I recalls an America of the past and includes large-scale charcoal drawings of well-known Abstract Expressionist paintings. In contrast, Part II of the exhibition features work from Longo's Destroyer Cycle with large-scale hyperrealist works that reflect the fraught events dominating the current U.S. news cycle.

The third 90th season exhibition will be in honor of Guild Hall's 90th: Selections from the Permanent Collection (opening Oct 30), curated by Museum Director/Chief Curator Christina Mossaides Strassfield. Guild Hall's impressive permanent collection has 2,400 pieces in all mediums with works by over 500 artists, mostly local artists who have exhibited at Guild Hall (* indicates Academy of the Arts member): Highlights include: 19 artworks by Childe Hassam, 15 by Lichtenstein*, 13 by Andy Warhol, 10 by de Kooning*, 10 William King* sculptures, 5 pieces by Krasner, 5 by Ossorio, 4 Tony Rosenthal sculptures including one of his iconic Cube series. There are also works by James Brooks*, Chuck Close*, Adolph Gottlieb, Winslow Homer, Jasper Johns, Robert Motherwell, Dennis Oppenheim, Jackson Pollock, Robert Richenburg, James Rosenquist, Julian Schnabel*, Cindy Sherman*, Bruce Weber* & Jane Wilson*.

In celebration of the 90th, Guild Hall has launched a capital campaign to renovate its historic facility & campus with the team of Peter Pennoyer Architects, Bran Ferren/Applied Minds, Hollander Design Landscape Architects, and Ben Krupinski Builder. Pledges of over $4 million have been received toward an overall goal of $7 million. The state-of-the art improvements will launch this summer and continue through 2022. Since opening in 1931, Guild Hall has had a remarkable legacy as The Hamptons epicenter of art, design, theater, music, film, food & literature. Highlights include (* indicates a member of Guild Hall's prestigious Academy of the Arts): major exhibitions with local artists like Hassam, Ossorio, Krasner, de Kooning*, Lichtenstein*, Chuck Close*, Julian Schnabel*, Cindy Sherman*, Richard Avedon, and in 1949, Guild Hall featured East Hampton local Jackson Pollock a month before his Life cover story and in 1956, an exhibition with multiple Pollock works had just opened when he was killed in a car accident just miles from Guild Hall; Thornton Wilder as the Stage Manager in his Pulitzer-winning play Our Town in 1946; Edward Albee* as Artistic Director in the 70s; musicals & revues with Bob Fosse & Gwen Verdon* (Fosse began his choreography career at Guild Hall before his first Broadway show The Pajama Game in 1954); special events with other luminaries like Kurt Vonnegut*, Tom Wolfe*, John Irving*, Gloria Steinem, David Sedaris, Fran Lebowitz, Steven Spielberg*, Mel Brooks*, Julie Andrews*, Jerry Seinfeld*, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Misty Copeland, Martha Stewart*, and Anthony Bourdain; and recent music performances from artists like Wynton Marsalis, Rufus Wainwright, Philip Glass, Rosanne Cash, The Beach Boys and Tony-winners like Audra MacDonald, Leslie Odom Jr., Patti LuPone, Mandy Patinkin & Liza Minnelli.

As a lead up to the start of its 90th season, Guild Hall will present two solo art exhibitions April 24-May 31 with Argentinian-born multimedia artist Karin Waisman featuring drawings, sculptures & ceramic wall installations, and contemporary Puerto Rican-born multimedia artist Enoc Perez who is known for his paintings & oil stick drawings. Karin's exhibition The Horizon is not a Straight Line, will debut a bronze floor sculpture and site-specific cast resin & ceramic wall installations based on landscapes, drawings of mountains & bodies of water. Enoc's exhibition Paradise, will explore the theme of natural and man-made calamities in large-scale paintings (based on the devastation Puerto Rico experienced during 2017's Hurricane Maria).

Guild Hall, one of the first multidisciplinary centers in the country to combine a museum, theater, and education space under one roof, was established in 1931 as a gathering place for community where an appreciation for the arts would serve to encourage greater civic participation. For nine decades, Guild Hall has embraced this open-minded vision and provided a welcoming environment for the public to engage with art exhibitions, performances, and educational offerings. Art and artists have long been the engine of Guild Hall's activities and the institution continues to find innovative ways to support creativity in everyone.

For more information visit: www.GuildHall.org