All In A Weekend: A Round-Up of Events on the Forks

There’s plenty to see and do on the forks this weekend. We’ll begin with a few good films and shows that you will see on the East End this weekend ONLY.

Roger Ebert’s Life Itself

Guild Hall and the Hamptons International Film Festival kick off their Summer Docs summer documentary series with “Life Itself,” which tells the story of the life of film critic Roger Ebert, Saturday night at 8 p.m. Host Alec Baldwin will discuss the film with Mr. Ebert’s widow, Chaz Ebert. Acclaimed director Steve James and executive producers Martin Scorsese and Steven Zaillian put together a story that is by turns personal, funny, painful, and transcendent, based on Mr. Ebert’s bestselling memoir of the same name. The film explores Mr.Ebert’s life and legacy, from his Pulitzer Prize-winning film criticism at the Chicago Sun-Times to becoming one of the most influential cultural voices in America.

Always….Patsy Cline

“Always… Patsy Cline,”  showing at The Suffolk Theater in Riverhead Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., is the musical play based on the true story of Patsy’s friendship with Louise Seger,a fan who befriended Patsy in a Texas honky-tonk, and their continued correspondence until her death. The show features 27 Patsy Cline numbers, audience participation and down-home country humor. The show’s title was inspired by Cline’s letters to Seger, which were consistently signed “Love ALWAYS… Patsy Cline.”

Sandra Bernhardt at Guild Hall

Performer Sandra Bernhard appears in her own one-of-a-kind live show that blends theatre, rock-n-roll, and stand-up with a little burlesque and cabaret Friday at 8 p.m. at Guild Hall in East Hampton

Lord of the Ants

Lord of the Ants, a NOVA production for PBS, is a portrait of entomologist, sociobiology founder and biodiversity advocate E.O. Wilson, will be shown at the South Fork Natural History Museum on Saturday at 7 p.m. The documentary provides a chronological sweep of Wilson’s life and work, from his early childhood fascination with nature to the controversies surrounding his 1975 publication of Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, and his more recent work with biodiversity.

Art

The Sag Harbor Whaling Museum will host the second half of its summer “Salt Air” exhibit, titled “Under the Influence,” which opens tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. Curated by Peter J. Marcelle, Under the Influence explores the relationship between nine contemporary artists and the artists who have inspired them.

In a series of watercolors, Judith Hudson explores the humorous, X-rated, quixotic and timeless side of  ”A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in a new show opening at the Tripoli Gallery in Southampton June 21 from 4 to 6 p.m. As Shakespeare makes the audience aware of the ridiculous aspects of sex and romance, the artist gives distance and magic the task of dissolving heartache and finding comedy in the tangled knot of love’s folly.

East End Arts hosts an opening for a juried show on “Composition” tonight from 5 to 7 p.m. in their gallery on East Main Street in Riverhead, and the Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt host their  “Quintessence of Long Island” exhibit with Deneen Tromba-Rich and Jan C. Porinchak, Sunday at 2 p.m. The two artists have teamed up to create a unique perspective of the natural beauty that lies within the Long Pond Greenbelt.

The Beacon’s full arts listings are online here.

Music

Quite a few great local musicians have shows this weekend. Inda Eaton plays The Stephen Talkhouse tonight at 8 p.m., Jim Turner plays at Fresh in Bridgehampton from 5 to 8 p.m. tonight, and brings his open mic to Muse in Sag Harbor Sunday from 7 to 10 p.m., Caroline Doctorow plays at Jamesport Vineyards on Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. and The Second Hands will play at Jamesport Vineyards on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.

The Beacon’s full music listings are online here.

Hiking

The East Hampton Trails Preservation Society hosts a historical walk to the Cedar Island Lighthouse in Cedar Point Park on Saturday at 10 a.m. The group will walk out to the lighthouse where Bob Allen will talk about his great-grandfather, who was the Lighthouse Keeper. For more information, contact hike leader Bob Allen at 631.481.6248.

The Beacon’s full hike listings are online here.