Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre is rebranding its image, rolling out avant-garde theater performances and giving up the English style spelling in its moniker.
The South Fork theater company will now be known as Bay Street Theater and Sag Harbor Center for the Arts, officials announced at a press conference on Friday. The new name reflects Bay Street’s mission as a professional theater company, as well as its role as a community organization.
“We really helped encapsulate everything that we are trying to do and that we allow other members of the community to do here,” executive director Tracy Mitchell said on Friday.
“We’re bringing a lot of new programs, a lot of new ides, this summer and beyond,” said Scott Schwartz, Bay Street’s artistic director. “It was an opportune time to reintroduce ourselves visually and present ourselves with the energy and the excitement that we have for the work we’re doing here.”
The theater will still present its professionally produced plays under the Bay Street banner. Other programs, including lectures and educational outreach, will now be exhibited under the Sag Harbor Center for the Arts brand.
Visit Baystreet.org for their complete summer lineup and remember the theater is only a ferry ride (or two) away.
Here are some other new programs the theater is rolling out:
The Bay Street Shakespeare Initiative
Bay Street will present a reading of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”starring Tony Award winner John Glover as Prospero. There will be a paid performance and cocktail reception at a private home on August 16 and a free outdoor performance on Sunday, August 17 at an undetermined location.
The theater is also looking for patrons to sponsor characters at different donor levels. Tiers range from $500 to sponsor a minor character to $5,000 which nets a sponsorship of Prospero.
All donors receive an invitation to the August 16 reading and a listing in the play’s program. The top three tiers of donors receive an invitation to attend one rehearsal, a photograph with the sponsored character and two tickets to see “My Life is a Musical” at Bay Street.
Blackout at Bay Street
Bay Street will host cabaret nights where the entire theater and lobby will be transformed into an interactive performance space. Blackout will be presented over three weekends this summer: July 18 and 19; August 8 and 9; and August 22 and 23.
“The Importance of Oscar,” an all male burlesque retelling of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest,” will kick off the series July 18.
The Bay Street New Works Festival
This popular three-day event will return in 2015. New and emerging artists will read their original works in front of a live audience, followed by a discussion. Exact dates have yet to be determined.
Summer Kids Theater Camp
Camps will be held at the Southampton Arts Center and Studio 3 in Bridgehampton from 9:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. daily for each week-long session.
Land of Make Believe, August 4-8, ages 7-9 (Southampton Arts Center)
My Life is a Musical, August 11-15, ages 9-12 (Southampton Arts Center)
Green Eggs and Hamlet, August 4-8, ages 9-12 (Studio 3)
Shakespeare Stories: A Mini Midsummer Dream, August 11-15, ages 7-9
Call 631-725-0818 or click here for more info.
