Dan's Papers - November 23, 2007 - Take Five 2007 with Jan Silver

Thanksgiving weekend ushers in the holiday season on the South Fork. East Hampton has a holiday house tour, Southampton has the Parrish Art Museum's gift bazaar, Sag Harbor has the premiere of Simeon's Gift at Bay Street Theatre, Hampton Bays has a mini film festival today, and Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center has the Paper Bag Players and then pop songstress Melissa Manchester. Amagansett's Stephen Talkhouse brings in a good mix of performers this weekend and there are a few independent films, some theater and interesting speakers at local venues. This is the last "Take Five" column of the season, so I wish all a Happy Turkey Day and a health-filled year ahead.

Bay Street Theatre inaugurates its Family Theatre Initiative with the world premiere of Simeon's Gift, a new musical based on the best-selling book of the same title. It is the story of a young man's journey to find his place in the world. The show is adapted by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton from their book. The music is by Academy Award-winning composer Ian Fraser with lyrics by John Bucchino. Julie Andrews recorded the narration, and Marcia Milgrom Dodge directs and choreographs. Performances are Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets ($25 for 12 years and older, $10 children up to 12) are sold at the Sag Harbor box office (631-725-9500) or online at www.baystreet.org.

Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center brings in the children's theater troupe Paper Bag Players for a 3 p.m. show on Friday. "On Top of Spaghetti" is a comedy with a moral. Tickets are $15-25; call the box office at (631) 288-1500 or order online at www.whbpac.org.

The theater collective Naked Stage will do a staged reading of Murray Schisgal's comedy Luv next Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., in the Boots Lamb Education Center at Guild Hall, East Hampton. Kate Mueth, Joe DeSane and Josh Gladstone will perform, and there is no admission charge.

Grammy Award-winning singer Melissa Manchester ("Don't Cry Out Loud," "Come In From the Rain,") is at Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Saturday, 8 p.m. Tickets are $45-75 and can be reserved online at www.whbpac.org or by calling the box office at (631) 288-1500.

Friends of the Rogers Memorial Library, Southampton, invite all to a recital by classical pianist Joan Rowland on Sunday, 3 p.m. She will play selections by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin and Liszt. There is no admission charge, but seat reservations are requested (631-283-0774 ext. 523).

Recommended entertainers at local clubs and restaurants this week: Amagansett - at the Stephen Talkhouse (631-267-3117) Fri. - singer/songwriter Alison Goggins and guitarist Rob Wolfson, then rapper Slick Rick; Sat. - drummer Dan Bailey then Nancy Atlas; Sun. -pop band Cowboy Junkies; East Hampton - Fri. pop and jazz standards with Jane Hastay and Peter Martin Weiss at Coco Restaurant (Maidstone Arms), pianist Paul Gene at Babette's Sat.; Sagaponack - Twilight Thursdays (5-7:30 p.m.) at Wolffer Estate Vineyard with live music. Sag Harbor - Annie Morgan Band on Fri. at Mumbo Gumbo; Bridgehampton - World Pie jazz brunch Sun. with Stefanie Cardinali Group, Pierre's Restaurant-light jazz with Vanessa Trouble on Sun. and Jody Carlson next Tues., Monica sings at One Ocean on Thurs.; Water Mill - guitarist Steve Fredericks at Muse on Thurs; Southampton - Ludmilla at Le Chef on Thurs.; Westhampton Beach - musicians Thurs. thru Sun. at The Patio, live music Fri. & Sat. at Starr Boggs, musicians Fri. & Sat. at Annona; Riverhead - jazz at Tweed's Restaurant, Fri. to Sun.

The Hampton Bays library shows Shrek the Third at 2 p.m. today and The Spirit of St. Louis upstairs at 2 p.m. (free admission). Sag Harbor's John Jermain library shows Blizzard (2003) tonight at 6:30 p.m. There is no admission charge, but arrive about 6:15 for good seats. Southampton's Rogers Memorial Library shows Michael Moore's documentary indictment of the profit-driven U.S. healthcare system, Sicko (2007), next Monday, 3 p.m. (free admission). The Bridgehampton library shows the Norwegian film The Bothersome Man (2007) next Wednesday at 5 p.m. (free admission).

Photographer Alan MacWeeney talks about his latest book, Irish Travellers, Tinkers No More, on Friday, 6 p.m., at Canio's Books, Sag Harbor. At Canio's on Saturday, 6 p.m. poet Phil Schulz reads from his new collection Failure. Next Wednesday in the "Writer's Speak" series at Stony Brook Southampton, Julie Raynor will read from her recently completed first novel Goodbye, Sister in the Duke Lecture Hall at 7 p.m. There is no admission charge for any of these readings.

Southampton's Parrish Art Museum opens the holiday season with Parrish Presents, its bazaar of furnishings and gifts including Oriental carpets, jewelry, antiques, and gourmet foods. There is a preview cocktail party on Friday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. for a first crack at everything ($125 admission for Museum members, $150 for non-members). The sale is open to the public on Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. ($7 admission for adults 18 and older). For more information, call the Museum at (631) 283-2118.

The East Hampton Historical Society has a holiday house tour this weekend. It starts tonight with a benefit cocktail party ($150) which includes a ticket to the Saturday afternoon tour (1 p.m. to 4 p.m.). There are six historic and architecturally significant homes on the self-guided tour (tour only, $60). Reserve tickets by calling (631) 324-6850.