This season, the groundbreaking Playwrights’ Theatre returns to LTV Studios with Sawyer Avery Spielberg and Raye Levine (son and daughter-in-law of Steven Spielberg). In advance of their reading on Aug. 3 and 4 (ltveh.org/playwrightstheatreofeasthampton), we checked in with Sawyer for a preview.
WHAT NEWS SHOULD WE SHARE ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS’ THEATRE PERFORMANCES?
We’re bringing a reading of a hilarious play to LTV Studios in Wainscott for two nights on Aug. 3 and 4. It’s called Stupid Fucking Bird by Aaron Posner, and it’s a riff on Chekhov’s masterpiece The Seagull, set in a very modern context. My wife, Raye Levine, and I star along with an ensemble of Hamptons favorites including Kate Mueth of The Neo-Political Cowgirls and Joe Pallister. Playwrights’ Theatre of East Hampton is producing under Josh Gladstone’s eye, who we’ve worked with many times at Bay Street Theater and Guild Hall.
HOW IS THE LEGACY OF THE PLAYWRIGHTS’ THEATRE SO SPECIAL IN THE HAMPTONS?
The Playwrights’ Theatre was founded in East Hampton in 1992 by producer and Springs resident Mitzi Pazer from the Roundabout Theatre Company, along with her husband, Perry. They started the series at LTV before shifting to the John Drew Theater, where the program thrived. Incredible stars and writers took part: Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, Judd Hirsch, Estelle Parsons, Dianne Wiest, Peter Boyle, Jack Klugman and Charles Durning. Playwrights’ Theatre gave a chance for East Hampton audiences to meet and mingle with these luminaries in a relaxed setting where process and dialogue were encouraged with great talkbacks and informal garden receptions. Gladstone reached out to the Pazers when Michael Clark invited him earlier this year to join the team at LTV, and, sure enough, the Pazers responded, excited to see their legacy of 30 years reignited and reimagined for a new generation of East Hampton theater lovers and artists.
A gourmet feast from Amber Waves
WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS SUMMER IN THE HAMPTONS?
The most exciting thing for me this summer is that half the cast of Stupid Fucking Bird are local surfers! I look forward to surfing up and down the East End, starting at Hampton Bays all the way to Montauk with my fellow cast mates—as well as picking up some surf gear and a burger at Slo-Jack’s, run by the legendary Tommy in Hampton Bays.
Sawyer’s Script
Left Hand Coffee in Montauk makes my favorite cup on the East End. lefthandcoffee.com
The Seafood Shop in Wainscott is where I get most of my seafood. It’s watermelon season, so I look forward to eating some fresh fruits and veggies and supporting the local farming communities with my children, Fynn and Callum. One of my first teenage jobs was working at Amber Waves in Amagansett! theseafoodshop.com; amberwavesfarm.org
Left Hand Coffee in Montauk
The Sag Harbor Cinema has been renovated after the fire, and I look forward to going there to check out a movie or two this summer. The last film I saw there was Elvis starring my pal Austin. sagharborcinema.org
Fresh fish is on the menu for Spielberg.
The other thing I would add is that I’m looking forward to chartering a fishing boat and fishing with my nephew off Montauk. We wake up before the sun and catch bluefish and fluke, and if we go farther out, we can catch some tuna.
Photography by: PHOTO BY BJORN WALLANDER/COURTESY OF SUBJECT, PHOTO BY: GABRIELA HERMAN/COURTESY OF BRAND, MICHELLE MCSWAIN/COURTESY OF BRAND, HDAGLI/GETTY IMAGES
