About Performing Arts

Guild Hall is home to the Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan Theater, a 1931 jewel-box proscenium stage celebrating nearly a century of performing arts. In its early years, formally known as the John Drew Theater, it served as a summer testing ground for productions en route to Broadway. Legendary playwrights such as Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill credited Guild Hall with helping to establish their reputations, while others like Edward Albee and Terrence McNally had a lifelong relationship with the theater, where he was an active member of the Guild Hall Academy of the Arts. The theater has evolved into a vital year-round institution with more than 100 presentations annually, including dance, opera, concerts, film, theatrical readings, comedy, dance, lectures, and symposia.

The roster of world-class performers who have made recent appearances at the Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan Theater includes Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award-winning luminaries including Alec Baldwin, Liza Minnelli, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Blythe Danner, James Earl Jones, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Billy Porter, Harris Yulin, Mercedes Ruehl, , Leslie Odom Jr., Laurie Metcalf, Steve Martin, Richard Kind, and Marlo Thomas; dance companies Alvin Ailey, New York City Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Gibney Company, Tiler Peck, and Pilobolus; performance artists Laurie Anderson and Meredith Monk; directors Robert Wilson, Susan Stroman, Tony Walton, and Julie Taymor; comedians Jay Leno, Joy Behar, John Leguizamo, Jerry Seinfeld, Kathy Griffin, Martin Short, J.B. Smoove, Tig Notaro, Mo Amer, Mike Birbiglia, Hasan Minaj, Ana Gasteyer, and Alok; and legendary musicians Mavis Staples, Patti Smith, The Beach Boys, Buddy Guy, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Robert Glasper, G.E. Smith, Paul Shaffer, Louis Cato,  and Questlove.

Guild Hall is now entering a period of 21st century revitalization, embracing immediacy, fresh thought, new approaches, and explorations into what theater means today.

Guild Hall’s founding mission—to provide a community gathering place and to encourage a finer type of citizenship through the arts—is fulfilled by making the theater accessible to local associations, schools, and other nonprofits. The Theater provides a professional environment for emerging to mid-career performing artists to experiment with their craft or develop new works while gaining access to consultation with professional theater staff and audience feedback. To enhance civic participation, the Hamptons Institute brings together top journalists, authors, and world analysts to encourage meaningful dialogue on politics and current events from both a local and global perspective.

PROGRAM SPONSORS

Performing Arts programs are supported in part by Galia Meiri-Stawski and Axel Stawski, Henry and Peggy Schleiff, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, Monica and Peter Tessler, and Vital Projects Fund. Music Programming is supported in part by The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming. 

Additional support provided by Friends of the Theater: Natascia Ayers and Jim Ciquera, Bonnie and Joel Bergstein, Christine and Bill Campbell, John and Joan D’Addario, Gabrielle and Gianpaolo de Felice, Debbie and Henry Druker, Lena Kaplan, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Steve Pesner, in memory of his wife, Michèle Pesner, whose entire life was devoted to all aspects of culture, The Schaffner Family Foundation, Lisa Schultz and Ezriel Kornel, Jayne Baron Sherman and Deborah Zum, Stacey and Oliver Stanton, Susi and Peter Wunsch, and Andrew Yuder and Kyle Glaeser.