Between tomorrow night and Thanksgiving weekend, Sag Harbor Cinema at 90 Main Street, Bay Street Theater at 1 Long Wharf, and The Church at 48 Madison Street take turns holding the village calendar. Their schedules overlap at a few fixed points. All three open the stretch with a weekend they produce together. Then one hands off to the next on the same Monday, and The Church closes the month with a market on the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Read in order, the dates turn November into one continuous program across three buildings, all within a short walk of one another.
Friday Night, One Ticket Supports Three Stages
The third annual Spooky-Palooza runs Friday, October 30, through Sunday, November 1. The Church describes it as a collaboration among Sag Harbor Cinema, The Church, and Bay Street Theater. The new piece this year is a jointly presented dance party and costume contest at The Church on Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. Individual tickets are $90, or $75 per person for groups of two or more, and the event benefits all three organizations.
Over the next four weeks these three venues take turns at the center of the village calendar, and on Friday they share one ticket that funds all of them. The sponsor list reads like a short walk through the village: Cluckman's, Page, Harbor Market, Lulu, Kidd Squid, Sen, and Faraway.
Halloween Uses All Three Buildings in One Day
On Saturday the collaboration spreads into a schedule that moves between all three venues. Everything below comes from the Spooky-Palooza listing on The Church's site, with Frankenstein pricing from the cinema's ticket page.
| Date and time | Program | Venue | Tickets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat. Oct. 31, 11 a.m. | Frankenweenie matinee with complimentary popcorn | Sag Harbor Cinema | $18.50 adult, $13.50 child, $15.50 senior, $10 member |
| Sat. Oct. 31, 12:30–1:30 p.m. | S'mores and Scares, a spooky story staged reading | Bay Street Theater | $15 per person |
| Sat. Oct. 31, 6 p.m. | Frankenstein, 1931, with live guitar score by Gary Lucas | Sag Harbor Cinema, Theater 2 | $18.55 adult, $15.50 senior or disability, $14 youth 12 and under, each plus a $2 fee |
| Sat. Oct. 31, 8 p.m. | The Rocky Horror Picture Show | Bay Street Theater | $25.99 for one, $40.99 for two |
| Sun. Nov. 1, 11 a.m. | Frankenweenie matinee, second showing | Sag Harbor Cinema | Same as Saturday |
| Sun. Nov. 1, 12–2 p.m. | Fall Fun Creativity Lab, all ages | The Church | $15 per person |
The two Saturday matinee slots, 11 a.m. at the cinema and 12:30 p.m. at Bay Street, follow each other closely enough that a family could fit both into one morning. The 6 p.m. Frankenstein ends near the 8 p.m. Rocky Horror start time on Long Wharf. Gary Lucas performs his score live, so this Frankenstein can't be seen the same way at home.
The Cinema Takes the Following Weekend
Five days after Spooky-Palooza ends, Sag Harbor Cinema opens its sixth annual Martin Scorsese Presents: The Sag Harbor Cinema Festival of Preservation, which runs Friday, November 6, through Monday, November 9. Passes cover all four days of screenings, the special events, and the Preservation Party. They cost $65 for members and $110 for non-members. The cinema said it would release the full schedule and individual film tickets two weeks before the festival, so the festival page is the place to check times.
The program announced in the cinema's September 29 release mixes restorations with first chances to see films that have been hard to show. The highlights include:
- Gone to Earth (1950), the long-awaited reconstruction of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's film, supervised by Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker. Disney archivist Kevin Schaeffer will discuss the film's history and how it was restored.
- Letty Lynton (1932), the Joan Crawford melodrama directed by Clarence Brown, which the release says has been impossible to screen for nearly ninety years. Warner Bros. has now settled the legal dispute and restored it.
- Citizen Ruth (1996), newly restored, with Alexander Payne joining live via Zoom, and Obsession (1976), Brian De Palma's tribute to Hitchcock, in a new restoration.
- A Roger Corman centennial, with his daughter Mary Corman in Sag Harbor to mark it.
- West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty (1979) by Med Hondo, introduced by Ashley Clark of the Criterion Collection, followed by a book signing on the cinema's third floor.
- George Pal's Puppetoons in the festival's Kids and Family slot, presented by Pal historian Arnold Leibovit.
The film list also includes The Big Red One: The Reconstruction and the Neapolitan silent 'A Santanotte (1922). Scholar Giuliana Bruno will be on hand to discuss Elvira Notari, the director of 'A Santanotte. In the release, founding artistic director Giulia D'Agnolo Vallan describes the lineup as running "from Pre-Code to the New Hollywood; from Powell and Pressburger to Abbott and Costello."
The festival has Main Street that weekend, and The Church schedules around it a few blocks away. Janet Reitman gives a Knowledge Friday talk on November 6, and Bruce Wolosoff leads a Reflections in Music concert on November 7. Both run 6 to 7:30 p.m. at 48 Madison Street, according to The Church's event calendar. Both end early in the evening, which leaves time for a later screening if you hold a festival pass.
Monday the Ninth, the Cinema Hands Off to Long Wharf
The clearest handoff of the month comes on Monday, November 9. That is the final day of the Festival of Preservation and the first date of Bay Street Theater's To Kill a Mockingbird, which runs through November 29.
The production uses Aaron Sorkin's adaptation and is directed by Stephen Hamilton. 27east reports that Hamilton co-founded Bay Street and served as its first executive director, and that he is returning to direct at the theater he helped establish more than 30 years ago. His recent Bay Street credits include Fahrenheit 451 and A Streetcar Named Desire.
The November timing comes from the play's main audience. To Kill a Mockingbird is part of Bay Street's Literature Live! series, which presents professional productions of classic literature to middle and high school students at no charge. 27east reports that more than 3,000 students are expected to attend this fall, and the run also includes public performances. Artistic director Scott Schwartz told 27east:
"Aaron Sorkin's adaptation gives audiences the opportunity to experience this remarkable story in an entirely new way, brought to life by actors in the shared experience of live theater."
Bay Street's show page lists the run dates but no times for individual public performances. Tickets are sold at baystreet.org and through the box office at 631-725-9500, and the lobby bar opens one hour before each performance.
Mid-Month, a Marker on Suffolk Street
While Mockingbird plays on Long Wharf, the Sag Harbor Historical Museum uses the middle Sunday to mark a piece of village history. On November 15, from 2 to 3 p.m., the museum will dedicate a roadside marker for the Beebee Windmill at Suffolk and Jermain Streets, the windmill's original location.
The museum's event page explains why the marker belongs there. A flag was always raised on the Beebee Windmill when a returning whaling ship was spotted in the bay, which the museum sums up as "Flag on the Mill, Ship in the Bay." The windmill itself now stands on Ocean Road in Bridgehampton, so the new marker brings the story back to the corner where it happened.
The Church's walls stay busy between its events. Dan's Papers reports that its Dear Mazie exhibition runs through December 27.
Thanksgiving Week Ends the Month at The Church
Bay Street has one more night before the holiday. The Think You're Funny? Graduation Show is scheduled for Tuesday, November 24, at 8 p.m., two days before Thanksgiving.
The month ends where Spooky-Palooza began. The Church's sixth annual Holiday Makers Market runs Saturday, November 28, and Sunday, November 29, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. The 2026 listing promises more than 20 makers and adds a Creativity Lab. The market's Sunday is also To Kill a Mockingbird's last scheduled date, so on November 29 Madison Street and Long Wharf share a date on the calendar one last time this month.
The walk between venues has a new stop this year. 27east reports that CRUUST, a sandwich shop in the former Espresso da Asporto space, opened in July, and that its owners aim to stay consistent through the winter. The story gives no winter hours, so check before planning around it.
Jane has lived in Sag Harbor full time for more than 30 years, long enough to know how the village calendar runs after Labor Day. If you'd like to talk about what village life looks like once the summer calendar ends, Jane Babcook is glad to hear from you.