Star Quality: Upcoming NYC Events Featuring Celebrity Creatives

By Troy Segal

The stars do shine brighter on summer nights — and days. Get a close-up view of celebs from stage and screen at these talks, lectures, and presentations over the next few weeks.

Speak, Memory: Alan Alda sit downs with fellow actor (and new author) Lee Grant (Shampoo, Valley of the Dolls) to discuss her life and her career’s recovery from being blacklisted in the 1950s at the 92nd Street Y on July 10.

Carol Burnett in “Once Upon a Mattress”

Screen Gems: Taking after famed father Richard, the late Mary Rodgers composed several musicals and TV shows. On July 19, the Paley Center for Media is giving her a day-long tribute, which includes a screening of her biggest hit, Once Upon a Mattress — which stars (and made a star out of) Carol Burnett.

Old Masters: Wallace Shawn (above left) and André Gregory (two theatre pros, though perhaps best-known as the co-stars of My Dinner With André) discuss their new movie version of Ibsen’s The Master Builder, with its director Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Rachel Getting Married), at the 92nd Street Y on July 21.

Maggie Gyllenhaal in “The Honourable Woman.” BBC

Wonder Women: A trio of actresses, all currently starring in TV series — Maggie Gyllenhaal, Lucy Liu, Mira Sorvino — talk about rocking the tube with Patricia Cohen of The New York Times on July 24 at The TimesCenter.

Photo: Susana Millman

Terpsichorean Talent: Choreographer Mark Morris discusses his new ballet, Acis and Galatea (music by Handel, costumes by Isaac Mizrahi), at this pre-performance talk in the David Rubenstein Atrium on August 8.

Leto in Dallas Buyers Ciub. Anne Marie Fox/Focus Features

Renaissance Man: Musician (with the group Thirty Seconds to Mars), actor (Dallas Buyers Club), short film/documentary director — is there anything Jared Leto can’t do? He discusses all at The TimesCenter on August 14.