News From The Queens Tourism Council
Get ready to be taken for a ride! There’s a fantastic, outdoor model train show pulling into Flushing for Memorial Day Weekend. Other enrichment opportunities include live theater, live music, a walking tour and foreign films.
Here’s the rundown.
– Friday and Saturday, May 23- 24, Moon Over Buffalo, 8 p.m. Rockaway Theatre Company presents this 1995 comic play by Ken Ludwig set in Buffalo in 1953. During its Broadway run, this play marked Carol Burnett’s return to the stage after a 30-year absence. $15/$12 seniors and children. The Post Theatre Building T4, Fort Tilden, www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org.
– Friday, May 23, Helen Sung Trio: The (Re)Conception Project, 8 p.m. Pianist/composer Helen Sung, the Skanner Winner of the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Piano Competition, has a singular sound and style. $15/$10 students. Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd., www.flushingtownhall.org.
– Friday, May 23, A Geisha, 7 p.m. The Museum of the Moving Image (MMI) is honoring Kenji Mizoguchi (1898-1956), who produced 85 films that spanned the silent and sound eras in Japan. Set in Kyoto’s Gion district in the postwar period, A Geisha focuses on the student-mentor relationship between an experienced geisha and a teenage girl who begs to apprentice with her. MMI, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria, www.movingimage.us.
– Saturday through Sunday, May 24-26, World’s Fair Train Show, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Long Island Garden Railway Society displays a working G-scale model train exhibit in a World’s Fair-themed outdoor setting. On May 24, the festivities include food and craft vendors, a tracklesstrainforrides,anda4p.m. concert by John Yao’s Big Band, a 17-piece ensemble. Free with admission. Queens Botanical Gardens, 43-50 Main St., Flushing, www.queensbotanical.org.
– Saturday, May 24, South American Voices of NYC: Tangolando & Festejation, 7 p.m. Two ensembles, one stage and an open dance floor offer varying takes on Latin music. Tangolando provides the first encounter of the tango with Afro-Peruvian music. Festejation plays traditional Afro-Peruvian music with other styles. $15/$10 students, Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd., www.flushingtownhall.org.
– Saturday, May 24, The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, 2 p.m. The annual memorial concert honoring permanent resident Scott Joplin. Free. St. Michael Cemetery, 72-02 Astoria Blvd., East Elmhurst, www.stmichaelscemetery.com.
– Saturday, May 24, The Famous Sword Bijomaru, 2 p.m.; Portrait of Madame Yuki, 4 p.m.; Osaka Elegy, 7 p.m. The Museum of the Moving Image is honoring Kenji Mizoguchi (1898-1956), who produced 85 films that spanned the silent and sound eras in Japan. The Famous Sword Bijomaru is the tale of a 19th century swordmaker who works as a morale booster for the military government. Portrait of Madame Yuki is about a woman from a family of country gentry that lost everything in the war. Now she is mistreated by her loutish, insolvent husband, who nevertheless holds her in thrall sexually. When she fails to find comfort in the arms of a less virile neighbor, the inhibitions of her class conditioning leave her with no way out. Osaka Elegy is about a switchboard operator working hard to support her family. She becomes her boss’s mistress, and hardens herself into the role of a moga (“modern woman”). MMI, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria, www.movingimage.us.
– Sunday May 25, Sunday to Remember, 2:30 p.m. Quintet of the Americas, the woodwind group widely known for its Latin American music, performs Tango for a Cold Wintry Day, along with other genre masterworks. Dancers join in for several tangos. $5 suggested donation. El Paraiso, 102-11 42nd Ave., Corona, www.laccq.org.
– Sunday, May 25, Willets Point, 4 p.m. East of Citi Field is a sewerless, hardscrabble area of auto junkyards and related businesses that have twice beaten back redevelopment attempts. But as it is located between the baseball stadium and a booming Flushing, public and private interests are again trying to transform Willets Point. Take a guided walk with official Queens historian Jack Eichenbaum to the area from central Flushing to understand its important setting and learn why “Willets Point” is a misnomer. $20. Register at www.mas.org/tours.
– Sunday, May 25, Little Makers: Exploring Circuitry, 10:30 a.m. Explore the basics of circuitry with copper tape, coin batteries and LEDs. This workshop is recommended for children ages 18 months and older. $8 per family, plus admission. New York Hall of Science, 47-01 111th St., Corona, www.nysci.org.
– Sunday, May 25, The Designing Eye: Exposition Posters from 1893- 2000 (runs through Aug. 31). An exhibition of 30 World’s Fair posters from a 100-year period and spanning several continents. Queens Museum, NYC Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, www.queensmuseum.org.
– Sunday, May 25, The 47 Ronin (Pt. 1 & 2), 2 p.m. The Museum of the Moving Image is honoring Kenji Mizoguchi (1898-1956), who produced 85 films that spanned the silent and sound eras in Japan. In the early years of the 18th century, the retainers of slain Lord Asano set out to avenge themselves against the man whose treachery was responsible for their master’s senseless death, proving their unshakable fidelity to the grave. The most famous version of this Japanese epic was produced at the behest of the military government with propagandistic intent. MMI, 36- 01 35th Ave., Astoria, www.movingimage.us.
– Tuesday, May 27, Tuesday Morning Music Club of Douglaston, 11 a.m. C. Winfield Swarr, clarinet, and Hiroko Miyaki Dutton, piano, play Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A Major, KV 622, and in Five Bagatelle for Clarinet and Piano. Hiroko Nakahara, violin, and Jeong-Hwa Park, piano, render Beethoven, Romance in F. Major, Op. 50, and E. Grieg Sonata for Violin and Piano. Ronald Meixell, bass baritone, and Aglaia Savalas Messina, piano, are set to perform, too. Free. Douglaston Community Church, 39-15, Douglaston Pkwy. For more information, call 1-516-466-4034.
– Wednesday, May 28, One With Others, 8 p.m. (nightly through May 31). Dance, words and scrap wood are the raw materials for this experimental dance examination of who we become due to the choices we make or that others make for us. $15. The Chocolate Factory, 5-49 49th Ave., LIC, www.chocolatefactorytheater.org.
“It’s In Queens” column is produced by the Queens Tourism Council with the hope that readers will enjoy the borough’s attractions.
