Your Queens Weekend: Nov. 4-6

By TimesLedger Staff

If you’re someone who’s happy to see Halloween in the rear-view mirror, this weekend has something for you. Saturday, at the Sunnyside Greenmarket in Lou Lodati Park (Skillman Avenue and 43rd Street), you can bid your jack-o-lantern a definitive farewell at the Pumpkin Smash 2016. Bring your pumpkins and gourds to this event sponsored by the NYC Compost Project. If you smash the pumpkin, the NYC Compost Project will turn it into compost for city parks and green spaces. The event runs from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and there is no charge. For more information, call (347) 379-0369 or go to nyc.gov/compostproject

The holiday season is just around the corner, but this weekend the theater season is hitting Queens in a big way. “Evensong” is opening at the Astoria Performing Arts Center (apacny.org, 718-706-5750); “The History of Salsa” and “We Women Do It Better Than Men” are at Sunnyside’s Thalia Hispanic Theatre (thaliatheatre.org, 718-729-3880); “Blithe Spirit” will be on stage at the Douglaston Community Theatre (718-483-3332); “My Fair Lady” will take up residence on 209th Street at Theatre by the Bay (theatrebythebayny.com, 718-428-6363); August Wilson’s “Two Trains Running” will be at the Black Spectrum Theater in Jamaica (blackspectrum.com, 718-723-1800); and the Secret Theatre will be hosting The LIC One-Act Festival (secrettheatre.com, 718-392-0722). If that’s not enough for you, Broadway is just a subway ride away.

At Queens College, a Kristallnacht commemoration Sunday will explore “The Holocaust in American Film” in a keynote address by Dr. Annette Insdorf, award-winning author, educator and the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Insdorf, who is a Queens College alumna, will use clips from the films “None Shall Escape,” “The Pawnbroker” and “Schindler’s List” in her presentation. As part of the event, Holocaust survivors and family members of survivors—escorted and introduced by Queens College students who have pledged to combat anti-Semitism—will light candles for remembrance. The program is from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (718) 997-5593 or go to www.qc.cuny.edu/communications/news_services/releases/Pages/welcome.aspx?ItemID=1832

And with the New York Marathon taking off Sunday morining, you might want to get in on the prelude to one of the race’s signature moments—when runners stream off the Queensborough Bridge into Manhattan for the final stretch. The marathon’s Queens segment is a notorious, two-mile stretch through Long Island City where participants realize that their pre-race adrenaline is gone and they still have 12 miles to go. To re-energize the pack and spread borough love, the Queens Tourism Council and Queens Distance Runners are orgainizing a cheering station at about 10:30 a.m. in the vicinity of 44th Drive and 21st Street, where volunteers can roar words of encouragement, wave pompoms, rattle cow bells, and hand out water. For more information, contact WPhaff@queenscp.org.