#PickoftheWeek | Electroluminescence? Queens Theatre Hosts an Eye-Popping Holiday Show
BY QEDC It's In Queens
This is one sure way to brighten the holiday season.
Queens Theatre presents A Very Electric Christmas on Sunday, Dec. 4, at 4 pm.
Lightwire Theater, a New Orleans-based troupe that mixes stagecraft with technology, uses electroluminescent artistry to present a story about a bird named Max and his family. While they’re migrating south for the winter, a wind blows Max off course. He ends up in the North Pole just as Santa’s helpers are putting the final touches on the year’s presents.
The fun is high voltage, thanks to dancing Nutcracker soldiers, caroling worms, entertaining poinsettias, and a soundtrack that includes music by Nat King Cole, Mariah Carey, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The drama ebbs and flows as Max has to contend with mischievous mice and an evil rat king while trying to get home in time for Christmas.
General admission is $18 with a $60 four-pack available with the code 4FOR60.
A Very Electric Christmas features great music and dancing, but the puppet artistry steals the show, thanks to Electroluminescent Wire, a thin copper wire coated in a phosphor which glows when an electric current is applied to it. The actors wear battery-operated EW contraptions made from aluminum rods, dryer ducting, skateboard wheels, and other recycled materials. Thus, they can create waving, glowing images as they boogie around stage.
Founded in 2007, Lightwire Theater is no stranger to Queens Theatre, having performed The Ugly Duckling in 2018 and A Very Electric Christmas in 2017.
Queens Theatre is located at 14 United Nations Ave. S. in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. There’s a large, free parking lot nearby.
Images: Lightwire Theater