A new play about one Queens family's arrival in America opened this week in the East Village. The Flowers of Forest Hills, by Claude Solnik, the playwright in residence at Theater for the New City, runs in the theater's Cabaret Theater at 155 First Avenue from Thursday, November 5, through Sunday, November 22.

The story

The play follows a family that leaves Austria for Forest Hills, Queens, around the Second World War. Three generations of women are at its center: a girl named Sylvie, her mother and her grandmother, among seven characters learning to live in a new country, and as they settle in, secrets the family has kept for years start to surface. It runs one hour and 40 minutes.

Who is in it

Doriana Schoner plays Sylvie. The cast also includes Gail Merzer Behrens as Ida, Mike Cesarano as Ernst, Noah Frankenfield as Jacques, Karen Freer as Gert, Jon Lonoff as Alfred and Carolyn Seiff as Helen. Behrens, Cesarano, Lonoff and Seiff appear courtesy of Actors' Equity.

Patricia Magno directs, with Cameron Reilly-Steele as assistant director, set design by Reuben Speed, and lights and sound by Marsh Shugart. Theater for the New City, led by executive artistic director Crystal Field, is presenting the premiere.

Showtimes and tickets

Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20, or $15 for students and seniors, through the theater's website or its box office at (212) 254-1109. That makes the remaining dates November 6, 7 and 8; November 12 through 15; and November 19 through 22.

Getting there

Theater for the New City is on First Avenue between Ninth and Tenth streets. The L train's First Avenue station is a few blocks north, and the 6 train stops at Astor Place to the west.

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