Local Events To Keep You Busy As You Ring In The New Year!

There's lots of interesting things to do this New Year's weekend, including movie and laser marathons, bowling, poetry, music, theater and art.

New Year's Eve:

Celebrate New Year's Eve with the entire family at 300 Bowling Long Island located on Walt Whitman Road in Melville. From 3-6 p.m., with prices starting from $20 per person, packages include bowling, shoe rentals, salad, pizza buffet, unlimited fountain drinks, party favors and a balloon drop. In the evening, from 8:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., packages include bowling under neon lights, shoe rentals, a holiday buffet with unlimited fountain drinks, a live DJ, party favors, balloon drop and champagne toast. Prices for the evening start at $25 per child and $45 per adult. Both sessions require a minimum of four people. Call Tara at 631-271-0051 or tangelopoulos@threehundred.com to make your reservations.

Ring in the New Year at Dave and Buster's over at Airport Plaza in Farmingdale. On Friday night, Dave and Buster's will be offering a full dinner buffet, a $15 power card, champagne toast, 2 drink tickets per adult and bowling for $55 per adult and $30 per child 12 and under. This celebration will be from 9 p.m.-1 a.m. For advance tickets, call 631-249-6455.

Welcome in 2011 at the Cinema Arts Centre on Park Avenue in Huntington. On Friday night, view one or more newly released movies, enjoy light refreshments and a champagne toast at midnight while watching the big ball in Times Square drop on the Cinema's giant TV screen. The movies being shown are "The King's Speech", "Rabbit Hole" and "Black Swan." Cost is $25 per person. Check their website for show times, movie details and to order tickets.

The Long Island Philharmonic will be presenting their nineteenth-annual New Year's Eve Concert at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on the C.W. Post Campus in Greenvale Friday at 7:30 p.m. This concert will feature the greatest hits of Broadway including selections from "Mamma Mia!," "The Phantom of the Opera," "Chicago," "South Pacific," "Cats," "Wicked," "A Chorus Line" and many more. Tickets cost $55-$85. See their website for more information or to purchase tickets.

Celebrate New Year's Eve with a laser-show marathon at the Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium in Centerport. This Friday enjoy a rock fest beginning with Laser Beatles at 8 p.m., followed by Laser Vinyl (classic 1970s rock) at 9:00, Laser Zeppelin at 10, and Laser Pink Floyd-The Wall at 11 p.m. Sparkling cider and cookies will be served after the show, at midnight. The cost is $12 per show or $30 for all four shows.

New Year's Day:

on Old Walt Whitman Road in Melville hosts a "New Year's Day Marathon Reading, Potluck, Poetry & Music Event." The North Sea Poetry Scene is hosting an open mic for poetry and music. Start the New Year the right way with poetry! On Saturday from noon-3:30 p.m. bring your poems to read and your books to sell.  Please bring a potluck dish to share. Suggested Donation is $3.

Free Movie:

The Melville branch of the will be showing the movie "Letters to Juliet" (2010) Friday at 2 p.m. This movie is rated PG and takes place in Verona, Italy, the beautiful city where Romeo first met Juliet. It is here where the heartbroken leave notes asking Juliet for her help and where aspiring writer Sophie finds a 50-year-old letter that will change her life forever. As she sets off on a romantic journey of the heart with the letter's author, Claire, now a grandmother, and her handsome grandson, all three will discover that sometimes the greatest love story ever told is your own. There is no fee and registration is not required.

Theater:

The Sound of Music continues this weekend at the John W. Engeman Theater on Main Street in Northport. A young nun, Maria, is sent to be the governess to an Austrian family of seven children and their widowed father, a naval captain, on the eve of World War II.  Maria brings love and attention to the motherless children, and shares with them her love of music, gradually capturing the heart of the stern Captain.  This family-friendly show can be seen Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $60 and can be purchased at the box office or online.

The family favorite musical Annie is performed at two locations this weekend. Follow the adventures of the spunky, red-headed orphan as she runs away in search of her parents, and winds up celebrating the holidays with billionaire Oliver Warbucks.

At the Cultural Arts Playhouse on Old Country Road in Plainview shows are this Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the box office, by calling 516-694-3330 or online.

At the Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts on Main Street in Smithtown shows are this Friday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $18-$32 and can be purchased at the box office or online.

Art Exhibits:

The  in Dix Hills continues their exhibit with Part 2 of "Double Take: A Member's Exhibition" this Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. This exhibit showcases the impressive talents of member artists. Paintings, drawings, collage, photography, print-making, ceramics, and sculpture created by the Art League's members are on display at the League's Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery. The gallery is open to the public free of charge.

The Huntington Arts Council sponsors the exhibit "Stop Action," which is on display through Jan 3 at the Art-Trium Gallery located at 25 Melville Park Road in Melville. This exhibition features the work by artist members Lillian Dodson, Alain Khadem, Frank Sposato and Marie Sheehy Walker. Each artist uses the medium of their choice to engage the viewer by stopping life long enough to give us a glimpse of the objects, elements and environments that move them to an act of creation. The gallery is open Mon. through Fri. from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Admission is free.

The Heckscher Museum of Art on Prime Avenue in Huntington continues three exhibits this weekend. First, features images of rock 'n roll stars of the past four decades by celebrated photographers.  Fifty-five images of rock and roll musicians will be exhibited from the early days of Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Chuck Berry, through the classic period of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Doors, up to today's hip-hop musicians, Tupac Shakur and LL Cool J.

The second exhibit focuses on "evenings out" in a wide range of images depicting dining, dancing, music, theater and other night life scenes.  Paintings, drawings, photographs and prints from the Permanent Collection by artists such as Arthur Dove, Larry Fink, George Luks, Man Ray, Larry Rivers and John Sloan, among others, will be included.

The third exhibition, , highlights the breadth and quality of the Permanent Collection. This core collection compromises Old Master paintings, English portraiture and 19th century European and American art that was gifted by Heckscher to the citizens of Huntington in 1920.  

All three exhibits can be viewed Friday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission to the museum runs from $4-$8; free for members, children under 10 and certain days/hours. See website for details.