The Community Players Present World Premiere A TREE FALLS IN BROOKLINE Opening February 18

Rhode Island's oldest community theater, The Community Players, currently celebrating their 100th season, is proud to present the world premiere of A Tree Falls in Brookline, by local Rhode Island award-winning playwright David Christner from February 18 - 27, 2022.

This comedic play tells the story of Cormac "Mac" McIntyre, a largely unproduced and unrecognized playwright whose work is beginning to get some recognition abroad, when a tree falls in Brookline, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury and only a shadowy recollection of his past. Could the key to his recovery be through the characters he created in his plays? Does every character he created represent some aspect of his persona, which could help him piece together his fragmented memory? Mac's roller-coaster ride through his tumultuous past to discover who he is in the present, is a trip you'll not soon forget.

Local playwright David W. Christner was born in Sweetwater, Tennessee and raised in rural Oklahoma. He attended high school in Mountain View, a small farming community situated between the Washita River and the Wichita Mountains in the southwestern part of the state. As a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Navy, Christner served three years at sea fighting the Vietnam War and two years ashore in Norfolk, VA. After completing his graduate education at the University of Oklahoma, Christner settled in southern Rhode Island and for more than two decades worked as a technical writer, editor, and multimedia training developer for a variety of defense contractors and hi-tech multinational corporations during the day and wrote plays and novels at night. His stage plays The Wall, Bui-Doi: The Dust of Life, The Walk, Red Hot Mamas, The Babe, The Bard and the Baron, The Bitch of Bailey's Beach, Ezra and Evil, What About Mimi?, and This Blood's for You, have been finalists or winners in national/international playwriting competitions. Speculations on the cosmos, sex, war, religion, injustice, environmental exploitation, aging, women's issues, the homeless, the colonial slave trade and capital punishment have formed the thematic content of the plays and novels he has written so far. His plays have been produced in the U.S., Australia, Japan, Belgium, India, Ghana, Singapore, and Canada. An Italian translation of Red Hot Mamas by Leonardo Franchini opened in Trento, Italy in 2016. Victor Weber's Russian translation premiered in Tula, Russia in May 2016. Christner is a free-lance theater critic in southern Rhode Island. A Tree Falls in Brookline is the newest of his 24 full-length plays.

Directed by Richard Griffin of Pawtucket and featuring the talents of David Crossley of North Kingstown as Cormac McIntyre, Rick Koster of Cranston as Dr. Alex Warner, Bernie Larrivee of Rumford as Frank Pearson, Joyce Leven of Seekonk as Margaret Hiller, David Adams Murphy of Providence as Wiley, Elizabeth Parent of Albion as Allison, Nika Shakhmuradova of Richmond as Nora Ellis, Camille Terilli of Warwick as Gwendolyn Fairfax, Amy Thompson of Riverside as Dr. Anna Floyd, and Geoff White of Pawtucket as Ripley Randolph, A Tree Falls in Brookline is a touching, humorous and insightful play, which will stay with audience members long after the curtain has fallen.

Produced at Jenks Auditorium located on Division Street in Pawtucket, across from McCoy Stadium, performances are scheduled for February 18. 19. 20, 25, 26 and 27, 2022 with Friday and Saturday curtain times at 7:30 pm and Sunday matinees at 2:00 pm. Tickets are $18.00 for adults and $12.00 for students (with a valid ID). Discount rates are also available for all performances for groups of 20 or more. Those attending the opening night performance on Friday, February 18 will be entered into a drawing for a special prize! Come and experience live theater at its best!

Tickets can be purchased online at www.thecommunityplayers.org or reserve at (401) 726-6860. Visa and Mastercard accepted.

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