Allston James' THE TREE TALK Slated For Imagine Performing Arts

"The Tree Talk", 2018 winner of the William Broyles Award for Distinguished Playwriting , will be among plays performed at Imagine Performing Arts' "From the Heart" Festival, February 11 & 12 in Connersville, Indiana.

Set in the Midwest, "The Tree Talk" focuses on a young farm girl who learns the secret way her family has memorialized her grandfather and father, killed in Vietnam and Afghanistan respectively. "How do we remember people we never met or barely knew?" asks James, who served as an artillery forward observer in Vietnam. "Memory," James says, "is the lifeblood of all relationships." The Broyles Award for Distinguished Playwriting or Screenwriting is awarded each year by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundations for a play or film dealing with Marine Corps history and heritage.

Directed by Carla Beard, The Tree Talk will be produced by Imagine Performing Arts, Connersville, Indiana, in repertory with seven other short plays whose themes relate to the company's "From the Heart" theme. "With America's recent exit from its longest war," James says, "I think audiences will find the play arresting, something they will want to talk about over family dinner."

Allston James' play "First Stone From the Moon" was Runner-up for the 2021 Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing in England. He has twice won the British Theatre Challenge in London and is author of the novel "Attic Light". He lives in Central California.