After 13 years in Central Falls, the Mill River Players have packed up and moved to Bristol, to a former VFW hall on Hope Street. The new 100-seat theater, known as the Harborside Playhouse, opens today with a family comedy entitle Are We There Yet?

Artistic director Chuck Petitbon acknowledged that these are dicey times in which to make a move such as this, but he said the Bristol venue is bigger and better, with 25 more seats than the old Polish social club the troupe had been using in Central Falls. He also said he expects the community to be “more welcoming and open to the arts.”

The Harborside was to have opened last week, but last-minute improvements postponed its debut until today, said Petitbon. The company has had to paint and renovate the space at 850 Hope St., and enlarge the stage area. The building, which the theater is leasing from the VFW, was originally a church.

The players hope to put on six to eight shows a season, said Petitbon, and rent out the space to other groups. It also plans to give theater classes to youngsters.

Right now the Harborside has shows planned through Christmas, with a production in December of the musical The Christmas Schooner, which tells the true tale of a shipping captain who braved the treacherous winter conditions on Lake Michigan to bring Christmas trees to immigrant families in turn-of-the-century Chicago.

One other change: the group is no longer offering dinner with plays as it did in Central Falls. Dinners were served by the owners of the old building, said Petitbon, and had nothing to do with the theater company.

Are We There Yet? is a four-person show that’s sort of a cross between Everybody Loves Raymond and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, said Petitbon. He said it opens with a mother and father on a road trip with their two nagging children in the back seat, and it eventually comes full circle, with the adult children driving their grousing parents to Florida to a retirement home. Tickets are $22.50 and reservations are recommended. Call (401) 724-5658.