RETURNS TO LUTCHER THEATER
FROM DECEMBER 6 TO DECEMBER 8
(ORANGE, TX) - Seasons Greetings from Tuna, Texas! A Tuna Christmas, the hilarious sequel to the hit comedy Greater Tuna, makes its triumphant return to Orange, Texas at Lutcher Theater for a limited 4-performance engagement beginning Thursday, December 6th through Saturday, December 8th. Spend the holidays once again with all your favorite citizens of Tuna, Texas, where the Lion’s Club is too liberal and Patsy Cline never dies, and make some new friends while you’re there.
Master comedians Joe Sears and Jaston Williams—with their deft comedic timing, trademark characterizations, and split-second costume changes—bring all 24 citizens of Tuna back to the stage. In A Tuna Christmas, it’s 24 hours before Christmas and all comic hell is about to break loose as the delightfully eccentric characters attempt to cope with seasonal traumas, including a disaster prone little theatre production of A Christmas Carol and a yard decorating contest that is being sabotaged by a mysterious Christmas phantom.
On Christmas Eve, the local proprietor of the used weapons shop, Didi Snaveley, has decked her halls with Uzi’s, grenades and switchblades. Baptist extraordinaire, Vera Carp, has visions of winning the local Yard Display Contest dancing through her head but a mysterious “Christmas Phantom” is defacing people’s displays. Now, Vera’s life-size statues of Bing Crosby and Natalie Wood in the living nativity scene (complete with live sheep) are in jeopardy while Bertha Bumiller’s family is falling apart on the spot. Her surly twins Stanley and Charlene, and her philandering husband cannot even find the time to trim the tree and bake cookies. A Norman Rockwell painting this is not.
Tony®-nominated Joe Sears and Jaston Williams have been touring extensively with the Tuna productions since 1982. Their over 30-year stage partnership has outlasted the comic duos of Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, and Martin and Lewis. The two first met and worked together at San Antonio’s First Repertory Company. Mr. Sears played Flute and Thisby in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mr. Williams appeared as Puck. Other productions in which the two have appeared together include Arsenic and Old Lace, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and The Foreigner, in which they toured between Tunas for over ten years.
The Greater Tuna Series, the most successful stage trilogy of all time, has garnered many awards in its history. Together, Sears and Williams received the Los Angeles Dramalogue Award for acting and writing in Greater Tuna, and for ensemble acting in A Tuna Christmas. The two were also nominated for Washington’s Helen Hayes Award for their performances in A Tuna Christmas, and Mr. Sears received nominations in 1984 and 1988 for the Helen Hayes Award for his performance in Greater Tuna. A Tuna Christmas was honored by being selected to be published in “Best Plays of 1995.”
A Tuna Christmas has “sleighed” the critics throughout the country. “The show is a hoot, and the cast, Joe Sears and Jaston Williams, is two hoots,” proclaims David Richards of The New York Times. “This show is so funny. It’s far too good just for Christmas, states the New York Post. “There’s plenty to ho-ho-ho about. A Tuna Christmas is a delightful gift for longtime Tuna fans and newcomers alike,” exclaims the Dallas Morning News. “A Tuna Christmas delivers a stocking full of laughs,” proclaims the Houston Chronicle. ABC Radio sums it up by declaring A Tuna Christmas“a Comic Masterpiece!”
A Tuna Christmas features scenery designed by Loren Sherman. He has to his credit Shogun: The Musical, Private Lives, Crazy He Calls Me, and Sleight of Hand on Broadway; and Those the River Keeps, An Imaginary Life, and Assassins off-Broadway. Costume Designer Linda Fisher’s previous Broadway productions include Rose, Foxfire, and Morning’s at Seven. Ms. Fisher’s other Off-Broadway credits include productions for the Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights’ Horizons, the Phoenix Theatre, and The Roundabout. Lighting design for A Tuna Christmas is by Root Choyce, who has worked in New York City for Circle Repertory Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, the Roundabout Theatres 1 & 2, and the New York Shakespeare Festival. Sound Designer Ken Huncovsky’s credits include regional productions of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Jose Greco’s Spanish Dance Company, The Cow Patty’s, The Fantasticks, and Peter Pan.
Charles H. Duggan, who, since 1983, has produced Joe Sears and Jaston Williams in the Tuna Trilogy, presents A Tuna Christmas. Mr. Duggan has produced in New York, on and off-Broadway, in London, and in most major U.S. cities working with such stars as Julie Harris, Sir Ian McKellan, Joan Collins, Lynn Redgrave, Carol Channing, Luis Valdez, Cloris Leachman and the late Sammy Cahn. He served as co-producer on the feature film The Twilight of the Golds starring Faye Dunaway and Brendan Fraser. He is proudest of his most recent “production,” his sons, Justin and Declan.
Celebrate the holidays with laughter. A Tuna Christmas returns to Lutcher Theater, 707 Main, Orange, Texas, from Thursday, December 6th to Saturday, December 8th according to the following schedule: a 7:30 pm performance on the 6th, 7th, and 8th, as well as a 2:00 pm matinee performance on the 8th. Tickets priced from $25 to $35 are available by logging onto www.lutcher.org, by calling 745-5535 (within the Golden Triangle) or 1-800-828-5535, and at 707 Main Street, Orange. For additional information, please visit the Tuna website at www.greatertuna.com. And please remember: “If you like someone, buy them roses … if you love someone, buy them tickets to A Tuna Christmas!” (Austin American-Statesman).
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