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In A Tuna Christmas,
it’s December in Tuna, Texas and slow-talking radio jocks Thurston Wheelis
and Arles Struvie report on all the yuletide activities including the annual
Christmas yard-display contest which is plagued by a vandal known only as
the Christmas Phantom. Of course, juvenile delinquent Stanley Bumiller is
suspected but his eccentric Aunt Pearl Burress knows better.
Socialite Vera Carp hopes to
win the contest for the fifteenth year in a row but she has stiff
competition from Didi Snavely (the crusty owner of Didi’s Used Weapons) and
cowboy-lovin’ Tastee Kreme waitresses Inita Goodwin and Helen Bedd. In other
news, the Tuna Little Theatre production of Charlie Dickens’ A
Christmas Carol is threatened by unpaid electric bills and a Ghost
of Christmas Past that refuses to give up his spit cup.
For the national tour that
will appear here, this production is as close to perfect as one could
imagine. Ed Howard, who directed Greater Tuna Broadway and is
one of the three writers of the comedy, directs the Springer Theatricals
tour show.
Along with Howard’s two old
friends, Jaston Williams and Joe Sears, the team wrote Greater Tuna
in Austin in 1981 where it became a cult favorite before moving to
the famous Alley Theatre in Houston then to the Kennedy Center and finally
an extended run at Circle in the Square in New York. Since then, the trio
has written the popular sequels: A Tuna Christmas and
Red, White and Tuna. Last summer, the fourth play in the Tuna canon
opened in Galveston: Tuna Does Vegas, which has ignited a new
firestorm of interest in Tuna’s whacky citizens.
Director/Creator Howard has
had a long relationship with the show’s producer, Springer Theatricals,
which has produced some of his solo theatre works including The Tempest
Tossed and All the Way from Magnolia Springs.
“It’s been an honor to work so
closely with Ed Howard over the years”, says Springer Theatricals producing
artistic director Paul R. Pierce. “He’s a comic genius and the characters
that he and Jaston and Joe have created are timeless. In fact, they should
have their own gallery in the Smithsonian Institution!
“Everybody knows these
characters”, he laughs. “If you’re not related to them, married to them or
live next door to them, you probably are them.”
Springer Theatricals is the
national touring arm of the celebrated Springer Opera House, the 136
year-old National Historic Landmark theatre in Columbus, Ga. The Springer is
also the State Theatre of Georgia and produces a year-round schedule of
plays, musicals and a top ranked Academy of Theatre Arts. The theatre also
has one of the nation’s busiest touring schedules, performing in over 60
American cities every year.
Since Reconstruction days, the
Springer has been a revered Southern cultural institution with the world’s
most celebrated artists making pilgrimages to perform in the
Victorian elegance of its famous mainstage theatre.
From Edwin Booth, Oscar Wilde, Lilly Langtry, George M. Cohan, Ethel
Barrymore and Irving Berlin in the old days to more modern appearances by
Mary Martin, Truman Capote, Hal Holbrook, Burt Reynolds, Marvin Hamlisch,
Branford Marsalis and Garrison Keillor, the Springer Theatre has been a
centerpiece for the performing arts in the South since 1871.
A Tuna Christmas will
be performed at The Ritz Civic Center, 306 W. Main, Blytheville, AR, at 7:00
p.m. Thursday, December 18th. Tickets for the show are $15.00
for adults and $10.00 for students and groups. Children five and under are
admitted free. Advance tickets are available at The Ritz or by mail. Call
870-762-1744 for information.
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