Lancaster Opera House and ART to Present GREATER TUNA, Thru 3/11

Greater Tuna is described as "a funny, feisty stage comedy set in Tuna… the third smallest town in the great big state of Texas."

All the laughs and all the eccentric characters that have made Greater Tuna an audience favorite arrive at Lancaster Opera House for the very first time presented by the Buffalo-based company American Repertory Theatre Of Western New York. The show runs through March 11 with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2:30pm.

The town of Tuna may be tiny but you will never forget the eccentric personalities who live there.  Businessmen and housewives, preachers and politicians, teenagers and senior citizens… a gaggle of Tuna’s finest folks are all played by just two actors. A series of witty, breakneck costume changes add to the fun of the evening.

Greater Tuna is a good natured satire of life in a small town and between the laughs you will find tenderness and insight. Greater Tuna is written by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard. Williams and Sears, two actors from Texas, created the characters seen in Greater Tuna to entertain their friends. Realizing there might be a show in their playful improvisations, Ed Sears was recruited to stage the first production of Greater Tuna. The show was a bigger hit than anyone might have expected. After the first performances in Austin, Texas, the comedy was produced off-Broadway. Williams and Sears have toured the show extensively. The team also collaborated on several equally popular sequels, including A Tuna Christmas, Red, White And Tuna and Tuna Does Vegas. All these titles have been performed across the United States.

ART/WNY’s production stars Christopher Standart and Timothy Finnegan, two actors who can claim extensive credits performing comedy in Buffalo and beyond. Between the two, they will play twenty characters including: 

Charlene Bumiller, a high school senior who is a wannabe cheerleader;

Stanley Bumiller, Charlene’s twin brother fresh from reform school;

Sheriff Givens, who prides himself on carrying out the law in the old-fashioned way;

Vera Carp, the town busybody who serves on one community improvement committee after another;

Petey Fisk who runs the Greater Tuna Humane Society;

Didi Snavely, owner of Didi's Used Weapons, who guarantees each product she sells; and

Arles Struvie and Thurston Wheelis, best buddies and co-hosts of a program on the town’s only radio station. 

The show is directed by Thomas Dooney, who staged ART/WNY’s original production of Greater Tuna, which premiered December 2009 in Buffalo at Main Street Cabaret. American Repertory Theatre Of Western New York was founded in 2007 by the company’s artistic director, Matthew LaChiusa. The goal of ART/WNY is to produce classic scripts by America’s finest writers, to present the best works by contemporary dramatists and to introduce new playwrights and theater talents, especially those working in Western New York. Earlier in the 2011 – 12 season, ART/WNY presented the musical Floyd Collins and the comedy The Gin Game; upcoming is the drama Killer Joe by Tracy Letts. 

Tickets are $20 (adults) and $18 (students/senior citizens). The show is appropriate for all ages. The LOH box office is open Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and one hour before showtime on days of performance.

Lancaster Opera House is located on the second floor of Lancaster Town Hall, 21 Central Avenue, Lancaster, New York (14086). Tickets can also be purchased by calling (716) 683-1776 or on the Internet at www.LancOpera.org.

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