Roxy Regional Theatre Serves Up GREATER TUNA In Theotherspace

Two actors, twenty characters, and a barrel of laughs are coming to the corner of Franklin and First in Historic Downtown Clarksville this month.

Following on the heels of last season's hit holiday comedy A Tuna Christmas, Ryan Bowie and Brian Best return to the third smallest town in Texas (where the Lion's Club is too liberal and Patsy Cline never dies) in GREATER TUNA, playing October 14 through October 22 in theotherspace, the 50-seat black-box theatre located upstairs at the Roxy Regional Theatre.

In this hilarious send-up of small-town morals and mores, Ryan Bowie and Brian Best play the entire population of Tuna, Texas -- including Arles Struvie, Thurston Wheelis, Aunt Pearl, Petey Fisk, Phineas Blye, Reverend Spikes and over a dozen others -- in a "tour de farce" of quick change artistry, changing costumes and characterizations faster than a jack rabbit runs from a coyote.

The first in a series of comedic plays by Ed Howard, Joe Sears and Jaston Williams (followed by A Tuna Christmas, Red, White and Tuna and Tuna Does Vegas), GREATER TUNA is at once an affectionate comment on small-town, Southern life and attitudes, but also a withering satire of the same.

No stranger to the world of one-man, quick-change comedy, Ryan Bowie, executive director of the Roxy Regional Theatre, has previously shown his versatility by playing nearly forty roles in Becky Mode's Fully Committed, as well as a diverse range of roles in David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries, Jonathan Tolins' Buyer & Cellar and Fred Barton's Miss Gulch Returns, among others.

Brian Best has had audiences rolling in the aisles ever since his Roxy Regional Theatre debut as housewife Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, delighting theatregoers in myriad roles, including Dr. Scott and the Narrator in Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show, Kris Kringle in Meredith Willson's Miracle on 34th Street and Charles Guiteau in Assassins.

GREATER TUNA is made possible in part by Monica Drake & Mitchell Ketchens and Jill Eichhorn & Barry Kitterman and is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc., a Concord Theatricals Company.

GREATER TUNA is presented in theotherspace, the 50-seat black-box theatre located upstairs at the Roxy, and plays at 7:00pm on October 14, 15, 21 and 22. Please note: Due to language and content, this production is suggested for mature audiences only.

Tickets are $20 and may be purchased online at www.roxyregionaltheatre.org, by phone at (931) 645-7699, or at the theatre during regular box office hours (9:00am to 2:00pm, Monday through Friday, and one hour prior to curtain).

The Roxy Regional Theatre is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to producing professional live theatre and promoting the arts, with emphasis on education, in Clarksville, Middle Tennessee and the Southeast. The theatre is located at 100 Franklin Street in Historic Downtown Clarksville. For more information, visit www.roxyregionaltheatre.org.

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