620 words By ROSINE REYNOLDS<\/p>\n
This \u201cTuna\u201d Bites Back
\nTuna, Texas is a fictional small town with a small town\u2019s closeness. However, this community is not the pies- and-picket fences of Andy\u2019s Mayberry, Hank Hills\u2019 Arlen, Keillor\u2019s Lake Woebegone or anyplace in \u201cOur Town.\u201d Tuna is more tumbleweed and barbed wire.
\nThis town starts its mornings with local news from radio OKKK, delivered by veteran newscasters Thurston Wheelis and Arles Struvie. Today\u2019s headline concerns the death of an important citizen, Judge Bruckner, beloved for being the judge who ordered the most hangings. The judge was found wearing a women\u2019s bikini bathing suit. (This story will be corrected later as to the kind of swim suit it was.)
\nThere follows a commercial from Didi\u2019s Used Weapons, which, even though used, are \u201cabsolutely guaranteed to kill.\u201d A standard Texas weather report follows, predicting \u201crain from all directions,\u201d a dust storm, locusts and Tropical Storm Luther.
\nWe then get a close-up look into the Buford household, where Mrs. Buford is being interviewed about her work on the Censorship Committee. The Committee objects to \u201cRoots\u201d in the public schools, saying that it \u201conly shows one side of the slavery issue.\u201d \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d is also on their list because of its \u201crampant disregard for parental authority and teenaged sex.\u201d
\nBut all is not harmony in Tuna. Many townspeople are at odds with the local animal lover, Petey Fisk of the Humane Society. (Petey has nightmares all through hunting season.) Mrs. Pearl Burras loves animals too, as long as they\u2019re chickens, which she defends with modern science. Mrs. Buford doesn\u2019t love animals as much as she used to before her Jody began collecting dogs. But Jody\u2019s sister Charleen is having a personal crisis because she didn\u2019t make cheerleader, and now she\u2019s a senior.
\nThere is, of course, a church, and the Rev. Spikes arrives to deliver a one-size-fits-all eulogy for the Judge. The Deity is also called upon for various needs throughout the story.
\nA genuine Texan, Linda Dunn, directed \u201cGreater Tuna\u201d for the finale of Ross Valley Players\u2019 82nd season. Its spoofs are, she says, \u201call these things I grew up around.\u201d And it was on a visit back to the Lone Star State to see her mom that Ms. Dunn saw a production of \u201cGreater Tuna\u201d with more than two in the cast.
\nOriginally created by three men \u2013 Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard — the show\u2019s twenty characters were played by just Williams and Sears, each taking on multiple roles. The show debuted in Austin in 1981 and went on to become first in a series of four. It has since developed a loyal audience, even having an online General Store with its own merchandise.
\nRoss Valley Players\u2019 version uses a cast of seven, including a number of recognizable names. Jim Dunn plays newscaster Thurston Wheelis as well as Elmer Watkins. Wood Lockhart is his partner, Arles Struvie, but is also Didi Snavely, the weapons saleslady. News banter between Wheelis and Struvie are highlights of the show.
\nThe versatile Steven Price carries five parts, only four of whom are human. Robyn Grahn plays all the Bumiller children. Tom Hudgens (another Texan) is both the beleaguered Petey Fisk and the very proper church lady, Vera Carp. Jeffrey Taylor portrays three townspeople, including the Sheriff, and Javier Alarcon plays four others.
\nMichael A. Berg costumes all these people right down to the slip showing and the ear-flap hats.
\n\u201cGreater Tuna\u201d will be at The Barn Theater in the Marin Art & Garden Center, Ross, through Aug. 12. Thursday performances are at 7:30; Friday and Saturday shows are at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. For complete information and ticket prices, see www.rossvalleyplayers.com, and for reservations, call 456-9555, ext. 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
620 words By ROSINE REYNOLDS This \u201cTuna\u201d Bites Back Tuna, Texas is a fictional small town with a small town\u2019s closeness. However, this community is not the pies- and-picket fences…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"