Some people say Texas is a whole different country. Others will tell you it's a different state of mind. People who've seen any of the three "Greater Tuna" plays set in the Lone Star State – one of which opens tonight in Woodland – will simply tell you that Texas is different.
The mythology and reality of Texas comically merge in the antic, two-actor plays created by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard. Williams and Sears have performed the play around the country, with Howard directing. The plays have also been extremely popular with regional theaters as well.
The rights for the play's production in California have been limited because the authors like touring here, but the show is available this season.
So this year, "A Tuna Christmas," the popular series' holiday offering, receives a special production at the Woodland Opera House. Two of the area's busiest community theater artistic directors, Jeff Kean and Bob Baxter, will take the stage, portraying all 24 citizens of Texas' third-smallest town. Kean, who runs the Woodland Opera House, and Baxter, who guides Runaway Stage, are working their way through the "Greater Tuna" canon, having performed the original play four years ago in Woodland.
"Until we did 'Christmas Story' last year, 'Greater Tuna' was the best-attended nonmusical we've ever done," Kean said.
All the "Tuna" plays center on the two actors making lightning-quick changes offstage as they become the various oddball, small-town characters who populate Tuna.
"For me the trickiest part is making sure the characters are distinct and different," Baxter said.
Part of the challenge is handled on a broad visual level, since they play men, women and children.
"The costuming has to be right," Baxter continued. "The wigs, the apparatuses we can put on quickly in order to make changes in literally 30 seconds and then come out on stage in a totally different character – different voice, different mannerisms, different physicality."
Kean believes good costumers, and his clothes – especially the shoes – are the key to crafting characters on the fly.
"You walk off as one character – they rip your clothes off, they shove another costume on and they push you back out again. If you get the right kind of shoes and tie them to a walk, then the rest of you takes on the new physical characteristics that you want," Kean said.
Squeezing the production into each of their busy schedules was equally a challenge. Kean is directing a physical expansion of the Woodland Opera House, which has kept him occupied for the past year. Baxter oversees myriad activities at Runaway, including workshops and directing all its mainstage shows, which are produced at the 24th Street Theatre in Sacramento.
Still, the two are acting and directing themselves in the show.
"Jeff and I are staging it together, though most of it is Jeff," Baxter said.
They'll also get some outside eyes to look in on their work for them.
"We're asking people to come and give an overview; we can find out if it's translating to the audience the way we believe it is in our heads," Baxter said.
Baxter believes the show's timing couldn't be better.
"When the economy is bad, people look to escape. I'm hoping with the right material and right productions out there, we can give people enough to get them back into seats at the theater."
Call Bee theater critic Marcus Crowder, (916) 321-1120. Read his blog postings at www.sacbee.com/21q.
