“This stuff was funny, if I admit it myself,” says Jaston Williams, after watching actors Will Mercer and Kirk Kelso perform a scene from A Tuna Christmas in the KUT studio. Williams, of course, was one of the original stars of the play (along with Joe Sears) when it debuted in 1989 and for many years afterward. The play, the second in a series of shows written by Williams, Sears, and Ed Howard set in Tuna, Texas’ (fictional) third-smallest town, has been a perennial holiday favorite for decades now. And it still makes audiences laugh, even if they wrote the lines themselves.
“It was funny and it's fun to do,” Williams says, “and watching actors of this stature pull this off – it's really exciting for me to see.”
Williams and Sears have retired from performing the Tuna plays, passing the torch to other actors who are up to the challenge of portraying all 22 characters in a two-performer show. “Oh, yeah, it's what we call mailbox money,” Williams says with a laugh. “I'm too old for high heels, but I can make it to the mailbox. The high heel money is over. I'm down to flats.”
The current production A Tuna Christmas, which follows the eccentric residents of Tuna as they prepare for the holiday and for Tuna’s annual Christmas yard display contest, is presented by Round Rock’s Penfold Theatre. It’s being performed by Mercer and Kelso, themselves now Tuna veterans, having each played these roles in several local and/or touring productions over the years.
Kelso, who’s playing the 11 roles originally portrayed by Williams, says of performing with Williams just a few feet away, “there's a little bit of pressure, but it's all fun.”
Mercer, playing the Sears roles, agrees. “It's wonderful,” he says. “The first live, real professional theater I ever saw was Greater Tuna at the Paramount Theater, in I think it was 1984 or 1995. And… I left the theater going, oh, I need to do that. And then many, many, many, many, many years later in 2017, I got cast in the national tour and got to be directed by Jason Williams. I got to perform in front of Joe Sears. So it's pretty incredible.”
“I mean, it's so much fun to learn the lines and then you're like, oh my gosh, this is gonna kill them,” Kelso adds. “and you know, it does every time.”
Like Mercer, Kelso was introduced to these characters years ago as a young man, and says he found a favorite role early on. “Vera Carp for me,” he says, “she was the one who stole my heart when I saw Greater Tuna for the first time in 1983 at the Paramount and I was fixated. Never thought I'd do it, but I was like, she is every woman at the Baptist Church I've ever known, all rolled into one.”
Vera’s a favorite of Williams’ too – possibly because she was inspired by his own mother, Vivian. He remembers a little early criticism she offered after seeing the original play for the first time. “The first time she saw the show, we were at the Alley Theater in Houston. She came backstage and, you know, it was obvious we had a hit [but] I could tell she was upset about something. I said, ‘what's wrong?’ ‘Nothing.’ I said, ‘No, something's wrong. What's wrong?’ ‘Nothing. Nothing's wrong. It's very nice. It's very good.’ I said, ‘Would you tell me what's wrong?’ She said, ‘You need to pull your hose up.’ I said, ‘That's the joke.’ She said, ‘It's not funny.’ She wasn't having it. It was one thing to be out there in a dress, but to not pull your hose up was just more than Vivian was going to allow!”
The Tuna plays have always been satires of small town Texas, but affectionate ones, Williams says. “One thing we tried to do – and I think it's still important, and I know these guys do it with the show – is that, you know, even though we were satirizing a mentality, we had serious affection for these people. I just went home to a high school reunion in the lower panhandle and just remembered how much I loved, loved some of those folks that I cannot discuss politics with. You know, but I really, really loved them.”
Way back when, Williams says, before putting these characters on paper and then on stage, he and Sears would just perform them to make each other laugh. “We were strong, strong friends before we ever wrote any of this stuff,” he says. “We just did it for ourselves. And then one day I said, ‘I'm turning 30, we need to make some money, you know? This bohemian existence is wearing thin. I'm running out of candles.’”
And what surer path to financial stability is there than creating a comedic play to perform with your friend? “That's right,” Williams says with a laugh. “Let's dress up as old ladies! We'll see how it works! And I thought it would last maybe six months at the longest. I had no inkling that it would run for decades.”
Williams and Sears haven’t performed together for years but remain close friends, Williams says. “Joe and I had what I refer to as an exquisite friendship. And it still is. And there were times when it was tough, you know? Nothing will test a friendship like success. And it was tough. And we got through it and I [still] talk to him a couple of times a week. And it is always hysterically funny, whatever is going on in his life.”
'A Tuna Christmas' is onstage at Penfold Theatre December 12 - 28
