Thanks to Michael Holcombe for reminding me about Greater Tuna, one of the most popular American plays of the twentieth century. It provided me with a great opportunity to get lots of people involved. I am very proud of the production, especially of the people for whom this is their first time on stage, or at least their first time on stage since grade school!
Since I moved here from San Francisco five years ago, I have been continually drawn to plays about life in small towns. On the surface, this play would have little in common with Our Town and The Crucible, but I feel that both of them tell stories that are particular to life in a small American towns. The challenges we face in our everyday lives are different from those who live in the major metropolises. Hopefully these plays help people think about and understand the town in which we live, in both its positive and negative aspects.
A note on the staging: This play was originally intended to have two men playing all the roles, using lots of tricky costume changes and voice-overs. While I would now love to tackle the play that way, we’ve all had a great time creating the community of Tuna, and I think the play is still great. Special thanks to Second Time Around, who always lets us borrow whatever we need for props and costumes; Scheduler Lisa Sparrell; The cast; The cast’s patient families; My boss, college president Doug Desorcie; My other boss, Dean Wes Lundburg; Denise Schanbeck, for filling in as my stage manager in rehearsal; Scott and Lindsay up in the booth. And most of all, thank you for coming tonight and supporting theatre in Valdez. We all appreciate it.