Albuquerque Little Theatre gets in the holiday spirit with “A Tuna Christmas.”
The production runs Thursday, Dec. 8 through Sunday, Dec. 11.
“A Tuna Christmas” is directed by Marc Comstock and stage managed by Amy Borgue.
“I had directed this play the year before the pandemic at the Vortex Theatre,” Comstock said. “It was so well received that the artistic director at ALT said ‘Hey, we’re looking for kind of a silly holiday show, would you like to direct the Christmas scores?’ I said sure and hey we are now.”
“A Tuna Christmas” is set in the fictional town of Tuna, Texas – the third smallest town in Texas.
“What I think makes it unique, is that they are not your typical Christmas characters as they are eccentric so I think it’s kind of the same theme ideas story in just a little bit of a different way,” Comstock said.
Having directed the play multiple times, Comstock has his own favorite scene.
“For me, it is the very last scene and the way the characters Sturvie and Thurston who are the local DJs for the town radio, and also one of the main towns people in the play,” Comstock said. “The last scene between the two of them between a character named Charles and Bert in the radio station just straight trial just precedes that you get that I guess perfect.”
“A Tuna Christmas” stars actors in Ryan Dobbs and Jeff Dolecek.
“The rehearsal process was different from the usual as we all wore masks and we worked around people’s holiday schedule,” Comstock said. “The actors had such a heavy line load that they got an early jump on memorizing their lines, so we were able to kind of jump right into it and have really productive rehearsals.”
At this point of the year, it is showtime.
“Now we are adding all the elements in the costume changes and changes,” Comstock said. “When the show gets going, the actors will be maskless but the crew backstage will be still wearing their masks, so I think the rehearsals challenging is just a new way of doing the time of COVID.”
