Cast and Creatives Set for A TUNA CHRISTMAS at Penfold Theatre
A Tuna Christmas runs December 12 – 28, 2025 at Penfold Theatre.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Oct. 29, 2025
Penfold Theatre Company has revealed the cast and creatives for the comedy, A Tuna Christmas written by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears, and Ed Howard.
Assisted by split-second costume changes, two actors will bring all 22 citizens of Tuna, the “third-smallest” town in Texas, to the stage. In A Tuna Christmas, it’s 24 hours before Christmas and all comic hell is about to break loose as the delightfully eccentric characters attempt to cope with seasonal traumas.
On Christmas Eve, the local proprietor of the used weapons shop, Didi Snaveley, has decked her halls with Uzi’s, grenades, and switchblades. Baptist extraordinaire Vera Carp has visions of winning the local Yard Display Contest dancing through her head, but a mysterious “Christmas Phantom” is defacing people’s displays. Now, Vera’s life-size statues of Bing Crosby and Natalie Wood in the living nativity scene (complete with live sheep) are in jeopardy, while Bertha Bumiller’s family is falling apart on the spot. Her surly twins – Stanley and Charlene – and her philandering husband cannot even find the time to trim the tree and bake cookies. A Norman Rockwell painting this is not.
A Tuna Christmas features Liz Zimmerman and Taylor Flanagan as everyone’s favorite Tuna citizens. Co-creator Jaston Williams on the Penfold cast, "Bertha, Vera, Didi and Pearl all played by women. What a great concept. I can't wait to see it.”
Directed by Kate Meehan. Additional production team includes Set Design and Technical Direction by Holly and Patrick Crowley, Costume Design by Pam Friday, Properties Design by Nola Lafayette, Lighting Design by Amy Lewis, Sound Design by Lowell Bartholomee, and Amanda Gass as Production Stage Manager.
Austin Awards - Live Stats
Best Musical - Top 3
1.
MATILDA: THE MUSICAL (Gaslight-Baker Theatre)
16.8% of votes
2.
SISTER ACT (Bastrop Opera House)
6.1% of votes
3.
SHREK (Broke Thespians Theatre Company)
5.6% of votes
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