Jaston williams biography

Together, Jaston Williams and Joe Sears co-wrote and starred in the successful Tuna plays: Tuna, A Tuna Christmas, Red White and Tuna and Tuna Does Vegas, which have toured throughout the United States since 1982. The series is a satire on small town life in Texas and the series has brought joy to countless Texans who grew up considering the residents of Tuna, Texas, family.

Sears earned a 1995 Tony Award-nomination for Best Actor for his work in the Tuna series. He has performed at the White House for President George H.W. Bush and Mrs. Barbara Bush, and his credits also include a season with Theatre Works USA in New York, television and eight Shakespeare plays.

Williams’s career spans over forty years, and he has taken on roles by Chekhov, Ionesco, Wilder, Genet and Sondheim, among many others. In 2013, Williams is continuing work on a novel set in the Texas Panhandle.

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Jaston Williams is best known as the co-creator and co-star of the beloved GREATER TUNA series of plays, including GREATER TUNA, A TUNA CHRISTMAS, RED, WHITE, AND TUNA, and TUNA DOES VEGAS. These two-person productions captivated audiences across the U.S. for more than three decades, with performances on and off Broadway and at prestigious venues like the Kennedy Center, Ford’s Theatre, The Alley Theatre in Houston, Pasadena Playhouse, and The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. The Tuna plays have also appeared internationally, including at the American Spoleto Festival, the Edinburgh Festival as an official U.S. entry, and in two command performances at the White House. Williams also adapted GREATER TUNA for an HBO special produced by Norman Lear.

As a playwright and actor, Williams’ work spans from avant-garde productions of Eugène Ionesco to the joy of musical theater. His contributions to the arts have been widely recognized, inclu