`A TUNA CHRISTMAS' BECOMES CASH COW FOR TEXAS CREATORS.(LIFE & LEISURE)

Byline: DAVID TARRANT Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN, Texas The gulf war began with F-16s raining bombs on Iraq, and Joe Sears and Jaston Williams slipping into their costumes for a production of ``A Tuna Christmas'' in Washington, D.C.

The news broke minutes before the curtain went up on the wacky comedy at the Kennedy Center in the nation's capital.

It was Jan. 16, 1991. The veteran actors and creators of ``Greater Tuna'' were enjoying a long run with their sequel, starring Aunt Pearl, Bertha Bumiller and the rest of the zany characters who lived in Tuna, the third-smallest town in Texas.

Over the years, Jaston and Joe had laughed their way through blizzards, storms and various other calamities. In Austin, a blue bolt of electricity zapped across the stage during a thunderstorm. In San Francisco, just days after the 1989 earthquake, a jittery audience and cast froze when a rumbling sound filled the theater, which turned out to be only a swimming pool cleaner switching on somewhere else in the building.

But they had never been upstaged by a war.

Word quickly spread in the theater lobby that the fighting had started. Backstage, Jaston's thoughts flew to his son and only child …