Staff photo / Andy Gray Jenna Cintavey, left, and Jonathan Bahrey play radio hosts Arles Struvie and Thurston Wheelis, respectively, and several other characters in the comedy “A Tuna Christmas,” which will be staged for three performances at Kent State University at Trumbull.

‘Tis the season for the feast of the seven fishes.

Kent State University at Trumbull Theatre’s feast will be dominated by one see-food — the comedy of “A Tuna Christmas.”

It will be staged for three performances this weekend in Champion.

Harmon Andrews, a familiar face at Kent-Trumbull and other local stages, makes his directing debut with the production.

“I submitted a musical and a play for this past season, neither of which was accepted, but (Kent-Trumbull Theatre director Eric) Kildow emailed me, ‘I have this show. I think you’d be really good at it. Here’s the script. Give it a read,'” Andrews said. “I read it and I thought it was an interesting challenge, the two-actor dynamic of it. I said, ‘Sure, I’ll direct it.'”

“A Tuna Christmas” is the sequel to “Greater Tuna,” a comedy written by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard about the denizens of Tuna, Texas. Most of the characters from “Greater Tuna” appear in the sequel, including OKKK DJs Arles Struvie and Thurston Wheelis, KKK leader Elmer Watkins, town snob Vera Carp and Petey Fisk with the Greater Tuna Humane Society. But it’s not a sequel that requires any knowledge of the original to appreciate.

“I think there’s a character everybody can relate to or everybody knows.” Andrews said. “I have a family member like that, or I have felt like that. There’s people having the best time in their lives at Christmas time, and there’s people struggling. I think with that duality of characters, everybody can find something to identify with.”

The play’s story focuses on the town’s Christmas Yard Display Contest and a Christmas Phantom who’s been vandalizing the displays. There’s also family turmoil, eccentric townsfolk and a flailing local production of “A Christmas Carol.”

All of the “Tuna” plays originally were staged with two male actors playing all of the 20 or so roles, both male and female, and part of the comedy comes from the quick costume changes that are required of the actors. However, the shows have been staged in a variety of configurations over the years.

Andrews decided to expand the cast to four actors — Raquel Allison, Jonathan Bahrey, Nate Chapline and Jenna Cintavey.

“I knew a 97-page script was going to be a lot for two actors to handle, and it also felt a bit restrictive in terms of casting,” he said. “I was always looking for about two to four actors to fill in the roles. That way there’s still the quick change dynamic for certain characters, so that spirit of the show is still there, but also it doesn’t put the entire workload on two people to get it done.”

With Kent-Trumbull’s production of “Spring Awakening” not closing until Nov. 23, Andrews and the cast got a later start than usual on the stage they’re using, but rehearsals have been running smoothly even with that delay.

“I’m very much a director where I let the actors have freedom to play around in the space. I will give (direction) like, ‘Hey, you start your line here, and I’d like you to end up at some point in this chair.’ Then they figure it out, we kind of clean it up, define it more. It’s been a joy to work with them. It’s pretty much met all my expectations.”

If you go …

WHAT: “A Tuna Christmas”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Kent State University at Trumbull, 4314 Mahoning Ave. NW, Champion

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $15 for adults, $13 for students and senior citizens and $11 for children ages 12 and younger and free for Kent students and faculty. For tickets or more information, go to www.kent.edu/trumbull/theatre or call 330-675-8887.