By Don Redman
Playwright Kris Bauske grew up in a rural town in Southwest Michigan and
she credits years of hunting and fishing with her father for preparing her to
easily write roles for men, especially country menfolk who play so prominently
in her melodious comedy, A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas: The
Musical, onstage at Slidell Little Theatre Nov. 28 - Dec. 14, 2014.
An
avid reader and writer even at an early age, Bauske
was involved in theatrical productions
all during her high school and college
years. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in
English and went on to be a professional technical writer for many years until
her children were born.
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| Playwright Kris Bauske Photo: Samuel French, Inc. |
“You
may not believe this, but I believe I was told to become a playwright,” she
says. “The entire story of ‘Redneck Christmas’ came to me in a dream, and I
felt very much compelled to write it down immediately. I had never
written for the theatre before, so here I was, in my forties, learning things
like proper play format and how to submit scripts for consideration. It
was a big learning curve, but it came pretty easily.”
While
the entire story may have come to her in a dream, the initial inspiration came
from an odd combination of a church sermon and a chance viewing of a TV comedy
special featuring comedians Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable
Guy.
On
a December night in 2007, Bauske had been
flipping channels on the television set looking for an interesting Christmas
show to watch with the family when she stumbled across the Blue Collar Comedy
Tour.
“Sadly,
it wasn't a Christmas show,” she says. “I couldn't help but think they
were missing out on a great opportunity by not having a Christmas special for
their fans. That same year, our pastor gave a sermon on how modern day
Christians probably think we would be so much superior to the people who turned
Mary away in Bethlehem. Then he went on to remind us that Mary was an
unwed teen mother, probably about 14 years old. How many of us would take
her in today knowing that? Those two ideas intertwined in my head until
the night I had the dream that became A
Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas.”
Bauske’s church – Ocoee Oaks United Methodist Church in Ocoee,
Fla. – provided her with an opportunity to workshop the play in 2008 when it
produced the freshly-written play over two weekends as a dinner theatre.
“Seeing
a play on stage is the best way for a writer to see what works and what needs
improvement, so I did some rewriting and kept working to make it better,” she says. “In
the meantime, I had sent it out to two publishers to consider. The first
one turned me down, and then Samuel French, the one I really wanted, told me
they wanted to publish the script. I was delighted. The play has
been done all over the country and in Canada since then!”
The
idea of making her play into a musical came later, after several performers
from the straight version suggested it.
“Fortunately,
I have a lot of musicians in my life, and I've been known to write a song or
two,” she says. “I really took that suggestion to heart and started
looking at sections of the original play that could be reworked as songs.
My husband and children are all super talented musicians, and I can sing a tune
to at least get across the idea of what I'm hearing in my head. I wrote
all the lyrics and had the ideas for most of the music. My husband then
orchestrated the songs and played them into the computer so we could create an
accompaniment CD and send it off to Samuel French for their patrons who prefer
musicals. It has been extremely successful.”
Bauske
says the residents of her fictional town of
Christmas really resonated with her audiences, many of whom clamored for more.
She obliged by penning a sequel -- A Good
Old Fashioned Redneck Country Wedding, which happens the Valentine's Day
after the original Christmas story.
“I'm also working on another Redneck sequel
having to do with Halloween,” she says. “Pretty soon, I'll have all the
major holidays covered. I would like to
add music to the sequels too, but there are only so many hours in a day.
We'll see...”
Asked
what has stayed with her since originally writing “Redneck Christmas,” she says
it has been the audiences’ responses. “A lot of people have contacted me after
working on a production and told me how much that production and the characters
and story touched them; how it meant so much to them,” she says. “That
really stays with me and makes me feel great to have so many friends all over
because of this simple little play… If my work gives people a little hope for
goodness and sanity in this crazy world, then I'll feel I've done something
useful with my life.”
Bauske's other plays
include Chloe Nelson and the Remarkable, Unusual, Foolproof Retirement
Plan, a top 10 finalist for the Reva Shiner Comedy Award; Simon Says, a comedy; Grandma’s Little Helper,
a comedic drama named the winner in the Chameleon Theatre Circle’s 2011
Festival of New Plays; and a stage adaptation of the novel Lay That
Trumpet in Our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy. Her latest play, The
Growers, is based on actual events during WWII and is being adapted for
film.
Bauske continues to
write from her home near Orlando, Fla., and mentors a number of writers and
playwrights.
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