An Interview with Playwright Kris Bauske

By Don Redman

NOTE: I recently had the opportunity to interview Kris while working in my volunteer capacity as editor of Prologue, an audience guide for Slidell Little Theatre, in advance of the theatre’s production of Kris’ A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas: The Musical. “Redneck” was her first stab as a playwright, launching her into an entirely new career while in her forties …

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.

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

Kris Bauske
Photo: Samuel French, Inc.

children were born. 

“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 to describe her writing habits – whether she works nine-to-five or is a binge writer hibernating from the world – Bauske says she’s “definitely a hibernator.” 

“I once got an idea for a play while we were on vacation, and I had no paper and no computer.  The children were little, and they really needed me to be a fun Mom that week and not a writer, so I didn't try to write it down.  That idea distracted me the entire week, and the day we got home, I barricaded myself in my office for about 10 hours with only occasional water and bathroom breaks.  I put an entire play on paper that day, and it really hasn't changed much since that first version.

“I feel plays require intensity.  If a playwright doesn't feel intense emotion when he or she's putting on the page, the audience won't feel much when they see it on the stage.  If I don't capture an idea immediately, it usually starts to dim, and that's no good.  However, if it dims too quickly, I usually know it probably wasn't a good choice to be a play anyway.  Ideas that stay with me and demand to be written are the best.  That's how it was with ‘Redneck Christmas.’  There are still times I hear those voices in my head - especially when I'm working on a sequel or a rewrite.  They are with you until they are satisfied I get it right.  Then they let me rest.”

Despite writing several award-winning plays, Bauske says she wouldn’t recommend her method of creating scripts to anyone.

“I am the worst person to emulate for play writing,” she says. “I don't chart anything, and I am often surprised by how my plays end or various twists they take along the way.  I can write during the day, although it seems most often I am up in the middle of the night (insomnia) and tear off 30-40 pages before crawling back to bed.  I only know I have an idea or a situation that must be explored, and then I let the characters take their own route to see it to completion.  I never really know where a play will take me, and I'm as surprised as anyone when it turns out to be a hit.”

Bauske penned a stage adaptation of the novel Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy, and while it provided a definite roadmap, it wasn’t without its own pitfalls.

“Adaptations are both easier and harder than original works,” she explains. “They are easier because I always have a map, and I know what the characters must do and where they need to get to.  They are harder for the same reason.  I have no leeway, and I sometimes disagree with a choice the author gave to a certain character. It's a matter of balance.”

Finding balance among various ongoing projects isn’t so easy either.

“I have a few ideas for original plays, and I can't wait to get to the Halloween sequel of Redneck Christmas,” she says. “However, I'm editing the biography of a WWII vet right now, and it's taking all my time. This man was quite amazing, and I have the rights to adapt his story for the stage and screen, so I'm doing my best to get the book in great shape before it's published.

“I'm also hoping to get back to Michigan to visit my mother and sister soon, so I do try to take breaks, but even my extended family will tell you that if I'm struck by an idea, I have been known to work on a play any time, any where, and to the exclusion of all else until it's finished.  I'm not the best person to invite to a party.” 

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.