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.

Out of the Wild - A poem by Donald G. Redman

Illustration by Donald G. Redman

Out of the Wild

By Donald G. Redman

You want to paint it

It’s absolutely beautiful

She allows you

to put her heart

on canvas

A tangle of constantly changing light

Her wild places are

Holy

and Quiet.

A lover in abundance

Beautiful

and

Wounded

Precariously perched on the edge of

War

Like something

Out of the wild

'Out of the Wild' was created by repurposing an article by Sarah Bonnette in the north shore editions of the Times-Picayune featuring the artist Peggy Hesse. The poem is an experiment in blackout poetry inspired by Austin Kleon

Copyright 2014 Donald G. Redman All rights reserved.

'Three Rivers' - by Donald G. Redman

Painting by Tami Curtis

Three Rivers
by Donald G. Redman

She fell in love years before.
Recently, she has only
quiet.
Sitting by the water's edge,
The tower and clock in the background,
Her love comes,
Beautiful like the storm.
Music and time and color collided on canvas.
She's painting a dream.
Physically,
Spiritually,
She remembers every stroke.





‘Three Rivers' was created by repurposing an article by Sarah Bonnette in the north shore editions of the Times-Picayune featuring the artist Tami Curtis. The poem is an experiment in blackout poetry inspired by Austin Kleon




Copyright 2014 Donald G. Redman. All rights reserved.

'Blindsided'

Blindsided

by Donald G. Redman

Mary Jane kisses me in traffic.

Long.

I hurry to exit the vehicle

And shyly began to apologize.

“I just … you …”

She was amused.

I had been standing

As a rodent

On the side of the road.

She smiled

Slightly

And told me that it would be best

If I just got back

in the car.

I was nervous

But my mouth

So glad.

Blindsided is a “blackout” poem, created by blacking out large swaths of words in a newspaper article while preserving others to create poetry.

The original article appeared in the Slidell community section of the Times-Picayune. It was a columnist’s recounting of an earlier Halloween experience when she had dressed in costume as one of three blind mice and caused an auto accident. It contained a lot of references to being blind and being angry. At first, that’s the direction I took while trying to cobble together a poem. The name Mary Jane (as in the traditional Halloween candy) was a keeper from the start.

First stab:

Mary Jane,

dressed in black.

Dark Glasses.

Blind

And extremely heavy….

Second attempt:

Mary Jane kisses me

And two of my closest friends …

OK, that left me with nowhere to go.

Third try (I return to the black dress):

Mary Jane

Dressed in black.

Amusing and clever.

Blind and extremely heavy,

I did not want to miss the princess.

Too much of a hurry,

I walk up

And began to apologize.

“I am blind.”

She was not amused.

I summoned the dark for an eternity….

Dreadful!

So another attempt… back to the kisses:

Mary Jane Kisses me.

That is not amusing.

I did not want to.

I apologize.

She is not amused.

She summoned the dark.

She’s mad.

I think she’s going to

Cut off

My mouth…

Nope. Worse than dreadful.

Again …

Mary Jane kisses me.

That is not my idea of fun …

Scratch.

And then I finally let go of the angry aspects of the story and embraced the kiss and the nervous tension and the sensual Mary Jane. The title, Blindsided, pays homage to the three blind mice of the original article, while describing the unexpected passionate kiss from Mary Jane.

The idea of blackout newspaper poetry comes from poet Austin Kleon.

'August White' - Blackout Poetry Experiment

AUGUST WHITE

by Cheryl Backes

Thrill seekers came here.

Surrendering to a strange land,

Hiking boots and layered in fleeces far

from home

White-knuckled drive up spiraling

switchbacks in swirling snow.

A weird experience in August.

Enchanted and ethereal, forbidding

and intimidating –

Ready to fall on you at any time.

“You’ll fall in love, you will.”

I had never given much thought.

A luminous smile, offering a comforting

pat on my shoulder.

“Nothin to stress over darling.”

I shivered with relief,

Stacked between my chowder and cold

beer

Like a deck of cards.

Up the mountain where the sheep

huddled against one another for acres, I

saw her dressed as a fairy godmother,

A celestial white bathed in golden light.

Forces of nature; good for the soul.

We feel alive.

Cheryl Backes wrote August White in response to my invitation to my friends to create poetry from newspaper articles by deleting or blacking out filler words while leaving some words and phrases untouched, yet connected poetically.

The source of inspiration for this technique, which I’ve dubbed “blackout poetry,” Comes from Texas-based poet/writer/illustrator Austin Kleon. I write about Kleon’s technique here.

Cheryl says she’d be amiss if she didn’t give credit to the author of the article, Joe Drape of The New York Times. “All of these beautiful phrases were penned by him,” she says.

Indeed, but Cheryl’s repurposing of Drape’s words has created a beauty of its own.

Copyright 2014 Cheryl Backes. All Rights Reserved.

'Blackout Poetry,' Making Poetry From Newspaper Articles

My poem Monster Mash (printed below) was inspired by employing a unique technique I first heard about after viewing a video profile of Austin Kelon, a Texas-based poet, writer and illustrator.

Stumped by writer's block, Kleon created an entire book’s worth of poetry while scouring the newspaper for words he could craft into his own.

After taking a hiatus from writing following college, Kleon, then working by day as a web designer, eventually returned to composing prose and poetry and quickly discovered that writing the next Great American Novel was not going to be as easy as he had envisioned.

His words had left him, he said in a 2010 interview with the Poetry Foundation. He was stymied by writer’s block.

“I thought I just don’t have any words,” he said. “I kinda looked over at the recycle bin next to my desk and it was piled full of newspapers. I thought, I don’t have any words and right over there are millions of them.”

With black marker in hand, Kleon began “deleting words from the paper and letting some just float there.”

Austin Kleon's collection of
"blackout poetry."

The results were some stunning pieces of poetry, though Kleon didn’t recognize it as such at first.

He wasn’t trying to create poetry, rather he thought of it was a writing exercise to prime the pump of creativity that would lead to “bigger writing,” like a short story, or a novel or even a comic strip. It was his wife who convinced him that he was actually creating textual art and poetry from the newspaper articles.

Kleon began focusing his spare time on the poetry project which was later made into a book, Newspaper Blackout, a collection of his newspaper poetry. He wrote the entire book while scouring newspaper articles during daily commutes on the bus to and from work and in the basement at the office during lunch breaks.

He says he treats the newspaper like a blank canvas and scans articles like a word search puzzle, looking for words and phrases that are eventually shaped into a poem. He approaches each article/poem differently, either totally transforming the article into an unrecognizable piece of poetry or twisting the article to mean something entirely different.

The art, he says, comes from transforming news articles into pieces of poetry that resonate with personal meaning.

Says Kleon: “Transforming this non-fictional journalistic artifact, taking that and turning it into something very personal that’s mine that I feel could have come out of me … that’s the real joy.”

Making Monster Mash

The idea of testing out Kleon’s method for creating poetry has been lying dormant for several years, but on a whim one recent Sunday morning, I scooped up the freebie newspaper off the driveway and brought it inside to attempt to create poetry from a news article.

I scanned the front page of the community section and was immediately arrested by the lede: “It’s all in the accessories; tiaras, wands, wigs, witches hats, capes and pirate eye patches.”

Glancing over the article, I saw words like monster, anger, beauty queens, parade and more. I knew I had struck gold.

First, I started by simply underlying words and phrases of interest and began compiling in my head some sort of sense of the various words. They soon branched out in a multitude of directions so I began jotting them down.

My original list of words as I tried to make order of the imagery

Actually, the article was quite colorful and provided a ton of images. Almost too many; it was hard to focus on just one thread until suddenly a voice came through the clutter. The voice of an erstwhile beauty queen whose superficiality belies the hurt, anger and loneliness that resides inside. Miss Cupcake – all smiles outside but an angry monster beneath the tiara. But not really a monster – just a regular person hurt and alone and desperate for human contact.  

The result is Monster Mash.

Monster Mash

By Donald G. Redman

Tiaras, wands

And eye patches.

I am our monster.

Anger at a young age;

Hours a day,

Eating.

Please call.

Monster masks
for Beauty Queens.

A regal parade
led by

Miss Cupcake,

Riding full-face to the zoo.

Call the Monster.

Call.

Not too shabby for a first attempt. I found the exercise quite stimulating and engaging and look forward to creating more "blackout poetry." I strongly encourage you to give it a try, too.

Austin Kleon is the New York Times bestselling author of three illustrated books: Steal Like An Artist, a manifesto for creativity in the digital age; Show Your Work! a guide to sharing creativity and getting discovered; and Newspaper Blackout,  a collection of poetry made by redacting words from newspaper articles with a permanent marker.

In previous lives, he worked as a librarian, a web designer, and an advertising copywriter.

Learn more about Kleon on his website.

View the 2010 Poetry Foundation video interview here.

Monster Mash, copyright 2014 Donald G. Redman. All rights reserved.

Looking For Dad, Finding A Killer

A Review of The Most Dangerous Animal of All

by Don Redman

Susan Mustafa’s The Most Dangerous Animal of All, a collaborative effort with Gary L. Stewart, defies all labels – part true crime, part memoir, part mystery, part inspirational – but in toto, it’s a very compelling book.

The subtitle gives a clue to the book’s central premise: “Searching for My Father and Finding the Zodiac Killer,” and the person searching for his father is Gary Stewart, Mustafa’s collaborator. Stewart was adopted into a loving family when he was only three months old, but his world was turned upside down when, at the age of 39, he received a phone call from a woman claiming to be his biological mother.

And so Stewart’s journey begins as he sets out from south Louisiana to San Francisco to reconnect with his biological mother, hoping to learn about the circumstances that led to her decision to offer him up for adoption, and to hopefully acquire details about his biological father.

As American novelist James Baldwin once said, “Be careful what you set your heart upon – for surely it will be yours.”

What begins as a feel-good reunion between son and mother, soon devolves into an obsessive pursuit for the truth and a descent into near despair. 

It’s a tough balancing act for Mustafa, who must make sense of bundles of seemingly unrelated threads: underage marriage; an abandoned baby; a ruthless biological father; a happy reunion with biological mother; police cover-up; family secrets; a loving adoptive family; and cold-blooded murder. To say the least, this is not your typical true crime book.

But it wasn’t supposed to be a true crime book. Not in the beginning.

Mustafa’s masterful retelling of the events, based in part on Stewart’s journals and records and on her own meticulous research, weaves for us a full, rich and detailed kesi upon which every aspect of Stewart’s life is on full display: the good, the bad and the ugly.


Stewart is to be commended for opening his life up so completely, and it is not easy not to wince as he speaks frankly about his biological parent’s dubious past, nor is it easy to witness the unfolding of his suppressed but lingering pain of abandonment and rejection. But his dogged determination to expose the truth may have uncovered the real identity of the serial killer known as the Zodiac, Earl Van Best, Jr. – his father.

Earl Van Best Jr. next to police sktch of the Zodiac killer

The Zodiac serial killer is believed to have killed five people in northern California between December 1968 and October 1969 and gained notoriety by mocking the police by writing several letters to San Francisco Bay Area newspapers boasting of the slayings. These letters included four codes or ciphers in which the killer claimed also contained his identity. Of the four cryptograms sent, only one has been definitively solved, but not his identity.

 The Zodiac claimed to have killed as many as 37 people, but police have been able to positively pin only five murders on him. While the case remains open in various jurisdictions, the case is cold and remains a low priority.

Gary Stewart appeared at one point to have been very close to convincing the San Francisco Police Department to actively pursue his father as a plausible candidate as the Zodiac, but for mysterious reasons, the investigation into Earl Van Best, Jr. was shut down without explanation or fanfare. Potentially at the heart of the sudden dismissal may be an attempt by unseen hands to stifle the investigation to prevent possible embarrassment to one of SFPD’s favorite sons, the late Rotea Gilford, who had married Van Best’s ex-wife (and Stewart's mother). Stewart and Mustafa muse that it is possible that Gilford’s friends on the police force wanted to protect Gilford’s legacy; to protect him from forever being tied to the Zodiac killer.

Employing Mustafa’s contacts in the world of forensic science, Stewart has compiled very credible evidence and makes an impressive argument that his biological father was indeed the Zodiac killer. He even finds what past decoders never could uncover: the hidden name of the killer within the cipher – Earl Van Best Jr.

The research and documentation aside, what gives the book a real heart and soul is Stewart’s personal story: his relationship with his own son and his adoptive parents; his topsy-turvy relationship with his biological mother; his disastrous search for his half-brother and half-sister; his spiritual journey; and the emotionally draining but dogged chase after a ghost … a ghost that was alternately a father and a drunk and a monster. And finally, it’s about making peace with the past, whatever that may have been.

Regardless how the facts may play in the future, whether Stewart’s research was correct or not, the book is a very compelling read and a deep and personal examination of one man’s soul.

Susan Mustafa talks about her book, “The Most Dangerous Animal of All.”

Read our interview with Susan here.