What can I say?

I’m an actor.

I’m also a writer.

Put these two facts together and you might just get a playwright.

One of the things I’ve done in the past is to write and produce plays based on or inspired by the more unusual stories found in our local history.

I researched and wrote the scripts.

I went through the stress of producing them. Then the time came when the productions wrapped and the scripts were set aside.

One day I thought, I’ve already done a lot of work on these scripts, why don’t I release them? In fact, why don’t I release novelizations of them?

If Hollywood does it, it must be a good idea.

Hmmm. Before we all get too distracted, I’ll say this, turning these scripts into novellas seemed like an easy idea to execute at first. However, converting these scripts into novella format took more time than I first thought. Telling a story through theater is quite a bit different than telling a story using only the written word. Then again, you already knew that.

You’re far ahead of me.

In any case, in some sections, you may still notice some theatrical type story structure. To be honest, I could have changed that but out of sheer self-indulgence, I decided to keep it.

These stories would be technically classified as historical fiction. This means that I gathered up all kinds of historical facts and then wrote a fictional story around them.

Little history stories are great, but acting is a verb, and actors need something to perform. Writing in fictional elements helps to fill in the gaps and enhance the theatrical elements of these stories.

The news clippings I’ve included are some of the tidbits I discovered while researching the original scripts. I found them interesting, I hope you do as well.

Before you ask, yes, the pictures included were part of or were taken during the original theatrical productions.

Some of these pieces were originally produced at the Gladstone Museum. I would like to thank the board of the Museum for letting a bunch of crazy acting types turn their venue into a theater. By the way, if you are ever in the Gladstone area, why not stop by and check out the Museum? I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised at all you find there.

Finally, to the casts and crews I worked with on these productions, thank you again for your efforts. I hope we can act up again sometime.

To you the reader, thank you for reading this, I hope you enjoy your journey through our local history.

Cheers,

Kelvin Bueckert

www.kelvinbueckert.com

*Note, I’ve reserved the rights to perform these theatrically. If you’d like to perform one of these pieces yourself, please contact me for more information. Thank you for your honesty.