Embrace the messiness: Texas author Katherine Craft brings Audible authentic sequence ‘Shaky’ to life

When Katherine Craft was in her 20s, she underwent a sequence of surgical procedures meant to enhance her lifelong low imaginative and prescient. Instead, the procedures, in her phrases, “made everything worse.” 

Just a few years later, Craft’s father was identified with Parkinson’s. Both of those experiences knowledgeable the Austin-based screenwriter’s new Audible authentic venture, “Shaky.”

The story follows Nicole, a 30-year-old drummer whose wild baby way of life screeches to a halt after a stunning younger onset Parkinson’s analysis. 

Katherine Craft

“This story really was inspired by my own experiences with disability and then seeing my dad go through the same thing a few years later, realizing how much our experiences had in common in the way people reacted to us in some of the struggles that we faced,” Craft stated.

“I really wanted to write something that spoke to that, that spoke to that in a way that is not inspirational – is not that like, ‘oh, everything’s fine, we can just overcome and get through it.’ But in a way that shows the messy, messy reality of it.”

Craft is a screenwriter and playwright, and she or he stated writing an audio drama appears like a mixture of each.

“’Shaky’ was originally written as a television pilot,” she stated. “But when Sonoro, the production company, came on board, we worked really hard to make sure that it felt like it had been written for audio. They have incredible experience in Latin America, and now in the U.S., with producing audio content. So they were really able to help me make it feel like it was to be listened to as opposed to watched.”

Because the principle character, Nicole, is a musician, Craft stated the audio expertise has a number of musical parts as nicely.

“I’m not a musician, but I love music. I love to sing. I love drumming, even though I cannot do it. So it was really great to be able to incorporate all of that into this audio format, like having a soundtrack that’s really drums-driven,” she stated, “Because there’s a lot of different characters with different disabilities, different chronic illnesses in the show and to kind of give everyone their own little soundtrack as we introduce them.”

Craft stated she was additionally decided to make “Shaky” really feel like a Texas story. The sequence is about in Plano, not removed from the place Craft grew up in Dallas. She stated she wished to set the story in a model of Texas that she sees on a regular basis however isn’t portrayed within the media usually.

“A lot of the characters are inspired by people in my own family, in my own life, who break these stereotypes of like what what it means to be Texan, what it means to live in a red state, what it means to be Christian, what it means be a churchgoer,” she stated.

“The character of Frank, who’s played by Sonny Carl Davis, is inspired by my dad. And I wanted a real Texan actor to bring that character to life. And I think just infusing it with my own lived experience. I’ve lived in this state almost my entire life. And I really love it and so I want to portray like a complex, complicated portrait of people who live here.”

Craft stated she hopes “Shaky” provides audiences permission to embrace the messy elements of life. 

“Our lives continue to shift as we get older. And I think I’d love for people to take away from this the permission to experience and embrace their own messiness sometimes,” she stated.

“I think a lot of times we’re encouraged to keep everything really buttoned up – present a very positive, polished facade. And I think it gets really interesting, and we can form more genuine connections with each other when we’re able to let that go and talk to other people about what’s going wrong in our lives, and accept that.”