Here Comes La Rue Again!

We may not have reached the fabled light at the end of the tunnel just yet, but it is looming. The portal
itself has cracks in it and beams of illumination are shining through, thanks to the efforts of those who want us to bask in the sunshine once again.

Of those, I want to single out the Actors Studio, Inc. in Baker City, Oregon. One year ago when the world came crashing to a halt, they were forced to shut down production of my interactive murder mystery MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER literally days before their opening night. A heart-breaking video announcing its cancellation was posted on their Facebook page and they went into lock-down. At Christmastime, they hit upon the idea of filming their planned holiday offering SCROOGELESS and selling the DVDs as fundraiser for CASA  (Court Appointed Special Advocates).

They approached me to do a similar project for the one and only melodrama collaboration by Edward Thorpe and myself, LA RUE'S RETURN or HOW'S A BAYOU?  Of course I said yes. What am I-a monster? I agreed wholeheartedly with one stipulation: Dedicate this to the memory of my best friend Ed who passed away at the end of November. 

Actors Studio dove right in, shooting taking place throughout the Spring in locations around Baker City. Production has now been completed and LA RUE'S RETURN -THE MOVIE is all set to go with a release date of May 4, 2021. And once again, this is a charity fundraiser with proceeds going to Baker City Kiwanis and Kiwanis Doernbechers Childrens Hospital. Formats available are DVDs and streaming. Plus they have commemorative t-shirts for sale as well.

LA RUE'S RETURN-THE MOVIE ON SALE FROM ACTORS STUDIO, INC.

Another one of the great things about this is that coincides with Ed's upcoming birthday later this month, just another way to celebrate my friend. I've written about LA RUE'S RETURN in the past and what it meant to the two of us (see blog post: THE RETURN OF LA RUE'S RETURN ) It all stemmed from the head of Ed and he brought me along for the ride. The fact that it is still being produced after all these years (44 of them, pilgrim) is mind-blowing as if LA RUE was powered by Energizer. It keeps going and going...

Cast of Actors Studio, Inc.'s LA RUE'S RETURN

So head on over to Actor's Studio Inc. website, support their worthy charities and salute my brother,  Mr. Edward Thorpe. They all deserve it.

From the bottom of my world weary, yet fully vaccinated heart (shut up, I'm on a roll), I want to thank Leeanne Hinkel and ACTORS STUDIO, INC. for their warmth and sunshine, helping us lead the way out of the darkness and back into the light once again.

And as I always say, LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULER!

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!

LA RUE'S RETURN is available in paperback and download at SCOTT CHERNEY'S STORE and, surprise, surprise, performance right are available. Contact moi at: writtenbysc@gmail.com or visit my website: WRITTEN BY SCOTT CHERNEY

Corona My House

Ground zero?

In the words of the Wicked Witch of the West,
"Oh, what a world....what a world..."

Yeah, it's gone nuts out there alright. I should say it's already gone nuts and now it's just flat out insane. The pandemic they've been warning us about forever and a day is now upon us and what do we do? Hoard toilet paper. Yeah, we're fine. Lordy lordy, what is we gonna do?

I have two perspectives, not because I'm bi-polar or bi-coastal for that matter. I'm more BOGO as in Bi One Get One. I'm also spinning off the rails so bear with me as I attempt to put two thoughts together and come up with a blog.

On one hand, I have what is known as my day job, the one that pays most of the bills and that, my dear friends, is in the healthcare field. I am, as the main character in my book,
RED ASPHALT, a laboratory courier. That means I pick up and deliver, among other things, blood, urine and other bodily fluids for my employer's clinical lab. Naturally, we have been testing for Covid-19 at the hospitals and clinics in our network. Hooray. I'm on the front lines. Of course, we've been bombarded by tons of information regarding this outbreak and guess what? We still don't know what the hell we're doing, making it up as we go along. On Friday, I couldn't get that goddamn HBO mini-series CHERNOBYL out of my head. I began to feel like one of the first responders to that clusterfuck. "Boris, go down to the core and clean up. Take this mop. Hold your breath. You will be fine." The stress has just begun and my own melt-down is imminent.

My other job, actually my vocation, is an independent writer, a fashionable term for someone w/o representation. Among my works are pieces for the theater, though that's a catch-all phrase as well. I write melodramas and interactive murder mysteries which have been fairly lucrative for yours truly in the past decade. This year alone, the first six months in fact, I had four productions scheduled, one having wrapped up just last month in Texas. However, everything is on hold as of this moment in time that changes by the hour. Actors Studio Inc. has a scheduled benefit performance of MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER on March 21, the first in my adopted state of Oregon which was to be followed up by another the following Saturday. As of today, show #2 is cancelled. Another of the same show in the Los Angeles area is on hold while a production of SONG OF THE CANYON KID in Texas this May is up in the air, shall we say? Meanwhile, acting as another playwright's agent, I was able wrangle a production of Michael K. Young's CASE OF THE MYSTERIOUS CRAVAT, a major coup, I felt. However, at this writing, a show set for two weeks hence is suddenly a big question mark. When it suddenly dawns on you that the survival of this particular art form is predicated on putting butts in seats, it's time to rethink your options. And in terms of survival itself, it's a lose-lose proposition. Social distancing. That's not entertainment.

(UPDATE: Actors Theater Inc. cancelled their March 21 show on 3/16. The next day, the Rogue Theater pulled the plug on THE CASE OF THE MYSTERIOUS CRAVAT and, alas and alack, SONG OF THE CANYON KID is a no-go in Texas this year)

My problems, especially of the latter, are comparatively minor and I acknowledge that. People are sick and dying, businesses and facilities are closing left and right and the world is on lockdown. On the other hand, which I continually wash for twenty seconds at a time, the former, meaning that dreaded day job, is disconcerting because it also boils down to the same thing, spouted by that wise sage Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense of the good ol' US of A:

"There are known knowns; there are things that we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know."

What a soothsayer. That was 18 years ago. Match that up with anything that's been spouted in the last couple of weeks and you've got yourself The New Reality.

Tomorrow I head back into the void. It's another day and the sun will come out. Everything else is anybody's guess. Hopefully, the answer won't be blowing in the wind. I can only hold my breath for so long.

Take care, people. We'll meet again. Don't know where. Don't know when.