2014-Crossing the Finish Line

Outside my window, the sky is clear, blue and the sun is shining. There is also a powerful icy wind that giving us a current temperature of about 19 degrees. That kind of sums up 2014.

For so many, the fact that this year is nearly over and done with is a blessing, as though the changing of the calendar puts everything right again. Time is relative, folks and sometimes, a drunk uncle at that who gets all handsy at family gatherings. The world continues to go ape-shit, chock-a-block with WTF moments from one end of the globe to the other. It's difficult to make sense of it all. What's it all about, Alfie and why the hell am I asking you anyway?

But I had a damn decent year. I feel almost apologetic admitting that to y'all, especially when so many of you wish 2014 never existed. I have always been empathetic to a fault. When bad news permeates the atmosphere, whether personal or widespread, I tend to suppress my accomplishments to the point that they become not yesterday's headlines, but buried in the back archives next to last month's Dog of the Week. Hey, it wasn't a merry-go-round each and every day. However I did find some balance for the first time in years thanks to some good fortune and people in my life. There is the inevitable suck of everyday existence that has pinned me to the ground and drained me of all hope and desire. Then there were those moments-and there were blessedly plentiful-that lifted me up where I belong, where the eagles cry on a mountain high.

At the beginning of the year, I wrote a murder mystery script (THE PERILS OF FRANCOIS) that was produced less than four months later by Mel O'Drama Theater in Nashville. Next Halloween, my latest foray into the same genre is set to premiere, all due to producer extraordinaire Melanie Roady whose website I found by chance last year at this time.

My melodrama, SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE, retitled SONG OF THE CANYON KID, was the summer attraction at the Great American melodrama and Vaudeville in Oceano, CA. It was the first time this show had been staged since the 1980s. Next summer in the same exact spot, my first show, LA RUE'S RETURN co-written with Edward Thorpe, will sit in the same exact spot on the calendar on the same exact stage at the Great American.

SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE, under its original title, opened in August in Jamestown, CA for the Footlight Theatre Co. with dates running concurrently with the Oceano production.

This has all given me a new lease on life or a renewal of my lease at least because I have aggressively marketing these plays as well as THE LEGEND OF THE ROGUE since then in hopes of more success down the road. i have several irons in several fires that I am trying to warm my coffers without burning myself in the process. I am putting myself out there liker never before so that may reach actual goals I have set for myself and not living off of memories and regret, a diet I don't recommend.The world is my oyster and all I need to do is to shuck it.

What has always helped me in these time of nada damn thing is this family of mine that has blossomed into a full blown garden of love. These guys continue to nurture and amaze me, keeping me afloat in times of nearly abandoning the ship. In better times, they're more important to me than ever. This year, I had the amazingly good fortune to enjoy the company of all three of my grandchildren. A return trip to Colorado at the start of  summer culminated in the exquisite delight of our youngest's, Aefa, third birthday party. A couple of months later, we were reunited with our eldest, Kardena, when she and her mom visited Oregon not two weeks after seeing my show in Oceano. Then my grandson Sebastian, shooting up like a corn stalk so that he can literally see me eye-to-eye, has become my own personal motivational speaker, boosting my way-too-fragile ego lengths and bounds as he always has, but at times when I least expect it. When we had a discussion about his own future, I told him flippantly, yet quite honestly:
"Don't end up like me."
To which he replied:
"What-a successful playwright?"
Damn, I love that kid. I love them all. They've made me want to be a better person or for them, I strive to be.  

If I were to pick a definitive highlight that sits at the very top of 2014, the memory I will always cherish occurred in Oceano when my best friend Ed Thorpe gave me the incredible gift of making this visit to see my show possible. SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE (CANYON KID)  had been rewritten since its debut on the Palace Showboat stage with new scenes that never seen the light of day before, in particular an extension of a confrontation between the two principal characters, The Canyon Kid and Darla Darling. The scene was a sad, rather melancholic scene in the midst of all the other goofiness in the script. I'll be goddamned if it didn't work. Thanks to the director and the two actors in the scene-Andy Pollock and Christine Arnold-it put a lump in my throat and a tear to my eye which lead to a moment of complete validation. I knew the jokes would work but I wasn't so sure about the love story. Now I knew. Ultimately, this meant it ain't over for me yet. While I haven't just begun, I am back on the right track and not fermenting like so much kim chee. I still have it in me to move forward onward and upward so 'scuze me while I attempt to kiss the sky...again. Just as I want to be a better person for my grandkids, this makes me want to be better just for myself. The most important thing is that it make me want to TRY.

The Third Act has begun. It started in 2014.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. All wrapped up into one.

Happy New Year

Suddenly, This Summer

It began with a frog and ended with a deer.

Such was the summer of 2014, definitely one for the archives. Book-ended by two separate Cherney Journeys, the months between May and September became one extended round trip, one I'd gladly sign up for again.

In May, THE PERILS OF FRANCOIS, the first play I'd written in almost 2 1/2 decades, began its run in Nashville, TN courtesy of the Mel O'Drama Theater for my new friend, producer Mel Roady. This was one mind-boggling experience that prepped for the rest of the season.

This was immediately followed by a return visit to Denver (relayed in the blog: THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE RED) to visit my beautiful Coloradan family who resides there with a grand birthday celebration for my three year old granddaughter Aefa.

In June, SONG OF THE CANYON KID (re-titled from SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE to coincide with the book of the same name that no one seems to want to read but if you did you would laugh your spurs off if that's your idea of a good time) premiered at the Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville in Oceano, CA for a summer-long run.

At the same time, the Footlight Theatre Company in Northern California's Jamestown planned to produce SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE under its original title at the end of August. Both shows had the same identical closing dates.

Visited in Oregon by more family members from down Santa Barbara way-my step-daughter Tracey and now sweet sixteen granddaughter Kardena-was a sweet week-long visit that had been a long-time coming but so very nourishing for the heart and soul. Just before their stay with us, they had traveled to Oceano to see THE CANYON KID, something else to boost me into the stratosphere. Kardena's favorite gag in the show was one I didn't write, a Harry Potter reference. Oh well.

Many had suggested that I find some way to see the show myself, either in Oceano or Jamestown. I actually didn't think it possible. Somehow that desire had been sent out to the universe because a trip indeed was in my immediate future.

I've known Ed Thorpe for most of my born days. We met in 6th grade at Grover Cleveland Elementary in Stockton and have been not just best friends, but the brothers we never had...and we both had brothers. We've shared laughs, tears, anger, up, down, overs and outs...including a woman. I devoted an entire chapter of my first book IN THE DARK to Ed who I call Max and who calls me Max because we're Maxes to the Max. He's also the one responsible for my foray into melodrama in the first place. He brought me out to Pollardville where we were both gunslingers, asked me to co-write our first melo LA RUE'S RETURN and arranged for me to attend the grand finale reunion when the Ville closed once and for all back in 2007.

Max felt I should see my show and made it a point to fly me down there in order to do that very thing. It is one of the finest gifts I could ever imagine. I don't know how I warrant all this love and generosity from people. It's not false modesty and me playing Harry Humble. I am honestly baffled. Grateful, but confused. It was Max's intention that we head to Oceano which involved me flying into San Francisco and the two of us driving down in our own version of an Alexander Payne road movie.

At the same time, my wife had decided that this would be a good time to visit her mom and sister in the Bay Area, so we made arrangements to depart PDX within minutes of each other-she on Southwest landing in Oakland, me on Alaska to SFO. And we made it just in the nick of freaking time. Nothing like an ass full of stress to start the weekend right.

So Max greeted me at SFO once I landed and down Hwy 101 we drove, yapping up a storm the entire way and not shutting up until he dropped me back the airport Sunday night. We relived the past, even those things of which we dared not speak.We mulled over the present. We outlined the future. Most importantly, we repaved our common ground which over time was well-worn, full of potholes and needing some necessary repair. I got my brother back and Max got his.

Once we hit Pismo Beach, our base of operations, the world pulled back into focus. It wasn't the town, per se, it was the beach...the California coast that I longed to be near again. The sound of the waves breaking is my mantra, my safe place when life begins to go south. The Oregon coast, beautiful as it is, can't hold a hourglass of sand next to the state of my birth.


The Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville in the main attraction of Oceano, maybe running a close second to the Dunes, the only state park in California where vehicles can be driven on the beach, bu tit certainly is the most popular business known all over the Central Coast. When we arrived Saturday night, it was an event that had to be documented, so I posed wherever I could. Standing before the window display of my show) featuring a stuffed version of The Canyon Kid's horse Thunder), Nova Cunningham, the artistic director of the Great American who chose my script, approached  and greeted me with open arms. She brought me into the theater before the show where the cast was warming up with vocal exercises and introduced themselves one by one. What a good looking group this was and surrounding me around the swell set of the THE CANYON KID. This was the set I didn't have when my show premiered back in '87, that's for sure. No wonder I looked like a proud papa in those shots.

As the show began, I noticed the changes they made right away. Additional songs were obvious as well as some altered lines (more than just Harry Potter references). This made my mind race back to a time at Pollardville when Tim Kelly, one of the most prolific melodrama playwrights in the the business, had been flown up to Stockton for the opening night of THE RATCATCHER'S DAUGHTER. it was one of those miracle opening nights when nothing worked all Hell Week long, but once we got in front an audience, the magic happened. When I met the author in question, I was so giddily excited that I grabbed my copy of the script to show him what we-actually mostly me-had done to it.

"Look! We cut this scene and that scene. We turned this character into a male. This character here we just cut completely out. Totally unnecessary!"

I asked him to sign it for me and handed it to him. Stone faced, he scribbled the name "Kelly" and thrust it back at me.

Oops.

Well, whatever goes around... Thirty years later, here I sat watching SONG OF THE CANYON KID minus a character, lines changed, songs added and I could not have been more delighted. Their adaptation was wonderful, doing justice to the material and giving life to a show that not seen the light of day in this century. Lee Anne Mathews' direction ran circles around mine. Her staging of certain scenes, particularly the attempted hypnosis of The Canyon Kid by Nastassia Kinky (Emily Smith) became a delirious tango in her hands and choreographed brilliantly. Some of the changes improved the show, while others, to be frank, did not. (My fight scene kicked major ass. Nyah!) But the cast was top notch all the way. Andy Pollock and Christine Arnold totally embodied The Canyon Kid and Darla Darling. There is an extension to their first scene together that was not in the original 1987 script. I added it later when I published it and has never been performed. I had to wipe a tear from my eye because in their hands, it was pretty damn touching if I do say so myself. But I have to say that the show was sent into the stratosphere by Katie Worley in the role of Charlene Atlas. She totally transformed this character, hysterically stealing each scene to the point that I couldn't wait for her next entrance to see what she do next. I would have to say Katie gave the best interpretation of anything I've ever written and one of the finest comic performance I've ever seen on the stage. And to top it all off, she'd only been with the show for a couple of weeks after her predecessor had to leave the cast unexpectedly and Katie, a veteran Great American performer, Amazing. When the curtain fell on SONG OF THE CANYON KID, I leapt to my feet and gave this fine cast a triumphant standing ovation I believed they deserved. I was probably clapping for myself as well. My step-daughter Lindsay would call this "a victory lap".

It turns out that the cast have triple and sometimes quadruple duties at the theater outside of performing. They seat the audience, run the concession stand, then when everyone has cleared out, they clean the auditorium. There's no way in hell we would have done that back at the Palace Showboat. Maybe these guys are paid better, but I personally it to be a major pain in the ass to be the Major Domo before I stepped out on stage as MC. Sure, they are probably paid far and above whatever we were making, but still...

After being treated as King for a Day-or Night, rather- I gave my hail and farewell to these fine folk and hugged each and everyone of them  I even sought some of them out just say they too could have a genuine Scott Cherney embrace. They really were quite a special bunch. Damn kids anyway. The evening ended in true California style at the In-n-Out Burger drive-thru for a Double Double after show dinner.

The long drive back to the Bay Area on Sunday afternoon culminated when Max and I wrapped up the weekend with a huge honking steak dinner before we made our goodbye. We went our separate ways, but forever entwined in true brotherly bond that was reinforced with cement by the incredible gift of his for which I am eternally grateful.

I returned to PDX with a smile on my face that some day may have to be surgically removed, Hopping on the Economy parking lot shuttle in front of the terminal, I, along with my fellow weary travelers, were welcomed back to Portland by our driver, Bob, whose voice sounded like an older version of Chris Farley's character Matt Foley character. It was apparent that he couldn't wait to back to his van down by the river. And for some reason, he decided to toss in a little shuttle driver humor along with the ride.

"What do you call a deer with no eyes? No eye deer."

While the other passengers chose to ignore this, but I just had to chuckle. Yep. I was back in Portland alright.

I drove home in my wife's VW Bug and was just around the corner from I where I live when something slammed up against the car on the driver's side. It was louder than it was forceful since I didn't lose any control at all of the steering. I didn't see a thing and thought I ran over something, but I checked the mirrors and saw a flash of brown fur galumphing away and disappearing into the night.

Apparently it was a no eye deer.

Fortunately, I was unharmed. Unfortunately, the car has a broken fender, a severely dented door and a broken headlight. Bambi? I haven't a clue. Couldn't find him, but somehow I think he was going to feel that bump the next day.

And just like that, summer ended and fall fell.

Curtain

The Canyon Kid Comes Home

The Footlight Theatre Co. production of SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE opens August 29 in Jamestown,

CA, not far from whence it first reared its white Stetson way back in 1987 at the Palace Showboat Dinner Theater at Pollardville. This is as close to home as the show's been for 27 years.

And after all, that's the real theme of this show: Going home. I had put melodramas in my rear-view mirror a long time ago and yet, I returned to my favorite, LONE PRAIRIE, and wrote a novelization of it as a lark. It turned out to be the project that rekindled my love for writing, comedy and yep, melodrama. An e-mail out of the blue from the Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville in Oceano got my show produced for the first time in the 21st century. So I sent out to few other companies and lo and behold, here's the Footlight Theatre Co. ready for the second production of this script this summer.

Now I've got a total of three scripts ready for the big time, LONE PRAIRIE, LA RUE'S RETURN, my first co-written with Edward Thorpe and a punched up version of my first solo show, THE LEGEND OF THE ROGUE or MASK ME NO QUESTIONS. (New sub-title. It used to be GOOD GUYS WEAR BLACK, but I don't want my ass kicked by Chuck Norris. I don't care how old he is. He can still rip my lower intestines out with his bare hands and make me play jump rope with them)

Whatever goes around, comes around and I'm enjoying the ride.


This is the front of the Palace Showboat program.
Obviously, I didn't design this. The title isn't very prominently displayed. Neither is my name.  Goldie's name is. Hmm...
It also calls the play "A Western Fairy Tale". That's about as accurate as calling SAW a slapstick romp that's fun for the whole family.
And what in the name of Sam Peckinpah is up with that cowboy? Who is he supposed to be? Give him a golden earring and a head scarf underneath that hat and it could be Two Gun Boris...or Charlene Atlas before a good scubbin' and waxin'
I'm not sure what that stain on the program is. It could be from Pollardville fried chicken.
Yeah I can say all this now, but I treasure this like a Picasso.
 But that was then...

 
And this is now.
This is the latest incarnation of this show, quite different than the first in many ways. Read this from the Footlight Theatre Co. press release.

Hurst Ranch and Footlight Theatre Company have teamed up to meritoriously bring to life the world of Wild West Melodrama!  Set at the striking Hurst Ranch  with its beautiful vintage grounds, audiences are sure to have an outrageous, side-splitting laughter filled evening full of all sorts of knee-slappin, toe-tappin old timey fun!

Every performance begins with a train ride into the "town" of Dirt Clod on the Hurst Ranch Railroad, where guests can arrive in town and belly up to the bar at The Dirt Clod Saloon.

An 1890s style musical vaudeville shows begin at 5:45, featuring performances by  local old timey bands including Faux Renwah, The Lava Cats and more.

At 6:00 pm, with the ringing of the dinner bell, a 3 course gourmet Western BBQ is served up by The Historic National Hotel of Jamestown.

Romp-stomping action and non-stop hilarity ensue after dinner around 7:00 pm, just as the sun begins to set over the beautiful "Dirt Clod Lagoon"!!  In classic melodrama fashion audiences will get to boo and hiss the villains, sigh and swoon for the sweet heroine and cheer the brave hero!! 

And the next generation of actors portraying those wackadoodles I wrote many moons ago include:

Michelle Tennant as Charlene Atlas

Alexis St Onge as D and Richard Carr as The Canyon Kid

Valerie Smusz as Nastassia and Aaron Bennett as Two Gun Boris

Susan Chapman as Honey Darling

Rounding out the cast (those MOP-Mit Out Photos) are Art Delgado as Basil Kadaver, Anthony De Page as Dalton Doolin and Don Pierazzi as Mayor Darling.

So that's the story, glory.
Song of the Lone Prairie or Poem on the Range
Aug. 29-Sept, 20 in Jamestown, CA
And it was written by...
Hang on a second. Let me look at the poster again.
"By Scott Cherney."
WHY IS MY NAME STILL SO SMALL?
Sigh...
Everything old is new again.

More Yin, Less Yang

Here we are at the mid-point of summer already. Time flies when you’re not paying attention.

Prop from THE PERILS OF FRANCOIS

Life is a funny thing with that yin, yang and the whole dang thang. On one hand, it’s a nightmare of apocalyptic proportions…Malaysian airliners shot down or just disappear altogether, Iraq is back, my hometown of Stockton turns into a sequel of the film HEAT adding much tension and chaos to natural disasters such as fire season, drought and hey, are the locust on stand-by? Mix this up in a blender with the stresses of everyday living in the 21^st century and you’ve got the draft of a suicide note ready to be posted in your Facebook status.

Then…there’s the good stuff, the things that fortunately are weighing in on the good side to provide balance in this cockamamie world-family, friends, home and everything that floats our collective boats

AND…THE BLESSED EXTRAS…

For me, it’s been the production of my plays this summer, something I’ve been striving for since the dawn of the planet of the Cherney. 

THE PERILS OF FRANCOIS just wrapped up in Nashville TN for the Mel O’Drama Theater company. My thanks again to the cast, crew and especially producer Melanie Roady for this unique opportunity. I’d never written a script on spec before, let alone a murder mystery. It was also a challenge trying to collaborate from opposite sides of the country, but apparently, it all came together.  Me in Nashville…who da thunk it?

Andy Pollock and Christine Arnold in SOTCK, Oceano style

Then there’s SONG OF THE CANYON KID at the Great American Melodrama in Oceano, CA that is currently running through September and has picked up three…count ‘em…three great reviews.

REVIEW#1

REVIEW#2

REVIEW#3

The fact that I’m not mentioned in any of these write-ups is beside the point. However…

SONG OF THE CANYON KID WAS WRITTEN BY SCOTT CHERNEY

So there
.

What was really nifty, keen, cool and boss-o was that these two shows were running at the same time. Never happened before, but hopefully will happen again.

In the meantime, the same show, SONG OF THE CANYON KID under its original title SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE or POEM ON THE RANGE is set to open August 29 in Jamestown, CA for the Footlight Theatre Company at the same time the Oceano show will still be playing. In fact, they close on the very same night.

Quite a coup, eh wot?

It would be even sweeter if I could just garner a few decent sales for the novel version of said play, SONG   

OF THE CANYON KID, a western comedy romance. This sucker has FLATLINED.It’s a goddamn shame. I think it’s a good piece of work and I haven’t been able to even give it away. (That’s not true. There is a giveaway for a free copy on Goodreads. See below.) It even got a good review all by itself.

CANYON KID BOOK REVIEW 

See?

There’s that yin and yang again.

So there’s been a lot of yin this year, but far too much yang. I’m grateful any yin I can have or can get, but to provide balance and that I don’t go sliding into a big steaming pile of yang…

MORE YIN PLEASE!
That goes for the rest of y'all too. Be good to each other. And for corn's sakes, be good to yourself too.

SONG OF THE CANYON KID is now playing through September 20 at the Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville in Oceano, CA 

SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE opens August 29 at the Footlight Theatre Company in Jamestown, CA

SONG OF THE CANYON KID, the book, is now on sale at Amazon

A Canyon Kid Summer

Big doin's in the world of The Canyon Kid!

On June 19, The Great American Melodrama & Vaudeville in Oceano, CA presents SONG OF THE CANYON KID (aka SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE) written by yours truly. This is the first production of this western comedy melodrama since its 1987 world premiere at the legendary Pollardville Palace Showboat Theater in Stockton, which I also directed. This particular show will run all summer long until September 20.


THE GREAT AMERICAN MELODRAMA and VAUDEVILLE

That's just Southern California. Northern California steps up to the plate later in the season.


On August 29, the Footlight Theatre Company stages its own production of the same play under its original title in conjunction the Hurst Ranch in Jamestown, CA. It involves a train ride, BBQ, live band and sounds

like quite the event. This prod closes the same night as the other-September 20.

FOOTLIGHT THEATRE CO. ON FACEBOOK                                      
So what the fun is it-SONG OF THE CANYON KID or LONE PRAIRIE? Well, when I was working on the novelization, I always meant to change the title for the book. When Great American contacted me, they asked to change it to TALES OF...but I balked and suggested the other. They went ahead and added it to their 2014 line-up, though they added an S to their promotional brochure calling it SONGS. Sigh. After the summer shows, the play title will be SONG OF THE CANYON KID. Stay tuned. Or not.

But the BOOK is now and always will be SONG OF THE CANYON KID..Yeah,  a real, honest to God BOOK that you hold in your hands, flip the pages, throw at your loved ones and what not. This fine tome is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions.

SONG OF THE CANYON KID ON AMAZON

So all in all, it is indeed the summer of the Canyon Kid. It's been a long time coming, but from the dude who created these characters many moons ago in a wondrous land called Pollardville, I believe that the time for the straight-shootin', guitar strummin' cowboy has finally come.

Yippie-ky-ay indeed.