Before the Fall

Summer '23 is unofficially behind us. Technically, the first day of fall will be September 23 this year (23 for '23), but let's face it, Labor Day is the last three day blowout before we are inundated with pumpkin spice this, that and every bloody thing until Xmas rolls around and...we're done here for another year.

While not a big fan of summertime (with the exception of Gershwin), this year's season between there and here was actually pretty sweet, despite the fact that the rest of the world was either on fire or on strike. The best possible reason for rave review stemmed from the fact that I got to spend some quality time with the fam, part of which I chronicled here in the post DADA DAY IN DENVER. What's missing from that post are two separate and superb bookended evenings with my son and grandson, respectively. This damn fam o' mine sends me to the moon and back. 

While in Colorado, I finally met my friend Melanie Roady face-to-face after almost ten years of communicating only online. Mel was the theater angel who got me to write the first play I'd written in way too long a time and produced said show. The following year, we did it again. Our origin story can be found in  A FROG BLOG. 

Speaking of which, one of those plays in question, MURDER-THE FINAL FRONTIER, was produced by CAST Plays in Douglasville, Georgia, possibly making it the most popular show in my catalog, which is only one page, but at least front and back. If you can't read the fine print, the show went on the boards (as we show folk say) back in April. I didn't learn about it until I received my royalty payment from my publisher in June. 

Managed to attend two-count 'em-two movies, a very big deal in the life of me since the experience had been pretty much obliterated by the damn Pandemic, much like almost everything else I used to love. Takes a bit to get me out to the cinema again, but since the films I took in came from two of my favorite filmmakers, I set forth to satisfy my craving headed into the dark once again.

ASTEROID CITY: Nobody makes films like Wes Anderson. After this and THE FRENCH DISPATCH, I'm getting a bit concerned. It pains me to admit that ASTEROID CITY is even too Wes Anderson-y for me. He overreached and couldn't attain any honest connection with his own work when he became too bogged down in design. It's not a wash by any means, containing enough delights that will be bring me back for a second viewing. But this time around, he went for big themes and emotions so far out of his reach because he was distracted by the next shiny object. "Ooh, look! A stop motion roadrunner!" The magic act didn't work for me this time, even though I was so glad to experience it on the big screen because it is a beautiful, however frustrating object. 

OPPENHEIMER: I had been looking forward to Christopher Nolan's latest epic all year. Naturally, since procrastination is my middle name, I waited until Labor Day to catch it. The enormity of the production, a total sensory experience, overwhelms much of the time, almost relentlessly, though it doesn't become bombastic enough to obliterate the drama or the performances contained therein. I have a problem, as many others have, with the dialogue recording since Nolan doesn't believe in ADR, so I lost some key elements and pertinent info along the way. (Maybe I require sub-titles as I do at home these days) The cast is superb, though Nolan nearly falls into the same trap as Wes Anderson. Critic Judith Crist used to call these vehicles with all-star casts a "Hey, look!" movie and OPPENHEIMER has a bit of stunt casting here and there.. "Hey, look! There's Gary Oldman as Harry Truman!" Overall, a fine achievement and the best time I had in the movies all year. That's three times if you're counting at home.

Add to this some swell TV viewing with the return of RESERVATION DOGS, WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS and a limited series revival of JUSTIFIED to the mix and summer '23 turned out pretty damn nifty. It was all wine and roses, disregarding being sold down the river by an unnamed entity, but that's what the fall is all about...and hopefully, a fall from which I hope I can recover. (Cryptic much?)

Now if you'll excuse, I have to store away all my white clothes until next year. Do undershirts count?

 

Success Can Be Murder

 

The hits keep right on a'comin'! Maybe because they've been stacked up like planes over La Guardia for the last year and a half. Whatever the reason, I'm glad they're landing now. 

Translation: I have three separate productions of the same show this summer, the interactive murder mystery known far and (sort of wide) as MURDER-THE FINAL FRONTIER. This riff on STAR TREK and everything geeky has turned out to be very lucrative for yours truly, now the second popular play in my meager catalog. Not bad for something that I thought might not get any further than its first production or in other words: one and done.

But I'm glad to say (at least on this point) that I'm wrong again. Here's the lineup, 1-2-3.

1. On the last weekend in June, SanZman Productions in the Los Angeles area, who also staged DEAD TUESDAY for me, runs THE FINAL FRONTIER as a dinner theater show for two big performances. 

2. In July, my buddy Roscoe with The San Luis Valley Theatre Company in Colorado will produce my show as a one-time event-the second time for this theater (another first!)-for a FREE one night only virtual event on July 24.

https://www.facebook.com/events/524522282122809/?ref=newsfeed

3. And my first production sold in conjunction with my new publisher, Off the Wall Plays, will be a benefit for Stars Unlimited in Liberty, MO. 

This script, which saw the light of day as STAR TRUCK: THE WRATH OF COMIC-CON, thanks to my theater angel, Melanie Roady at her Mel O'Drama Theater in Nashville, was, what I perceived to be fluke. Then again, I felt that way about DEAD TUESDAY, my other murder mystery. So why haven't I written another? Well, I've got some ideas for one, maybe two but possibly three scripts. Even though I'm still working on my book (here we go again), I hope to have something...ANYTHING...put together by the end of summer. If I give myself a deadline, I'm telling myself (and you) that I can do it. So, by Labor Day, one new script. Fingers crossed, thumbs held and cross heart and hope to spit.

Until then, warp drive, Mr. Sulu! Beam me up, Scotty! And put your damn ears down, Spock!

MURDER-THE FINAL FRONTIER is available at OFF THE WALL PLAYS where you can read an elongated preview. Performance rights are definitely available.

For more info, go to my website :

WRITTEN BY SCOTT CHERNEY 

or my previous blogs about MTFF under 

DA PLAYS! DA PLAYS!

Ten Years Later Than Never

Oh goody. It's the end of the year and another decade, so that means it's time for some reflection and to
pontificate on the passage of time to see where we've been, what we've learned and speculate on the future.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ......

Huh? What? Who's that? How did I fall asleep on my laptop? My face has keyboard marks all over it. Holy crap, I just backspaced the last decade! Sigh. If only...

Aw, bullshit. Life. That's what happened in ten years' time. A lot of ups. A lot of downs. Still managing the balancing act, though I wish it would stop tipping so much. I'm getting motion sickness and my arms are tired.

However, I'm choosing to focus on the highlights here. The bad times can take care of themselves and, frankly have done so already. They've had their way with me and everybody else out there, so instead of dwelling on them, I prefer to sweep them away like so many dust bunnies, at least for the time being.

The time being. Or should I say the time remaining? The mortality question or statement, for that matter, has been rearing its inevitable head as the clock continues to click away. As such, I prefer to to celebrate the good because it still exists in this increasingly angry, complicated and overly-caffeinated world. I'm just a sap at heart and therefore, an easy mark, but gosh darn to heck, I still maintain hope over cynicism because that's the kinda guy I am.

And I have several reasons to back this up. I'm crazy about my family, filled with loving, caring, intelligent human beings who make this world better by their very presence. Two new additions have doubled my grandpa ante, a one-two shot of granddaughters born on both sides of the decade. This all culminated in a brilliant family reunion this past August on the Oregon Coast.

In 2011, a summer vacation straight out of an MGM musical caused to fall in love with New York City, particularly my beloved borough of Brooklyn. (See the New York posts on my page: CHERNEY JOURNEYS) As a result, it seemed to set things in motion for me about how I wanted to spend the rest of my life. I needed to get back to writing. I felt this was my last option as (please don't gag) an artist. I was wrong. I've been wrong for most of my life. It should have been my first option and stuck with it. But I dove back in, especially when good fortune came my way when I finally put myself out there. Once I was lost, but then I was found.

Great American Melodrama cast and me courtesy of Ed Thorpe

I'm sure I've bored you to horrors already with the success I've had with my melodrama and murder mysteryplays in the last few years, so I'll beg off...for now. But I would like to acknowledge and once again thank the following theater companies who have produced my work since 2014:

MEL O' DRAMA THEATER (Mel Roady is the Queen!) Nashville, TN
THE GREAT AMERICAN MELODRAMA AND VAUDEVILLE Oceano, CA
FOOTHILL THEATRE CO. Jackson, CA
AVENUE THEATER West Plain, MO
CHEYENNE LITTLE THEATER Cheyenne, WY
BRAZOS THEATRE Waco, TX
THEATER SUBURBIA Houston, TX
MANTORVILLE THEATRE Mantorville, MN
MT. VERNON COMMUNITY THEATRE Mt. Vernon, MO
STAGECOACH THEATRE CO. Louson County, VA
SUGAR HIGH THEATRICALS Galesburg, IL
ROGUE THEATRE CO. Sturgeon Bay, WI
DELTON ACT Delton, MI
SANZMAN PRODUCTIONS, Los Angeles, CA
SLV THEATRE CO. San Luis Valley, CO
BRICKSTREET PLAYERS Clovis, NM
RIO LINDA ELVERTA COMMUNITY THEATRE Rio Linda, CA

(For info about my plays, visit www.scottcherney.com)

I did manage to write a new book, an adaptation of my melodrama SONG OF THE CANYON KID, which was read by less people than saw the CATS movie. But it managed to gear me up for a personal triumph, the completion of the first draft of a novel I began 22 years ago, now in a major re-write stage. More information coming soon. Promise!

I'm going to close with this photograph of a couple of my grandchildren, Aefa and Sebastian, frolicking at the beach in Lincoln City, Oregon this past summer. I don't take many good photographs. In fact, not at all. When I get something like this, it's a happy accident. Now there's a good metaphor for the past ten years, a series of happy accidents amidst all the strife that threatens to overwhelm us all on an on-going basis. Look at those two in that shot. That's pure joy captured in that moment of time and it's out there not just for the asking, but for the taking. They're the future and they give me...here's that word again...hope. The latest addition to our Brady Bunch, Athena, fought like the little warrior princess to be here in this world. Why shouldn't we do the same to stay here? The love I have for my grandkids surely enters in this assessment and if it does, so what? They've helped me through the minefield this far. I'm ready for the long haul. Or I should say, the rest of the journey.


The Cherney Journey, ready to take on The Roaring Twenties.

Happy New Year and Decade, gang.

Francois Goes to Hollywood

This year, DEAD TUESDAY, the interactive murder mystery formerly known as THE PERILS OF

FRANCOIS, celebrates its 5th anniversary. And what a year it has been, having its fullest production slate since its inception back 2014. Three different theater companies across the country staged this opus o' mine, not bad for a show I didn't think would get past its first production. Apparently, Jann Harrison's creation, Francois Fibian, the man who would be frog as interpreted by yours truly, has caught on beyond my expectations. It's not that I thought it was an inferior product. Not at all. I'm proud of this script, but it was just that it's so...odd, a little quirky for the general public. Blissfully wrong again.

NASHVILLE ARTIST JANN HARRISON'S WEBSITE

Ending the year with a bang, not a croak, DEAD TUESDAY's third and final production of the year will also be its West Coast premiere courtesy of SanZman Productions down in La La Land. Technically, it's not Hollywood, but that's moot as far as I'm concerned. SanZman will stage DT in several locations in the L.A. area.

SANZMAN PRODUCTIONS FACEBOOK PAGE

To make matters even sweeter, my friend Melanie Roady, the producer who commissioned me to write this show in the first place, gave me yet another wonderful and generous gift. Previously, she sent me the the latex mask from that first show in Nashville, a full head that sits inside the front door of my apartment. Now she mailed me a framed authentic Jann Harrison original of Monsieur Fibian. Her reasoning was that he belongs with his "daddy creator". Aw, shucks. That woman is the best.
As I stated in the past, I have blessed to have an angel like Mel in my corner. She put me on this path that I've been on for half a decade now, helping me achieve a third act in life and making me find my way once again. I am eternally humbled and grateful. Love you, Mel.

THE FRANCOIS SAGA BEGINS HERE

So this month wraps up the Year of the Frog and it's been all Francois all the time. In 2020, I have three bookings at this writing including my first here in Oregon. Huzzah! More to come (fingers crossed) including an interesting side hustle and some honest-to-goodness new material (fingers uncrossed so I can write).

As a former boss of mine used to say-

Stay tuned.

Performance rights for DEAD TUESDAY are available. Contact me at writtenbysc@gmail.com

Francois Rules!

Call it a twist of fate, pure dumb luck or just the magic of Francois, but lightning has struck again in a

BRING ME THE HEAD OF FRANCOIS FIBIAN!

very significant fashion.  DEAD TUESDAY will have a one night only performance on June 1 in Delton, Michigan,  a benefit show for the Delton VFW produced by the Delton ACT (Amatuer Community Theatre). While that news is wonderful all by its lonesome self,this being the second of now 3 productions of DT this year, the story behind it makes it even more special for me.

I was contacted via e-mail by one of show's directors, Jordan Dimock  (Michael Moray being the other) a short time ago. She had read DEAD TUESDAY and asked if his theater could produce it. Even though it was a one and done performance, I don't take any offer lightly. I'm grateful that anyone would even consider doing my stuff. Sure, I'd like it if there were multiple shows because that means more royalties for moi. What can I say? I'm a stinkin' capitalist but also a starving artist. (By the way, I could use a snack.)

What makes this so swell for me is that Jordan found the script online, which exactly how I got started in this business to begin with. Back in the fall of 2013, the artistic director of the Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville Theater in Oceano, California found my melodrama    SONG OF THE CANYON KID online and wanted it for their summer attraction the following year. Encouraged by this sudden interest in something I had written, I began my long journey and contacting theaters myself and sending out scripts across the country. This resulted in a segue into uncharted waters, that being a distant cousin of melodrama theater, interactive murder mysteries, thanks to my pal Melanie Roady of Mel O'Drama Theater in Nashville. (see post: CROAK AND DAGGER: A FROG BLOG). As a result of my efforts since 2013, my shows, including the upcoming Delton performance, now total 19 productions in 12 different states. And there's more to come. Not too bad for a one man operation, if I do say so myself.  I gotta own this 'cuz it keeps me going in good times and bad.

My scripts are on-line since I have yet to interest any publisher to take me on as a client, despite my minor success on the boards. Therefore, I went the self-publish route and with that great power comes great responsibility...and more time away from the actual task of WRITING. (Sorry. Didn't mean to yell.) But the main thing is, as Thomas Haden Church says to Paul Giamatti in the great film SIDEWAYS, "Just get your work out there, man." So, out of necessity, I took my unpublished (but not unproduced) work out of the dark and put it out in the world. While this has yielded only a few hits as opposed to my own solicitations, it was not only a starting point, but a means to an end. Stepping out of the shadows has done me a world of good.

My thanks to Delton ACT for choosing my show and everyone else who has done so in the past and plans to do so in the future.

And, of course, Francois sends his regards.

For more information about DEAD TUESDAY or any other piece o' writin' I done did, please visit my website: WRITTEN BY SCOTT CHERNEY
or if'n y'all wanna buy sumpin' go to: SCOTT CHERNEY'S STORE
or drop me a line at: writtenbysc@gmail.com (Ethiopian princes need not apply)

Dead Tuesday

Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!

The StageCoach Theatre Company's next production is an interactive murder mystery written by yours truly entitled DEAD TUESDAY. The show will be performed over the next month in venues around Virginia and the Washington, DC metro area, previously uncharted territory for one of my shows.

DEAD TUESDAY is not a new script of mine. It has been re-titled from its original, THE PERILS OF FRANCOIS, which debuted in 2014 (see previous post: CROAK AND DAGGER)  If this is the first you've heard of it, the show tells the tale of an international philanthropist playboy who is the one who can solve the mystery of a prominent New Orlenas socialite during Mardi Gras, even though he's hampered by his own problems. A voodoo curse is turning him into a frog. Yep, it's a strange story to say the least. Most of the characters are based on the paintings of artist Jann Harrison. I was commissioned by Melanie Roady of Mel O'Drama Theater in Nashville to create a script using her creations and voila, here it is. It is such an odd duck of a show, I had my doubts whether or not it would see the light of a stage again. But thanks to Jerri Wiseman of StageCoach Theatre Company, Francois hops again.

Jerri asked if I would consider a name change since the original isn't very marketable. This is something I've toyed with myself, using the rather awful but compromised alternative MARDI GRAS MAYHEM in my own solicitations. This being a purely commercial venture, I'm totally flexible with this change and have no problem with her suggestion of DEAD TUESDAY (a riff on Mardi Gars' Fat Tuesday). Back in 2013, the Great American Melodrama asked to change the title of my melo from SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE to TALES OF THE CANYON KID. I opted for SONG OF THE CANYON KID to coincide with the novel version I had just published. (That play will now be known by that title alone) Theaters wishing to make changes to a work should be flown by the author and I appreciate the integrity of an organization having the respect to do so, especially for an independent like myself.

So welcome back, Francois. Let the good times croak.

For more information of the StageCoach Theatre Company production of DEAD TUESDAY, visit their website at stagecoachtc.com and their Facebook page 

To read an excerpt or find more information about  DEAD TUESDAY aka THE PERILS OF FRANCOIS, go to my website. WRITTEN BY SCOTT CHERNEY

Performance rights are available. For more info, e-mail at writtenbysc@gmail.com

Beam Me Up, Scotty

The following revolves around the creation of an interactive murder mystery that has since been re-named MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER.

                Space...the very last place...these are the voyages of the Star Truck...Innerthighs...

So begins the latest interactive murder mystery comedy written by someone who needs no introduction, but is near and dear to all of your hearts...and if he isn't, he soon will be because...that's the kind of guy he is.

It's me, damn your eyes! Yes, I'm at it again or at least I was a few months ago when I first wrote this here piece o' work that is debuting this month for Mel O'Drama Theatre in the one and only Nashville, TN. (Even though this is my second time in Music City, it's so mind-blowing that something I wrote is playing in that iconic city)

The show in question is indeed STAR TRUCK; THE WRATH OF COMIC-CON. Set at a sci-fi convention called Imaginacon, a tribute to the classic TV show STAR TRUCK is underway with members of the cast including Leon Portnoy, the actor who is forever known as First Officer Mr. Spark, Jean Roddenreel, widow of the show's creator Dean Roddenreel and of course Captain James Tyrannosaurus Kork himself, the inimitable Wilson Chadwick. Also appearing at the convention is the star of STAR BOARS, Carrie Fishwich and someone who may or may not be an alien.

As you can tell unless you're not paying attention, this is all fodder for jabs at STAR TREK, STAR WARS

and basically all things in the geek universe which, in this day and age, pretty much everything. Of course. I include myself in these ranks, having been a geek since the day I first crawled the earth back...well, none of your damn business.. It is also a gold mine of comedic opportunities that I take as full advantage of as I possibly could given the parameters of the murder mystery format. There are digs are the aforementioned STAR shows as well as DOCTOR WHO, THE WALKING DEAD, LORD OF THE RINGS and so on and so forth. Plus I have concocted some of the very best (or worst) puns I have possibly ever concocted. If you think punning is lowest form of wit, well, you're half right. Which half, I don't know.

The inspiration for STAR TRUCK derives from the underrated classic GALAXY QUEST (1999), which brilliantly mined some of the same tropes, Mad Magazine's classic parody STAR BLECCH (love that title) and, of course, the SNL "Get A Life!" sketch starring William Shatner. The latter is undoubtedly the Genesis Project for the whole enterprise (wow, two references for the price of one!) Not only does it set up what I wanted to accomplish with this script, but it was also a turning point for Shatner himself. This was when he reinvented himself, understanding that he knew he was the butt of many a joke and now he was in on it too. He could make fun of himself and do it better. Oh yeah, he was Captain Kirk but now he became in full caps WILLIAM SHATNER and he never left. Therefore the victim of my murder mystery just had to be the William Shatner character. It was like MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. Who killed Richard Widmark? Everybody! That's the spirit I wanted to convey. Who wants to kill Wislon Chadwick? Everybody! Hopefully, not the audience too.

The icing on this cupcake was that when I wrote in Shatner's voice, in his cadence and his goofy sensibilities, I had as much fun as I ever had creating a character. I love this guy and sure hope that it shows. I had some struggles concerning the passing of Leonard Nimoy that I wrote about earlier this year. (See blog post:  HIGHLY ILLOGICAL) Some of the other characters proved a bit more difficult to put together, but fortunately not Dewey Osgood, the host of Imaginacon who turns out to be the hero of the piece. I based Dewey on comedian Patton Oswalt, a kindred spirit and King of All Geeks. Patton's recent book SILVER SCREEN FIEND is a fantastic movie memoir, not unlike my own IN THE DARK but light years beyond in both style and substance. Carrie Fisher who has had a long gestating and ridiculous feud with William Shatner is obviously the model for Carrie Fishwich. Majel Barrett is Gene Roddenberry's widow, but I based her character on the role she played as Deanna Troi's mother on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. And I paid homage to Portland home-girl Katee Sackhoff's BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA Starbuck persona for Nirvana Nightengale.

Thanks to producer Melanie Roady of Mel O'Drama Theater for giving me another shot after last year's PERILS OF FRANCOIS. Recently Mel accepted the position of Executive Producer of the theater at Events on 3rd in Nashville. Good on her.  And a big shout-out to director Andy Johnson who played Pierre Perrier in FRANCOIS and another fellow geek, a perfect fit for this show. Finally to a cast that I'll not only never meet but never see perform my work in front of a (hopefully) live audience, I can only say in the grand tradition of theater...break a leg.

For myself, I'll hoist a toast on opening night from across the country. Here's to another original script under my belt. This is also the fourth production of one of my plays this year, one more than 2014. I would have had five, but the theater that had scheduled the show met with some very hard times, a result of the recent flooding in South Carolina. I wish them and everyone back there the very best.

It's been two years since I was first contacted by the Great American Melodrama to have one of my scripts performed which has led to this sudden resurgence as a playwright. It appears that the third act of my life I've been searching for is one that I'm writing myself. Imagine that.

So beam me up, Scotty. Oh, wait. That's me.


MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER IS NOW AVAILABLE AT OFF THE WALL PLAYS

Performance rights are available!

For info about my other scripts or even if you just want to send me a mash note (look it up, young 'un),
please e-mail me at: writenbysc@gmail.com

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