Leftovers and Then Some

As it rains Bengal tigers and Great Danes on this mid autumn Oregonian evening, I have some catching up to do. If I were to say "Here goes nothing", you have every right to turn this off right now. Instead, I'll press on like a cheap fake fingernail.

Not since Twin Peaks has there been a TV series right up Cherney alley like HBO's The Leftovers. I got hooked on this during a late summer vacay to Denver, though I only caught the first season, but this damn thing haunted me from the moment I feasted my eyes and brains upon it. Based on Tom Perotta's novel, this odd duck of a program about the aftermath of what could or could not have been The Rapture is everything I want in a show and more. At turns weird, dramatic, satirical, touching, maddening, funny, brutal, confusing and most of all melancholy, The Leftovers owes its success in my eyes to not several people. Naturally it begins with Perotta's source material, but enough cannot be said for the Herculean efforts of showrunner Damon Lindelof. The cast is absolutely magnificent with not a sour apple in the whole crazy bunch-Justin Theroux, Carrie Coon, Amy Brennerman, my new girlfriend Ann Dowd and a career topping performance by Scott Glenn. I fell so madly in love with this, I headed to my nearest library for season two as soon as I returned from Colorado, then got HBO for a month for the grand fiinale. Totally worth it.

I've had a hankerin' (no g required) for some New Orleans fare for many a year. I don't know if I'll ever get

to that part of the world, but I've craved some of the delectable cuisine to the point that I considered running away with the circus until Ringling Brothers went out of business and Cirque du Soleil said "Non!" Anyway, I got my wish when my stepson Matt treated my wife and I to an evening at Acadia, a New Orleans bistro here in Portland. Oh cher, this was some good eatin' (again, sans g).

The barbecue shrimp starter about did me in as I dipped my bread in its devious broth of butter, pepper, lemon and white wine, filling me to the point that I was almost too stuffed for the entree. But I roughed it with an amazing jambalaya. My wife went for a soft shell blue crab and crawfish etoufee while Matt dug into a nice fat pork chop that would choke your mama if she had trouble chewin'. (no g spot here neither) Dessert was a bread pudding from heaven with a sauce to die for which justified the heaven reference. Top this off with some delicious (and potent) bar beverages and four star customer service, Acadia gave us the best dining experience in years.

I had the good fortune of having yet another theater group tackle one of my scripts, Murder: The Final Frontier. The Brickstreet Players of Clovis, New Mexico came in right after Song of the Canyon Kid closed in Minnesota to announce their desire to produce said murder mystery this October, making it the second production of this show this year. And it went right back to its roots as a Halloween offering. So thank you to Brickstreet as well as the Mantorville Theatre Company, San Luis Valley Theater Company and Sugar High Theatricals for a great year.

That's four shows in four different states. This is like the Electoral College. I could get elected this way.

2 Legit 2 Quit

The Star Truck Innerthighs flies again!

In this, the fourth year of establishing myself as an independent playwright, an uphill road to say the very least, I had three very special surprises that keep the fires stoked when the flames begin to flicker.

First off, Melanie Delbridge of Sugar High Theatricals in Galesburg, Illinois contacted me after finding DEAD TUESDAYon my  online storefront and wished to produce it, appropriately enough, on Fat Tuesday back in February. Alas, the date was postponed and rescheduled for April, adding two additional performances. First off, finding the play to begin with harkens back to what began this whole process for me when The Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville discovered SONG OF THE CANYON KID back in 2012. After that, I met my angel and another Mel, Melanie Roady of Mel O'Drama Theater who commissioned me to pen my first murder mystery, THE PERILS OF FRANCOIS, a play I have since re-named DEAD TUESDAY, thanks to another angel, producer Jerri Wiseman of StageCoach Theatre.

Secondly, producer/director Roscoe of the San Luis Valley Theatre Company of Fort Garland, Colorado will present the second production of STAR TRUCK: THE WRATH OF COMIC-CON under its brand spanking new title MURDER-THE FINAL FRONTIER on the first weekend of June. Activate fist pump sequence...NOW!

If one of my plays is produced, I am obviously over the moon. However, I am in this for the long haul and prefer that these are not one night stands. In my insecure mind, one production is a fluke, but a second time around makes it legitimate. For example, SONG OF THE CANYON KID had its premiere at the late and legendary Palace Showboat Theatre in 1986. Once I put the script out there by self-publishing it, the second production did not occur until over 25 years later. The vindication for DEAD TUESDAY happened last year, two years after its initial offering. Now MURDER-THE FINAL FRONTIER becomes legit two years later as well.

Just to wrap this all up in a pretty bow, SONG OF THE CANYON KID will be the last production in series of melodramas this summer at the Mantorville Theatre Company in Minnesota, a group I have been soliciting every year since I first began marketing my plays. But thanks to Mantorville's Melisa Ferris pushing this through, my persistence-and pestering-has paid off.

There seems to be something about women named Mel that must transform them into theater angels. As for Jerri and Roscoe, I may have to call you Mel too. After all, who knows for whom the Mel tolls. It tolls for me.

On that note, I'll just exit, stage right.

Like these theater companies on Facebook, wouldja?
SUGAR HIGH THEATRICALS 
SAN LUIS VALLEY THEATRE COMPANY
MANTORVILLE THEATRE COMPANY
STAGECOACH THEATRE COMPANY
MEL O'DRAMA THEATER

For more info about my plays, please visit SCOTT CHERNEY'S STOREFRONT or my website
WRITTEN BY SCOTT CHERNEY

See also: BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY

Murder: The Final Frontier

I'm nothing if not flexible. (Well, some will agree with the first part of that sentence. The second part is no longer possible. Damn you, Father Time!)

Earlier this year, the StageCoach Theatre Co. produced my interactive murder mystery THE PERILS OF FRANCOIS (you know, the froggy play set in New Orleans I penned a couple of years back) with the stipulation that they could change the title to something more marketable. Producer Jerri Wiseman came up with DEAD TUESDAY. I had no problem doing so, especially since I was in the process of altering my melodrama SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE to SONG OF THE CANYON KID to coincide with the book o' the same name.In fact, I liked DEAD TUESDAY so much, I made the change permanent. (Thanks again, Jerri.)

I went next to my second murder mystery, STAR TRUCK: THE WRATH OF COMIC-CON first produced last October in Nashville, TN with the Mel O'Drama Theater . The title is an okay pun that has probably been done to death elsewhere (I haven't checked. Too depressing if it's true. I'm very sensitive.) I went instead with MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER, a rather obvious choice but a boy's gotta do what he's gotta do. (I have no idea what that means) 

And the plot remains the same...

BOLDLY GO WHERE NO MURDER HAS GONE BEFORE! At a sci-fi convention reunion of the cult TV series STAR TRUCK, there is only one question on everyone's lips: Who killed Captain Kork? Could it be First Officer Mr. Spark? Maybe it's Carrie Fishwich, the blowsy actress from the rival franchise, STAR BOARS? And that alien over there...is that a raygun in its pocket or it just glad to see me? MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER is an interactive, intergalactic murder mystery comedy play with a cast of 3M/3F. Perfect for dinner or community theater audiences.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

DEWEY OSGOOD-Organizer and host of Imaginacon, geek extraordinaire and proud of it.  Finds himself in the unenviable position of solving the murder, though he discovers his inner super-hero as a result.

WILSON CHADWICK-The one and only Captain James T. Curt of the Star Freighter Innerthighs from the cult TV show STAR TRUCK. He is brash, over-bearingly charming with a voracious appetite for life and everything else for that matter. Considers himself the center of the universe with everyone else as satellites orbiting about him.

JEAN RODDENREEL-Widow of STAR TRUCK creator/producer Dean Roddenreel. Hollywood royalty in exile (and denial) with champagne tastes on a beer budget. Had an illicit love affair with Chadwick during the run of the series that produced a long-lost off-spring.

LEON PORTNOY-The inimitable Mr. Spark, forever type-cast as first officer of the Innerthighs and second banana to Wilson Chadwick which has made him bitter beyond belief. Now works as Jean Roddenreel’s man servant.

CARRIE FISHWICH-Longtime nemesis of Chadwick, co-star of rival franchise STAR BOARS. Loose cannon with a hair trigger who blames Chadwick for all her personal failures. Social media maniac.

ALIEN-Supposed STAR TRUCK fan who may or may not be of this world, until Chadwick’s murder when it is revealed this she is actually rising starlet and current geek icon (with attitude to spare) NIRVANA NIGHTENGALE, star of the hit TV series BATTLESTAR GALLIFREY

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

Performance rights are available!

And to read excerpts from my other scripts and/or books (including RED ASPHALT and SONG OF THE CANYON KID), please go to my website
WRITTEN BY SCOTT CHERNEY

Y'know, I heard that HAMLET was originally named THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A DANE. So, if re-titling was good enough for Bill Shakespeare, it's good enough for me.