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!

No, But Thank YOU!

Now comes the time of year where we actually acknowledge those things in our lives for which we are indeed grateful because, Heaven forfend, we should do it a daily basis to counter-balance the seemingly endless avalanche of horrible stuff 'n nonsense we also have to contend with in this, what used to be known as the best of all possible worlds.

(Whew! At this age, even run-on sentences wear me out!)

As always, I am eternally thankful to win the life lottery with the family and friends that I have in this lifetime. I would say that it goes without saying, but they humble me into welcome submission every time. As time passes like a bullet train, I will proclaim love for my family until my dying breath. As for my friends, I still cherish our time together and long for more even as it becomes more impossible logistically.

As for my recent success with my plays, (alas, so much more lucrative than my books) my unprecedented fourth year has wrapped up this past Halloween. SONG OF THE CANYON KID was the grand finale of the summer melodrama program at the Mantorville Theatre Company in Minnesota, a group I had been trying to get my work into long before I began this journey. DEAD TUESDAY, my initial murder mystery featuring the inimitable froggy bon vivant Francois Fibian, got another run, this time in Illinois. And MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER received an amazing three separate productions in the aforementioned Illinois as well as with the San Luis Valley Theatre Company in Fort Garland, Colorado and Brickstreet Players in Clovis, New Mexico. That breaks my personal best of five productions in four different states.

It came with a price, though.

I discovered that THE FINAL FRONTIER had been staged without my knowledge or permission at the same time it was being presented in New Mexico. I had been following up with some theaters that I had sent my script by checking their websites or Facebook pages when lo and behold, what do I see?       MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER went on-and off-the boards the week before, exactly at the same time as the Brickstreet Players production on the other side of the country. It was then and there that I discovered the true meaning of the term "gob-smacked". The weird part was that the guilty party was a company that had produced DEAD TUESDAY earlier that year. The producer had read the script and expressed an interest in an October show, but didn't firm up any dates with me so I moved on to other matters. When I read about the show, all I could think was "Oh, no. Not again."

Submitting scripts to theaters can be dicey. Sometimes they respond, sometimes they don't. One can only hope they will do the honorable thing and not rip off the playwright especially since, gee whiz, it's against the law. I have to be extra vigilant by following up with those I've submitted to and checking their websites just in case something happens.

And, gosh darn it to heck, things do happen.

In the year 2000, a friend of mine congratulated me on the production LA RUE'S RETURN at the Gaslight Theater in Campbell, CA. I said, "Thank you. Wait a minute...WHAT????!!!" In the late 1980s, I had submitted this script to the Gaslight and never heard from them, even supplying them with SASE (look it up, kids) to return it upon rejection. They didn't. Instead, they tore off the title page that included the authors' names and scribbled the incorrect name THE RETURN OF LA RUE at the top of the next. Then they tossed into a box with a bunch of other scripts. Someone dug it out years later and said "Hey! Here's a melodrama we can do for free!". And so they did. I contacted my best friend, Ed Thorpe, who originated LA RUE and brought me on as a co-author, and he, understandably, hit the proverbial ceiling. Ed tore after the Gaslight like a rabid wolverine on meth and, thanks to his efforts, got us a nice settlement as well as, since the production was in full swing, an apology to the both of us enclosed in each and every program until its final curtain.

Cut to 2015 when MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER, then known as STAR TRUCK: THE WRATH OF COMIC-CON, was about to head into its first production with Mel O'Drama Theater in Nashville when another theater that I had solicited was about to do the very same show at their dinner theater in South Carolina without consent, written, verbal or even a nod of the head from me. But this time I didn't have a lift a finger since the long arm of the law slammed the door on this establishment and shut down the show before it opened. Oh, it wasn't for my benefit. It seems the owner/producer of this operation had sex with a 14 year old, who had been in one of his shows and could very well have been cast in mine. Said offender got caught with his pants down and, unfortunately, has since started another theater, though he could very well go into politics if recent events are any indication.

So I dodged another bullet until this year with the same damn show. When I contacted the producer, I got a string of apologies and a promise to pay what was owed. (My friend Ed thought I should charge them double for my trouble but I balked at that...this time) It was resolved in less than a week to clear up and the matter was settled. I won't mention the name of the group because they are going out of business at the end of this year and there's no reason for me to drag them through the mud. Strangely enough, all three of these violating theaters closed soon after their infractions, or in the case of the producer of the Pedophilia Follies in South Carolina, just before.

What still rankles me about this recent near-screw job, other than the obvious infraction, is that 5 shows in one year is a real accomplishment for me. As an independent playwright, I am marketing and soliciting my work all by my lonesome self, always on the look-out for anyone that will will want to put my babies on the boards. I am into this full time. It's like panning for gold and I have the nuggets to show for all my efforts. When I get the go ahead from a theater company, I have a tradition I perform every opening night. I have a glass boot, a gift from my step-daughter Tracey when she saw SONG OF THE CANYON KID at the Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville in in Oceano, CA. When a show opens, I fill the boot with a special craft beer and toast the theater as well as myself for the major personal victory it most certainly is. Unfortunately, I got robbed of that with this last show. I know, I know. Poor little me. But to have any score at all in the win column to is that spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down. It's the balance that keeps me from falling over the edge, in the same manner my family and friends do as I mentioned above.

So much for all that spilt milk It's high time I put this behind  me and hoist one high in the air  to celebrate the five shows I have been fortunate to have produced in 2017 and to salute these fine theaters I have been honored to be associated with this year :


MANTORVILLE THEATRE COMPANY

SAN LUIS VALLEY THEATRE COMPANY

BRICKSTREET PLAYERS

SUGAR HIGH THEATRICALS

Cheers to you, one and all.

As for the rest of you, Happy Thanksgiving. As we usually say at Christmas, why can't we act this way all year long?

The Canyon Kid's Summer Vacation

For the unprecedented (for me, anyway) FOURTH year in a row, my melodrama, Song of the Canyon Kid, is now playing at a theater near you, provided of course that you live in the southeastern part of Minnesota.

The Mantorville Theatre Company is running the saga of The Canyon Kid from August 18 through September 9, the last of their annual melodrama summer series. I am tickled pink to have my show on their stage. When I began sending the script out after the Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville Theater decided to produce it, the first since its initial Pollardville run, I researched other similar theaters across the country. One of the names that kept coming up was the Mantorville Theatre Co. So, I reached out to them and was graciously rejected with the the encouraging postscript to try again the next year. So I did. And I did. And I did. lo and behold, the fourth time was the charm. A Mantorville angel named Melisa Ferris guided me through all this, putting up with me every single time  and helping The Canyon Kid to ride into Minnesota at long last.

The Mantorville Theatre Co. cast of Song of the Canyon Kid

This is the grand finale for my shows this year (unless somebody contacts me at the last minute for a late fall/early winter production of ... anything!) Dead Tuesday and Murder:The Final Frontier racked up some performances earlier this year in territories my plays have never been with Sugar High Theatricals in Illinois and the
San Luis Valley Theatre Company in Colorado. Along with the Mantorville Theatre Company in Minnesota, I am conquering the USA one state at a time. At least that's what I keep telling myself. (I know it's actually only one theater at a time, but whuddayagonnado? I could claim Egypt too since I'm also in denial.)

As I do with every opening night of my shows, I break out the glass boot mug my stepdaughter Tracey bought for me and fill it with a special frothy beverage. I then hoist it in the air and toast whatever theater is showcasing my work. This is going to be a two-fer toast. I most certainly salute the Mantorville Theatre Company, but since my beverage of choice is Dale's Pale Ale from Colorado, I tip my hat in total gratitude to my family in Denver where we  recently spent a fine family reunion/vacation. I love you guys with all my heart. This two events together made this a summer to remember.

Cheers!

For more info about Song of the Canyon Kid, please visit my website:
WRITTEN BY SCOTT CHERNEY

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.