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