Double Boot Weekend

Happy Anniversary to me!

For the last five years, I have had the great fortune to have scripts that I have written, those in the genre of melodrama and interactive murder mystery, produced with the theater companies across the great US of A.
This year is no exception (hence the 5 year anniversary-DUH) with two separate shows playing on the very same weekend.

First up (because they were first in line and had dibs) is the Rio Linda Elverta Community Theater in Rio Linda, California is presenting the *CALIFORNIA PREMIERE* of MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER on June 22 and 23 as a dinner theater presentation just as it first began. This is also the fifth production of this show, formerly known as STAR TRUCK: THE WRATH OF COMIC-CON. (see previous blog post:  BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY)


Next up, Mt. Vernon Community Theatre in Mt. Vernon, Missouri will produce the one and only melodrama LA RUE'S RETURN or HOW'S A BAYOU?, written by Edward Thorpe and myself, on June 22, 23, and 24 as, get this, kids, a *READER'S THEATER* presentation,  a first for this here melo. (I'm getting a little wonky wit these asterisks, eh?) This is also the second production out of California AND the second in Missouri.. We're apparently hot stuff in the Show Me state. (More about LA RUE, see previous post: THE RETURN OF LA RUE'S RETURN)

The significance of the boots filled with beer is a tradition I started five years back when my step-daughter Tracey bought me a souvenir boot mug when she and my granddaughter Kardena saw my show SONG OF THE CANYON KID at the Great American Melodrama Theater in Oceano, CA where my five year run began in 2014. Since then, whenever a show of mine goes on the boards, I fill the mug with a delicious, frothy and special selection beer of choice and toast the theater in question on their opening night. This time around, I'll toast RLECT on Friday night, Mt. Vernon CT on Saturday. A two-fer.

I am humbled and extremely grateful to each and every one of the fine theater companies and groups that have produced my work over the past half decade. If this it, then it's been a great ride. If not, then the boot gets re-filled and I shall drink a toast the next theater once again.

CHEERS!
And to Rio Linda Elverta Community Theater and Mt. Vernon Community Theatre...
THANK YOU
and most of all...
BREAK A LEG!

Perfromance rights are available for LA RUE'S RETURN and MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER.
For more information or to read excerpts from either scripts or any other o' mine for that matter, visit my website WRITTEN BY SCOTT CHERNEY 
You can also contact me directly (unless you are an Ethiopian prince) at:
writtensc@gmail.com

Carrie On

Show of hands...
Who wants Death to take a holiday already?
Madre de dios, no sooner do we lose Carrie Fisher then we lose her mother, Debbie Reynolds the very next day?

2016's been a brutal year for celebrities, but I'm not about to do an In Memoriam post here. Leave it to the award shows, which are all running long this next year. What happened to the theory of  3? This year, it seems like they're dying in lots of 30.

The grief we feel over these icons, big and small, has only compounded the pain we've been feeling the entire 12 months...and every year that has led up to it. It make one want to shout:

"When are we going to be able to put something in the win column?"
But we have. Get a little perspective, would ya?
And for crying out loud, which you seem to be doing more often than not, stop being so goddamn over-sensitive? It ain't helping matters.
For example, when Carrie died this last week, Cinnabon posted this tweet that got underwear in a twist all around unsocial media.

The fact that it would have amused Carrie is beside the point.
It's YOUR feelings that matter.
(Portland's Voodoo Doughnuts also offered their salute to Princess Leia)
Then Steve Martin made some innocuous, but still heart-felt tweet of his own.

And people lost their minds all over again.
D.L. Hughley was next with this remark after Debbie kicked.

And Steve was able to get out of the line of fire so that D.L. could get lambasted.
That Twitter is the Devils Playground, people. Maybe there should be a Too Soon filter.
But before you get all crazy for much ado 'bout nuttin', know this.
Carrie Fisher wanted her own obituary to read that she "drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra."
Many outlets published it and I'm sure were drug over the coals.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/carrie-fishers-witty-memoir-showed-9524618

I myself used Carrie and William Shatner's feud as fodder for my 2015 murder mystery comedy STAR TRUCK-THE WRATH OF COMIC-CON (since re-titled MURDER-THE FINAL FRONTIER), which premiered with the Mel O'Drama Theater company in Nashville. I called my character Carrie Fishwich (oh, clever boy), described as a boozy, blowsy writer/actress who became a suspect in the murder of Star Truck star Wilson Chadwick. A second company in Colorado had offered to stage a second production this next summer, but that was before Carrie's heart attack. What now? It's up to them, of course. When I completed the first draft of the script, Leonard Nimoy bought the farm and the show went on as promised six months later. Should this continue after the demise of Princess Leia? Sure. Why the hell not? It's a parody. A spoof. A poke in the ribs. It's comedy. She understood it. So should everyone else.

2016 seemed to be a non-stop pummeling from beginning until end. People are understandably very touchy because we're all battered and bruised. Even those who won in 2016 are too sore to complete a victory lap.We lost a lot, including some beloved icons and several favorites right up until the every end. (It's currently 2pm PST...hang on everybody!) But most of what we're feeling is misplaced anger. Put it in the right direction, kids. It hurts everyone when your aim is off. It's called collateral damage.

Take a deep breath, world.

If it means anything, I wish you...and me... a Happy New Year.

And believe it or not, I say this in all sincerity:

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

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.

Two Finger Salute

In the words of Leon Russell, "Don't get hung up about Easter."  

This has never been one of my favorite holidays. I'm not religious, the buffets suck ass and I'm just not into pastel colors. Maybe my disdain for this holiday goes back to my childhood.

We had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard of my cousin's house. I found the golden egg. This meant I got the special prize: My very own goldfish and a little can of fish food. We put him a bowl of his own when we got home and before I went to bed, I told him,

"When you live with me, you're gonna eat good." (Don't correct my grammar. I was six.)

I then turned the can of food upside and emptied at least a third of it into the bowl. The next morning, he was floating at the top of the bowl sideways. DOA. I wanted to name him Floaty, but I ended up flushing him instead. 

Fast forward to this Easter Sunday 2016, I hereby make the following proclamation. The interactive murder-mystery formerly known as THE PERILS OF FRANCOIS will officially known from this day forward as DEAD TUESDAY. (see previous blog post). This joins SONG OF THE CANYON KID (aka LONE PRAIRIE) as I reboot these projects for more exposure and marketability. Lastly, I have decided to change STAR TRUCK: THE WRATH OF COMIC-CON to MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER for the same reasons. The other plays-LA RUE'S RETURN and THE LEGEND OF THE ROGUE remain the same with no other title changes in the works. I've had to do this with a long gestating project that originally had the name CHEAP THRILLS. As the years have gone by, some have other books and movies with same moniker (and similar plot devises...ughhh....) have popped up and basically gone away. Still I felt the need to convert this to a new 'un and golly gosh if it hasn't given me the gumption to actually get back to work and complete this 'afore I'm daid in the ground.  There are couple of more plays in the works too, one I finished a major re-write this last weekend and another down the line, so stay glued to your screens for these announcements. No. Seriously. Glued. 

This post was partially created usually voice to text technology which I am hoping will be an important tool in my immediate future. What keeps me from being more prolific as I should be is that I am one of the world's slowest typists. The creation of all of my works have been with two fingers. Yes, I still write in long-hand as well. I have dozens of notebooks from over the years that need to be transcribed in order for me to continue. I need all the help I can get and the clock is ticking. As it stands now, if I lose the use of either of my fingers for any reason, I am totally sca-rewed. Hopefully, nobody will punch me in the nose. (Wait for it)

Well, I've got eggs to open. Hopefully, I got some panty hose this year. 

Goddamn it, I'm old. And I still miss Floaty.

For more info about my plays, please visit my website WRITTEN BY SCOTT CHERNEY or my Facebook author also known as WRITTEN BY SCOTT CHERNEY because I am basically a one trick pony. (No, I'm not interested in a little pony play. The bridle is always too tight.)

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