The Canyon Kid Meets Cactus Jack Corona

Theatre Suburbia', rockin' the meme

Like the true blue western hero he is, The Canyon Kid rides into Houston, Texas to help the good folks of Theatre Suburbia battle against the meanest, orneriest desperado of them all-Cactus Jack Corona!

I've made no secret of the gratitude I feel about the success I've had in the past six years with my play writing with productions across the country. It's still bewildering to me that someone-ANYONE-would want to produce my work. This isn't false humility speaking and I'm not looking for platitudes, though if you have any, feel free to throw them in my direction.

With this here pandemic, things have ground to a halt. Theaters have closed their doors, auditoriums are empty, stages are collecting dust and theater folk are getting sick and tired of Charades. "It's HAMILTON already!"

I've wanted to give back to the theater community in some form or another to give thanks for what I've been able to achieve with their help. I wrote a post a couple of months back (CURTAIN CALLS) in an attempt to throw my support behind those who have produced my shows and theater in general.
But I wanted to do more.

About a month ago, Elvin Moriarty from Theatre Suburbia in Houston, Texas, contacted me to ask if I would allow them to show the filmed production of THE SONG OF THE CANYON KID on their website as a fund-raiser. Mine wouldn't be the only play, but it would be one of the first. Naturally, I said yes. (If I said no, that would be just wrong)

So starting this weekend, you can view the Theatre Suburbia production of SONG OF THE CANYON KID or POEM ON THE RANGE at:

http://new.theatresuburbia.org/

Check out my show as well as Paulette MacDougall's SHARDS OF LOVE and please give them a donation in return. This 60 year old theater's survival is in the balance. Listen to my friend Elvin and President of the Board Elvin Moriarty's message and you'll see what I mean. Theatre Suburbia was cut off at the knees, only days away from their production of DADDY'S DYIN'...WHO'S GOT THE WILL? and in the middle of their relocation to a new facility. They need a break, that's for sure.

These are good people who have a passion for theater that transcends this virus. Help them get through this, won't you?

I thank you, Theatre Suburbia thanks you and The Canyon Kid thanks you.

Sunset on the Lone Prairie

It's official.

The melodrama formerly known as SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE will be known from this day forward as SONG OF THE CANYON KID. This coincides with the book of the same name making it all one big happy Canyon Kid family. Just call me Marlon Re-Brando. Next up is the SONG OF THE CANYON KID coloring book, the SONG OF THE CANYON KID action figures and of course, LEGO SONG OF THE CANYON KID which you can curse to the high heavens when you step on one of the pieces in the middle of the night when you're on your way to the can.

This here proclamation o' mine  also arrives just in the nick of time for the next (and last for 2016) production of SOTCK begins July 22 and running through August 27 at Theatre Suburbia in Houston, Texas as what they charmingly refer to as their annual Summer "Mellerdrammer".

THEATRE SUBURBIA WEBSITE

That will make five productions in the past three years. Not bad for a nearly 30 year old property, even though it was almost three decades between the first and second staging of said "classic".

I've chronicled the creation of this script in previous posts, most notably THE CANYON KID RIDES AGAIN,  And quite frankly, it;s been very good for me. It's my best melodrama script and I am completely floored, flattered and absolutely flabbergasted by its success, something I will never take lightly..

But after the 2014 show at the Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville in Oceano where it was named SONG OF THE CANYON KID  for the first time, I wanted to make it a permanent change. I drug my feet because there were theaters that I had submitted the script under its original name and since they has already announce for their seasons, I didn't feel I could change it until after those made their final curtains.

Now I can, have and did. THE LONE PRAIRIE now rides into the sunset. Adios, old friend. Vaya con dios.

To obtain a copy of the script for SONG OF THE CANYON KID in paperback or download, please visit my store.
SCOTT CHERNEY'S STOREFRONT.
You can also find the novelization of said script there as well, not to mention e-books available at
AMAZON, NOOK, I-TUNES and KOBO.

For information about stage rights for SONG OF THE CANYON KID, drop me a line at:
writtenbysc@gmail.com.

Press Press Pull

The recowboybooting of The Song of the Canyon Kid book continues with this here press release.

Be it ever so hostile, there's no place like home.

Such is the hard lesson learned by a singing cowboy's homecoming in Scott Cherney's new western comedy romance novel, Song of the Canyon Kid.

A straight-shooting, guitar strumming buckaroo known as The Canyon Kid returns to Dirt Clod, Missouri only to find his hometown in ruins due to the machinations of a corrupt "hanging" judge. To make matters worse, he discovers that his childhood sweetheart is about to marry his sworn enemy, a ruthless desperado who is not only the town sheriff, but also dead set on framing The Canyon Kid for murder.

"It's a total cartoon," Cherney explains. "I mean the main character is a singing cowboy. When is the last book you hummed? And, in full disclosure, it's also a novelization."

The author adapted his story from his comic melodramatic play entitled Song of the Lone Prairie or Poem on the Range which debuted in 1987 at the late, great Pollardville Palace Showboat Theater in Stockton, California, a production he also directed.

"Pollardville was a magical place," Cherney recalls. "We had a melodrama/vaudeville theater as well as our very own western ghost town on the property where we'd get paid to play cowboy on the weekends. Our duties included robbing the train, engaging in fisticuffs and shooting it out with fellow gunslingers at High Noon. This was the birthplace of The Canyon Kid."

Cherney realizes the stigma of a novelization, but he felt creatively stagnated and needed a writing exercise to get himself in gear. Digging through his old writings, he came across his script for Lone Prairie, a melodrama he considers his best and the culmination of everything he learned at Pollardville.

Adapting it into novel form came fairly easy, fleshing out the characters and story while transposing the stage direction into prose. Soon, it began took on a life of its own.

"I loved revisiting my old characters and giving them back stories like Nastassia Kinky and her brother, Two Gun Boris, the fastest gun this side of the Ukraine. I also made The Kid's horse, Thunder, more of a supporting character. And the love story is something I never I thought I was capable of pulling off, but I feel like I did. Overall I had a blast with this, the most fun I've had with a project since I wrote the original back in the '80's. It certainly helped to rekindle my love for writing.”

Concurrent with the release of Song of the Canyon Kid has been renewed interest in the original source material, the melodrama which has been performed across the United States for the third year in a row. This summer, The Canyon Kid and Co. will riding into two separate productions in Texas. On Memorial Day Weekend, The Brazos Theatre Group in Waco will be the final performances of Song of the Lone Prairie under that title. The same show with the revised title of Song of the Canyon Kid opens this July in Houston’s Theatre Suburbia.

“The Canyon Kid has been very good to me. I hope I’ve returned the favor,” author/playwright  Scott Cherney declares about his creation. “By digging back into my roots, I’ve found that sometimes you have to take step back in order to move forward.”

Song of the Canyon Kid is available in paperback and e-book.

More information can be found at: http://www.scottcherney.com                                                                                           

The Return of the Song of the Canyon Kid

I don't think The Canyon Kid has gotten a fair shot.

Oh, not on stage. That's where he's found his greatest success what with SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE appearing across the US of A on stages in California, Wyoming and this summer in Texas at the Brazos Theatre Group in Waco and Theatre Suburbia in Houston.
.

No, I'm talking about the book SONG OF THE CANYON KID, the novelization I wrote based on the play SONG OF...oh, you know. Therefore, I am relaunching this here western comedy romance o' mine that was originally released back in 2014. I like it. In fact, I am in love with it. If  I wasn't already married, I would make it my wife. Then my exes can get together and sigh a big sigh of relief that they were able to make a clean getaway from the freak that had a sordid affair a book. But that's neither here nor there or anywhere for that matter.

I'm coming up so you better get this party started

To start this rebooting (or recowboybooting, rather) of my Canyon Kid tome, I am making a personal appearance, my first in five years) at the Beaverton City Library's NW Local Author Fair on Saturday, May 21 in Beaverton, Oregon. Of course I won't be the only author in attendance, but I will have ten whole minutes to say a few words, read a passage from SONG OF THE CANYON KID and maybe have enough time to take suggestions from the audience such as "GET OFF THE STAGE!"

So come join me, won't you? I'll be selling copies of SONG OF THE CANYON KID and my true travel tale PLEASE HOLD THUMBS at the table they are providing for me. Bring your family. Bring your friends. Bring your enemies. (That would show 'em.)

Come see the one and only me on the first leg of my farewell tour!

SATURDAY MAY 21 11-2 @ BEAVERTON CITY LIBRARY' NW LOCAL AUTHOR FAIR IN BEAVERTON, OREGON

Those unable to attend this gala can obtain SONG OF THE CANYON KID in paperback at SCOTT CHERNEY'S STOREFRONT  (20% below AMAZON) and on e-book at AMAZON, NOOK, I-TUNES and KOBO.

And for more information about SONG OF THE CANYON KID and to read a free excerpt (or any other of my fine tomes, plays and whatnot), go to my website WRITTEN BY SCOTT CHERNEY

Yin v. Yang: Dawn of Just Us

Mr. Cherney, I've got some good news and I've got some bad news.

Of course you do. That's how you people operate.

You people?


Skip it. What's the good news?


Well, the good news is that for the third year in a row, your plays are being produced in various parts of the country.


That is good news. I'm afraid to ask. What's the bad news?

You know that place you've been living for the past ten years? You're going to have to vacate in 90 days. Your landlords are kicking you to the curb.


Lovely. Just lovely. Looks like I've got the makings of a new melodrama.

Such is the year 2016 for your humble narrator, a shit storm with patches of intermittent sunbursts. This recent life development has made us just another goddamn casualty of the housing market feeding frenzy that's tearing up the greater Portland metro area and rest of the formerly free world. Our landlords ambushed us with the news that they have decided to put our home sweet home on the market this summer. A Seller's Market in this economy should be a good thing, but not for the flotsam and jetsam in this society that we suddenly find ourselves to be. One shouldn't really begrudge them this golden opportunity after the housing crisis, but this has created another housing crisis as a result: OURS. So I'm summoning up some old Hungarian black magic and putting a curse of this joint when we walk out the door for the last time, probably involving bleeding walls.On second thought, I'll wait until we got they return our deposit.

We're not alone in our currently miserable situation. Truth to tell, we could have gotten 30 days notice instead of 90 as so many have, but rent prices have skyrocketed and the rules of the game have been rigged against us...and apparently everyone else trying to find a place to live. In most scenarios, rental applicants must have income three times the rental price of even the dumpiest of dumps. The long slog of searching for the new Casa de Cherney continues on for forty days and forty nights with parking and burning bush available for an additional fee. But hey, everyone wants to show you their lovely clubhouse and fitness center, neither one you allowed to move into even though they make the actual living space a spider hole in comparison. Then there's the fluctuating rents that are up, down, flying around like the stock market so that what was quoted today will be another story entirely tomorrow even if it is a day away.

The initial anger over the whole situation hasn't diminished much, even with the brave face I am using to mask my true feelings. Soon panic will set in and that's never a good thing. The rug has pulled pulled out from under my wife and I, uncovering an open trap door on a Wile E. Coyote cliff over The Dreaded Depths of Despair. It won't be long before we start standing at freeway exits with cardboard signs that read: WILL WORK FOR RENTAL APPLICATION FEES

It's all so overwhelming and all encompassing, not to mention the fact that it is occurring at an extremely inopportune moment in time. (I don't know, kid. When exactly would be a  more convenient time to get tossed out in the snow on your ass by Mr. and Mrs. Snidely Whiplash?)  This prolific period of creativity I find myself in (aka The Final Push) is getting side-lined by this mess and the pause button is working overtime, adding to my frustration, stress levels and ever looming depression. But I'll be damned if I'm going to let this become another lame excuse for procrastination. The iron's hot and so am I. Not just under the collar either.

What's really keeping me afloat, besides the love of my life who is in the same rapidly sinking ship with me and the support of my family, is my continuing good fortune with my plays. No sooner did the StageCoach Theatre Company production of DEAD TUESDAY end that the Brazos Theatre Group in Waco, Texas agreed to produce SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE over Memorial Day weekend. That will be the last time the show will go under that title for in July, Theatre Suburbia in Houston, Texas (a Lone Star two-fer!) had agreed to stage the same show under that thar other title, SONG OF THE CANYON KID as their summer mellerdrammer (their word, not mine.) This will be the name of that particular script going forward and I begin a re-branding process I should have started a year ago.

On top of all that, I am relaunching the novelization of SONG OF THE CANYON KID at Northwest Local, the Beaverton City Library's local author fair on May 21. I'll be doing a reading, selling my wares and try not to think about what freeway underpass I may be sleeping under soon. Gotta keep my pecker up for that. (No, not that one.) Stiff upper lip and all that rot. It ain't easy. My mouth is cramping.

In the midst of this chaos, it's tough to gain perspective, but I think I have a handle on it, though my grip is slippery thanks to my sweaty palms.

I reckon I've been on the carousel for too long. It's a pleasant enough ride traveling in circles, not without its ups and downs if you decide to hop on a pony.But if you choose to sit in the swan, you can sit back and allow the passing world lull you into submission. And there lies the problem. The merry-go-round can lull you into a false sense of security, dulling your senses and ultimately making you the one thing you can't afford to be in today's world: vulnerable. And when you're yanked off the carousel and thrust into the driver's seat of a bumper car and discover the steering wheel is missing, forcing you to get out and hitchhike. Wait until you get on the roller coaster. Some of the tracks are missing.

You know what? I'm sick of this goddamn carnival. The rides suck, the games are rigged and the hot dog on a stick has splinters. It's time to shake it off, regain our footing and quit acting like victims. We ain't down and out, but we have been knocked for a loop by a sucker punch out of nowhere. But we're gonna keep a'comin'. We're the people that live. They can't wipe us out. They can't lick us. We'll go on forever 'cuz we're the people!

Oh boy. I've turned into Ma Joad. But I'm okay with that. I can go all Howard Beale too. That's a righteous combination in my book. More importantly, I gotta be me. I'm dead serious when I say that this is Cherney's Last Stand and I'll be damned if I'm going let this get in my way . There's no way in Heaven, Hell or Hillsboro that this thing is over yet.

It's yin and yang, yang and yin. If it ain't yin, it's yang, vice versa and simultaneously. They seem to be on equal footing at the moment, which at least allows me some semblance of balance in this mine field. Then again, this could all very well be a knockdown, drag-out fight for the ownership of my soul. But I'm not going to stand on the sidelines while it all goes down. I'm throwing down the gauntlet myself and declaring this triple threat match because I'm stepping back into the ring.

In the words of Yogi Berra, Lenny Kravitz and the fat lady getting ready to sing at the opera, it ain't over 'til it's over.