Where No Murder Has Gone Before

Each performance SOLD OUT!

The Star Truck Innerthighs flies again!

This past week I discovered that my interactive murder mystery comedy MURDER-THE FINAL FRONTIER had been produced in April of this year by CAST Plays of Douglasville, Georgia. Naturally, any theater group doing my show is a cause for celebration. However, since I am used to marketing my work all by lonesome self, I usually get the heads up before it goes on the boards. Since this particular play, as well as two others-ROXANNE OF THE ISLANDS and LEGEND OF THE ROGUE, have been published as well handling the licensing of said scripts by Off the Wall Plays, I don't get to learn of their productions until after the fact.

Das Boot

Not that I'm complaining, mind you. It just sets me a little off-balance since there is a tradition that I'd still like to maintain after starting it 9 years ago. It began when my step-daughter Tracey attended a performance my show SONG OF THE CANYON KID at the Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville Theatre in Oceano, California. She bought me a souvenir glass mug in the shape of a boot to commemorate the event. Since then, I fill that same glass boot with a frothy beverage of my choice (take a wild guess what kind) on the opening night of one of my plays and toast whichever theater company has staged that particular show. 

CAST Cast of Murder-The Final Frontier

Well, this past Saturday night, I broke out the boot again and hoisted it in the air once again to salute CAST Plays, albeit posthumously. Three months later, in fact, but la-de-dah. Another successful mission for the crew of the Star Truck Innerthighs!

Capt. Imaginacon to the rescue!

The posts on CAST Plays Facebook page were filled with lotsa production pics which are scattered about here as well as some really sweet comments about my show, calling it "perhaps the most absurdly funny show I've been involved with in my decades with CAST." Not only that, but apparently each and every performance was sold out. Yowza!

Once again, I am sending my thanks all the way to Douglasville, Georgia and the cast and crew of MURDER-THE FINAL FRONTIER. That's another notch on my phaser.

Wilson Chadwick AKA Captain Kork

MURDER-THE FINAL FRONTIER is available from OFF THE WALL PLAYS. Please visit them for a free script preview as well as information of production rights. 

 

Also available form OFF THE WALL:

ROXANNE OF THE ISLANDS or THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SARONG 

and LEGEND OF THE ROGUE or MASK ME NO QUESTIONS

A Frog Blog

Way back in the last decade (seems like yesterday, eh?), I started sending out my melodrama scripts once again in hopes of someone, ANYONE, wanting to produce either SONG OF THE CANYON KID or LA RUE'S RETURN on their stage. Sho' nuff, luck smiled down upon me and a couple of theaters took the bait. I felt like I was on a roll and dove headlong into my role as Independent Playwright, a title I gave myself since I couldn't get my work published. Well, fooey to youey, play publishers. I'll do it myself so NYAH! (so bleedin' mature, ain't I?)

One establishment I contacted was actually named Mel O'Drama Theater located in Nashville and son of a gun if I didn't get a bite. Melanie Roady, the owner/operator/namesake of M O'D had particular interest in LA RUE, but after reading it decided it didn't fit her particular format. You see, her group specializes in interactive murder mysteries, something I would have known if I had only read the website instead of taking the name at face value. What do you want from me? If I go to Barney's Beanery, I expect to see beans on the menu, not cupcakes.

However, Mel had a proposition for me. Would I like to try my hand at one of her shows based on her outline? Oh and by the way, the main character is a frog who solves the crime.

"Why sure," I agreed. "Wait a hippity-hoppity second here...a frog? A frog frog? Is this a Muppet murder mystery? Oh, a frog man. Like a scuba diver. Nooo...a man with frog-like characteristics. Okayyyyy...."

Francois is a character created in a series of paintings by artist Jann Harrison who also resides in Nashville. Jann has conceived a whole mythology that go along with each piece she's painted. So Francois is a suave, debonair bon vivant who is, to use her words, "a man in transition".
 http://www.jannharrison.com/

I agreed to pen a script but I was under a very tight deadline and the challenge itself proving rather daunting. Murder mysteries are not my first love and red herrings do not sit well in my tummy tum tum. Then to transform this man-frog, frog-man, lily pad lover to the stage and make him palatable as a main character was just icing on the fish cake.

What prompted me to continue was that the story was set in New Orleans, the same setting for LA RUE.which is what interested the producer in the first place. I'm crazy in love with the culture an lore of  N'Awlins, so I added Mardi Gras to the storyline as well as a touch of voodoo here and some Cajun spice there.

After two and a half weeks of banging my head against the wall trying to figure out the intricacies of who killed who and with what and how , I turned in a script with two possible endings (different killers for different nights). Challenge accepted, challenge met. 

This gig led me to a follow-up the next year with Mel O'Drama, STAR TRUCK: THE WRATH OF COMIC-CON (now retitled MURDER-THE FINAL FRONTIER) Both shows have been produced by several other theater groups across the country and their subsequent successes I owe totally to Mel Roady, the one and only, a true Theater Angel.

Such is the power of networking. 

And I'm hungry for more

UPDATE: THE PERILS OF FRANCOIS has been re-named DEAD TUESDAY,  thanks to Jerri Wiseman of the StageCoach Theatre Company

DEAD TUESDAY is available at SCOTT CHERNEY'S STORE or to read a free excerpt go to my website WRITTEN BY SCOTT CHERNEY

Performance rights are available. For info, write to me : writtenbysc@gmail.com

Tell 'em Francois sent ya.

The Wrath of Comic-Con

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.

The original cast of Mel O' Drama Theater's production of STAR TRUCK

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

The Legend of the Rogue

 NOTE: Three of the plays written by yours truly have been published by Off the Wall Plays, the third as recently as last month. 

It's a triple play...literally!

My first solo script, written WAY back in the latter part of the 20th century and produced on the stage of the late, great Palace Showboat Dinner Theater at Pollardville in Stockton, California, has just been published by Off the Wall Plays. 

This is my third script to be picked up by Off the Wall after the tropical adventure comedy ROXANNE OF THE ISLANDS and the interactive murder mystery MURDER-THE FINAL FRONTIER.

I hereby present to you...THE LEGEND OF THE ROGUE or MASK ME NO QUESTIONS.

Hard times have fallen on the Clayfoot Indian tribe with the arrival of Randolph Hitlear, an ex-Confederate general obsessed with idea of starting a second Civil War under his leadership. To finance this effort, Hitlear searches for the Clayfoot's mountain treasure, the Tomb of Gold. With the help of his dastardly henchmen, Ashley and Rhett, Hitlear forces the tribe into slavery to dig for the gold including the Clayfoot leader, Chief Boyardee. His daughter, Fawn, is a mystic who has the ability to speak to the Great Spirits. From them she learns of a prophecy that states that "the dark cloud of evil shall ride a warrior of good who shall become a savior". With that thought in mind, Fawn seeks the help of Brian Ryan in nearby Parched Throat, Arizona, a handsome young lawyer who moonlights as sheriff of this one lizard town. Brian falls in love with Fawn at first glance, raising the ire of saloon singer Sugar De Spice who wants to put her claws into the novice lawman herself. When the sheriff agrees to help, a jealous Sugar, along with the weasely corrupt Indian agent Percival P. Pestt, inform Hitlear. Laying in wait for the sheriff, Hitlear gets the upper hand upon Brian's arrival and in the fracas, Fawn is killed. When Brian is left for dead himself in the desert, Sugar has a change of heart and rescues him. Back in town, Fawn's spirit comes to him in his delirium and empowers Brian with special abilities given to him by the Great Spirits since he is indeed the warrior of good in the prophecy. Brian dons a mask and adopts the persona of the masked avenger known as The Rogue. He catches up to Hitlear just as he enters the fabled Tomb of Gold and thwarts his plans once and for all, saving the Clayfoot tribe and the nation from this vicious war criminal. And the rest is legendary... 

Performance rights are available for both professional and amateur theater productions including community groups, dinner shows, fundraising events, high school and college drama departments.  

CLICK HERE TO READ A PREVIEW OF LEGEND OF THE ROGUE AND FOR INFORMATION ABOUT PERFORMANCE RIGHTS

PLUS

THE LEGEND CONTINUES: AN INSIDE LOOK AT LEGEND OF THE ROGUE

MURDER-THE FINAL FRONTIER AN INTERGALACTIC INTERACTIVE MURDER MYSTERY

ROXANNE OF THE ISLANDS or THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SARONG-A TROPICAL ADVENTURE COMEDY

All In

Below you will find all of the interactive murder mystery and melodrama scripts we have available for both professional and amateur theater productions including community groups, dinner shows, fundraising events, high school and college drama departments. 

MURDER MYSTERIES

DEAD TUESDAY by Scott Cherney

MELODRAMAS

LA RUE'S RETURN or HOW'S A BAYOU by Edward Thorpe and Scott Cherney

SONG OF THE CANYON KID or POEM ON THE RANGE by Scott Cherney

Performance rights for all titles are available. Royalty is $40 per performance. For more information and a FREE perusal script, contact: 

Scott Cherney 

writtenbysc@gmail.com

And please check out these three plays by Scott Cherney available through Off the Wall Plays

MURDER-THE FINAL FRONTIER-The intergalactic interactive murder mystery

LEGEND OF THE ROGUE or MASK ME NO QUESTIONS-A western comedy melodrama 

ROXANNE OF THE ISLANDS or THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SARONG-The tropical adventure comedy 

CLICK HERE FOR OFF THE WALL PLAYS

Murder-The Final Frontier

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

PREVIOUS PRODUCTIONS:

Mel O' Drama Theater Nashville, TN

SLV Theatre Co. San Luis Valley, CO (TWICE!)

Brickstreet Players Clovis, NM

Sugar High Theatricals Galesburg, IL

Rio Linda Elverta Community Theater Rio Linda, CA

Sanzman Productions Los Angeles, CA

 

MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER is now available at Off the Wall Plays. Yes, performance rights are available.

CLICK HERE TO READ AN EXTENDED EXCERPT FROM MURDER-THE FINAL FRONTIER

CLICK HERE FOR PERFORMANCE RIGHTS

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