This here's a song of the lone prairie
It's a tale of woe and of miseryIt's a tale of right and a tale of wrong
All about the weak and the very strong
(sung to the tune of BURY ME NOT ON THE LONE PRAIRIE)
So begins SONG OF THE CANYON KID or POEM ON THE RANGE, a western comedy melodrama originally written by Scott Cherney and first produced on the stage of the Palace Showboat Dinner Theater at Pollardville.
When the straight shooting, and guitar strumming singing cowboy hero known as The Canyon Kid, returns to Dirt Clod, Missouri, he finds his hometown in the grips of a tyrannical albino “hanging judge” named Basil Kadaver and his evil co-horts, including the slinky gypsy seductress Nastassia Kinky and her half-wit brother, Two Gun Boris. To make matters worse for The Kid, he also discovers that his childhood sweetheart, Darla Darling, is engaged to Dalton Doolin, a known desperado who is now the town sheriff. The action culminates in a knockdown, drag out slugfest on the streets of Dirt Clod when justice at last triumphs and The Canyon Kid saves the day.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
THE CANYON KID…………….the straight shooting, guitar
strumming, two fisted cowboy hero
DARLA DARLING……………..the schoolmarm childhood
sweetheart of The Canyon Kid
JUDGE BASIL KADAVER…….the villainous albino known as “The
Hanging Judge”
SHERIFF DALTON DOOLIN….the supposedly reformed outlaw
who now wears a badge
CHARLENE ATLAS…………...the town’s female blacksmith who
is no smarter than the anvil she pounds
MAYOR DARLING……………the absent minded elected official
and Darla’s father
NASTASSIA KINKY…………..the slinky gypsy seductress who
runs the saloon, The Golden Goulash
HONEY DARLING…………….the mayor’s wife, Darla’s mother
and dingier than a church bell
TWO GUN BORIS……………...the fastest gun this side of the
Ukraine
Previous productions of SONG OF THE CANYON KID
PALACE SHOWBOAT DINNER THEATER AT POLLARDVILLE-STOCKTON, CA
GREAT AMERICAN MELODRAMA-OCEANO, CA
FOOTHILL THEATRE CO.-JACKSON, CA
CHEYENNE LITTLE THEATER PLAYERS-CHEYENNE, WY
BRAZOS THEATRE GROUP-WACO, TX
THEATRE SUBURBIA-HOUSTON,TX
MANTORVILLE THEATER-MANTORVILLE,MN
CATS PLAYHOUSE-LUBBOCK,TX
Performance rights for SONG OF THE CANYON KID are available for both professional and amateur theater productions including community groups, dinner shows, fundraising events, high school and college drama departments.
Royalties are $40 per performance. Script fees are completely waived so theater groups may copy as many as they require from a PDF after a signed contract.
For more info and to receive a FREE perusal script, contact me at: writtenbysc@gmail.com
SONG OF THE CANYON KID has also been adapted into a novel and is available in paperback or Kindle from Amazon