a play by
Paul Ledoux and David Young
Featuring the music of Melanie Doane
“I was trapped in a legal revolving door. Of course, the press ate it up. The result of that media circus? I end up in Canada’s most famous prison for the criminally insane – for doing what? For writing a girl a love letter.”
- David Stuart
Still Desire You is the title of the new adaptation of the 1980’s wildly successful Canadian stage musical I Love You Anne Murray , a play about a lonely fan’s obsession with the Pop Icon and, in a larger sense, a play about the growing malaise of celebrity culture . The production garnered rave reviews, played major theatres in every region of Canada, was broadcast nationally by CBC
Radio and cited along with Ledoux/Young’s Fire as “the two most important musicals of the
‘80’s.”
(The Canadian Encyclopedia 2001 – 2006 editions).
Paul Ledoux and David Young have created an updated version of the story set to an exciting new soundtrack by Juno Award-winning Melanie Doane, whose East Coast inspired contemporary rock is a perfect fit for this off-beat tale of true love caught in a web of media-spun fantasy.
The new rendition of the play premiered at Western Canada Theatre and transferred to Alberta
Theatre Projects where it recently completed a successful, well reviewed run. We want to adapt this musical, taking it out of the theatre and into a more realistic film context. Melanie herself will play Rose. Her music drives the story, helping to create a moving, complex and contemporary portrait of both the star and the fan.
“For one brief moment we were together - in the eye of the storm - the whole chaotic world whirring around us and…and then she was gone. Her heart was swept away.” - David Stuart
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The issues surrounding celebrity and stalking have more traction than ever. The barrage of media-driven gossip, much of it stage managed to help create the branding of a star, creates the illusion of personal connection. It is the stock and trade of newspaper, television and the internet.
For both fans and entertainers contact seems more frequent, personal and intimate. We are offered daily glances into the lives of the artists we love and are encouraged to imagine that we have a special relationship with them. The songs become private evocations and, for some, innocent fantasies become “real” obsessions.
David Stuart is a fan on trial for “the crime of loving a girl
”.
We are caught up in a story that indicts the “star-making machinery” behind our communal obsession with celebrity. That obsession finds expression in David Stuart’s alleged ‘delusion’. Ultimately, fantasy begins to meld with reality and our charming, eccentric hero comes face to face with the woman he loves…and his own madness.
Serious themes…
But it’s a comedy.
Better than that, it’s a musical. Reality and fantasy face off in a conflict set to the cry of Celtic fiddles and the beat of contemporary pop.
Best of all it’s a remarkable story of unrequited love that just may break your heart.
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STILL DESIRE YOU
THE STORY
“Somebody somewhere had to try and hold on to traditions that made us who we were. That’s how it was with my father.” – David Stuart
David Stuart is a Nova Scotian with a close emotional attachment to the sea and a deep commitment to preserving handmade craftsmanship and community values in a world where both are rapidly disappearing. He runs a small business called The FOG Shop (From Old Guys), selling crafts to tourists who come to watch him hand build dories. Hectic summers are followed by lonely winters on a deserted shore.
The relationship that will change his life begins with a song on the radio, a contemporary arrangement of an old folk tune sung by a local girl called Rose McKay, that emotionally bridges the gap between his real life and his romantic idealism. He falls in love with the singer and her songs. When Rose, fiddle in hand, begins to build a following, David finds himself interpreting her lyrics and performances as part of an ongoing private conversation. Rose is whispering secrets across the airwaves. This growing ‘delusion’ is fueled by Rose’s publicity machine and a series of fan/star encounters.
Under the influence of her manager/producer, Adam Clay, Rose’s career takes off but, to
David’s dismay, her music becomes ever more mainstream and her fame inexorably builds a wall between the star and her fans, himself included. Rose’s marriage to the much older Clay creates a media frenzy and drives the hurt and confused Stuart into desperate attempts to make personal contact and ‘save her soul’. After a number of these incidents, a restraining order is issued against him. He persists, desperate to make contact with her and is arrested. His ensuing trial, which may result in an open-ended commitment to a hospital for the criminally insane, acts as the framing device for our story.
Stuart’s self-defense rests on convincing the judge (and the audience) that his relationship with
Rose is real and appropriate. Arrayed against him are a “publicity grubbing” Crown prosecutor, a vengeful psychiatrist, a cynical publicist and a cop who “remembers John Lennon.” Their testimony and Stuart’s cross-examination are the point of departure for David’s story, told via flashbacks and musical performances. Initially Stuart’s quick wit and Maritime charm carry the day but as the trial progresses, he is faced with the possibility that his version of events may not be true. He desperately holds on to his belief that Rose will appear before the court and admit their relationship is real - but her climatic appearance leads to an ultimate confrontation…
“Whose publicity machine have I supposedly confused with the real person?
Who is responsible for all the encouragement I’ve received? Who is responsible,
Rose? You are responsible.” – David Stuart
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THE ADAPTATION: SOME NOTES
We have no intention of simply shooting the stage play but have the advantage of a strong starting point. The play is already informed by a filmic sensibility with numerous scenes, locations and narrative devices that facilitate the “opening up” of the action and can be seamlessly fit together into a visual narrative.
There are four elements of the current stage version that will be adapted to enhance the cinematic reality of the story and ground our characters lives. They are:
 the courtroom/hospital where David will defend himself against various charges and be interviewed by psychotherapists;
 flashbacks take us to other locations, breaking out of the confines of the courtroom and give us access to multiple viewpoints on the events leading up to Stuart’s trial;
 musical sequences of various kinds ground the show’s musical vérité. It is, after all,
Rose’s songs/videos/concerts/appearances that get to David;
 direct address in a number of forms allow our hero to step out to tell us how he sees/hears/feels.
However, there is an element in the mix that offers dramatic and visual possibilities that will set
Still Desire You apart: David Stuart is being drawn into a fantasy world. It’s a ‘delusion’ fueled by Rose’s music, her own inadvertent actions and her “publicity machine”
(fan club mailings and viral email campaigns, websites, streaming videos, blogs etc.) This offers us the rich visual and emotional raw material that fuels the story conflict. Internet-driven information overload, iconic rock and roll imagery, flashbacks, address to camera, fantasy sequences and the cut and thrust of courtroom cross-examination are all set to the beat of a powerful, integrated pop soundtrack. The result is a story that challenges our assumptions about the fine line between obsessive love and insanity.
Courtroom/Hospital Drama
“From time immemorial, man has been encouraged to play the role of pursuer in male/female relationships…The fact that I am pursuing a woman is not
insane.” David Stuart
The above statement needs to be defended and what better place to do it than in a court of law?
And who better to make that defense than the accused - a character who can turn the cliché of the psychopathic stalker on its head with a credible legal argument. He has a sure-footed sense of the absurdity of his situation. He is outraged by a legal system in the thrall of both Rose’s celebrity and media outlets that are gleefully turning his trial into an ongoing item on e-Talk Daily .
Courtroom drama has a long history as a medium for social criticism and also provides an excellent venue for a story that turns on differing versions of reality, two essential elements of our story. But Still Desire You owes more to the Capraesque qualities found in current dramadies like Boston Legal than it does to Law and Order.
Stuart is funny and bright. He has a strong sense of homespun values and tragedy in his family background. He’s the little guy battling the system who believes in the power of love.
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Flashbacks
“They turn me into whatever it is they fear about themselves but the fact is, this whole thing began in about as down to earth a way as you can imagine.”
– David Stuart
Given our cultural predisposition to see any “stalker” as potentially lethal,
Still Desire You must first win the audience over to the side of its hero. We want them in Stuart’s corner. By presenting him as an intelligent but emotionally vulnerable man ripe for manipulation by Rose’s publicity machine and abused by our legal system, we convince the audience to see events from his point of view. We present his side of the story through flashbacks. Scenes from David’s point of view, even when they are a little off-center, are credible but as we approach the climax of the story, it becomes clear his POV has been compromised, not only by outside forces but by his own unquenchable love.
Flashbacks from the point of view of the other witnesses (police, Rose’s husband etc.) provide alternate versions of events. However, given the questionable motives of other characters, their testimony is suspect.
Suspended judgment over who is telling the truth is brought to resolution with Rose’s appearance in court. Her testimony allows us to revisit scenes that, for David, were burning, vital moments in his life but for Rose are barely remembered, passing encounters.
Musical Sequences
“You were taking our music and doing what I was trying to do inside my own life. And it worked. I fell for you at that very moment and I knew I would never feel that alone again.” – David Stuart
The emotive power of music and its ubiquitous presence in our lives make it the most culturally significant form of artistic expression in this age of technology. For David Stuart the music of
Rose McKay has taken on a special, even mystical significance. Her songs and the evolution of her music inhabit his psyche and drive the story. However, the relationship of music to the narrative in Still Desire You is not that of a traditional musical. No one bursts into song on the promenade.
Because we view Rose primarily through the prism of her art, music plays a uniquely multidimensional role. We chart the rise in her fortunes through the look and feel of her performances, beginning with appearances on local TV specials and low budget video. We watch (along with
David) as Rose’s ‘act’ grows to encompass elaborately staged concerts and, finally, to scenes in which Rose becomes a player in
Stuart’s personal musical fantasies
.
At the same time we see her growing alienation as her celebrity slowly builds a wall between her and the real world, a process that in some way mirrors David’s own journey. This progression allows for songs not only to carry narrative weight themselves, but to illuminate and make real the reasons for Stuart’s delusions.
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One of the most appealing aspects of this project is the visual rendering of Melanie Doane’s music for the screen. Given that her songs have already been featured in Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, Dawson’s Creek, That’s Life, Party of Five, Santa Baby and Prom Queen, there is no doubt of their vitality and excitement.
Direct Address (to camera/audience)
“But when the papers announced that they’d been married? I felt like I'd been keel-hauled. He was old enough to be her father. It didn't make sense. I was lost. I had to talk to her. She was playing in Toronto. A four night stand at Massey Hall... so I took another plane.” - David Stuart
David Stuart uses direct address to charm the audience, comment on the trial, explain himself or just to move the story along. It’s a technique that gives us entry into the unique emotional and intellectual progress of his delusion and is useful as both a comic and narrative device. Although used sparingly in the screenplay, it will get us just that little bit more ‘inside his head.’ Longer monologues from the play can easily be turned into non-verbal sequences. For example, there’s a passage where Stuart describes his work and his loneliness. On screen, watching this craftsman all alone in his beautiful workshop steaming and fitting together traditional Shaker nesting boxes while listening to Rose on the radio will say everything we need to say about his love of his craft and his aching loneliness. And how all this got started.
Visual Style
Still Desire You is a story about obsessive love that must move seamlessly across different levels of reality. This can be accomplished primarily via the development of an integrated visual style that becomes more complex as the film progresses. The courtroom is our outside framing device and in this 'normal world' the shooting style and tone will be more conventional, but with a comic edge that is reinforced by David's direct address to the camera . The sparing use of this 'to the camera’ narrative convention also offers a launching pad into the film's flashbacks.
Flashbacks are played out in two tonally distinct formats. David's flashbacks , while credible versions of events, may be shot with a subtly off-kilter sense of reality emphasized by the use of music, off-beat camera angles and a focus on visual details that might not usually draw one's attention but have symbolic resonance within David's belief system. (i.e. the recurrent appearance of a single rose in various scenes). The aching natural beauty of the Atlantic Coast is juxtaposed against the surging power of the media driven reality that increasingly occupies the background of every sequence; computer screens , streaming video, television shows pumping out entertainment gossip, the camera crews and paparazzi that become the patina against which
Rose must live out her ever more public life.
Witness flashbacks may be silent on camera visual accompaniment to voice-over testimony given in court. They might be shot in a bleached out pallet, suggesting a drab existence far less compelling than the cinematic richness of David's version of reality.
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Musical sequences offer the full spectrum of treatments from the purely naturalistic through to full blown production numbers. As we approach the film's climax flashbacks are replaced by
music- driven fantasies reflecting Stuart's fears and desires.
Rose and her band appear as members of a psychiatric group therapy session. Members of the court arrive at a kitchen party hosted by a happily married Rose and Stuart. The courtroom itself becomes the backdrop for a high energy rock video .
These fantasy sequences are the visual high point of the film - playful, powerful explorations of music and movement which integrate dance elements and provide a deeper insight into the nature of our hero’s condition.
Still Desire You will be a daring and highly entertaining visual journey that draws the audience into a compassionate understanding of David's interior emotional life and his flawed, but strangely compelling belief system.
Summing up.
Our story - with its fast-paced courtroom conflicts, powerful musical performances, sumptuous
Nova Scotian backgrounds and occasional, tantalizing slips into fantasy - offers visually compelling high drama tempered by comedy.
Still Desire You is a uniquely Canadian story about the power of music, the entertainment industry and the complexities of dealing with a man who may or may not be slipping into insanity in a world that has already gone mad. The music is hot. The story will make you laugh, make you think and make you cry.
Give us the opportunity to adapt this for a large audience.
PL/DY/BH/MM.
December/052007
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The Creative Team
Melanie Doane (composer/actress) A native of Halifax, Nova Scotia Melanie Doane is one of
Canada’s most successful contemporary singer-songwriters. She has released five CD’S:
Harvest
Train, Shakespearian Fish, Adam’s Rib, Melvin Live
, and You Are What You Love , won the 1999
Juno Award for Best New Solo Artist, has had four Top 40 singles, earned a gold record and won the Canadian Radio Award for Most Charted New Artist (rock category, 1999). Her videos have topped request lists on Much Music . Songs have been featured in numerous films and television programs. Still Desire You marks her return to the theatre. In her twenties she worked extensively as an actor and more recently played the lead in the Canadian film Black Swan .
Website: http://www.melaniedoane.com
Paul Ledoux (co-author) A native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Paul Ledoux is one of Canada’s most produced creators of musical theatre.
Ledoux has had more than 50 teleplays produced including scripts for The Campbells, Freaky Stories and Street Legal, the seasonal special,
Johann’s Gift To Christmas and the Cape Breton period drama, The Pit Pony (supervising producer).
Radio credits include his series Salvage, In The Blood , and The Old Guy (Canadian
Screenwriting Award nominee) .
He has had thirty-seven plays produced, including: the Dora and
Chalmers Award-winning Fire (with David Young), Dream A Little Dream, the nearly true story of The Mamas and The Papas (with Denny Doherty) which played throughout North America, including a six-month Off-Broadway run; and much produced adaptations of the children’s classics The Secret Garden and Anne of Green Gables. In addition, Ledoux has directed and produced extensively for the stage including Dream a Little Dream in Toronto (Dora nomination for Outstanding Direction), Judy at The National Arts Centre and the current production of Still
Desire You.
He is past Chairman of The Playwrights Union of Canada.
Website: www.paulledoux.com
David Young (co-author) A native of Toronto, David Young has written extensively for television, including Re-Genesis , The Eleventh Hour , Due South , Traders , Fraggle Rock , and his
CBC mini-series Whiskey Echo . He recently wrote and executive produced Sold , an hour-long dramatic-comedy pilot for CTV about residential real estate agents. Film credits include: Spirit
Rider , Swann and T. REX, Back to the Cretaceous , an IMAX docu-drama. David’s plays include:
The Governor General’s Award nominee, Glenn ; Inexpressible Island (Antarctica) which won the Canadian Authors’ Association ‘Best Play of ‘98’ gold medal and played in London’s west end; Clout
, an adaptation of Ibsen’s
An Enemy of the People; and No Great Mischief from the novel by Alistair MacLeod. Radio dramas include adaptations of Michael Ondaatje’s
In The Skin of a Lion (World Medal, the New York Festival of Radio Drama) and The English Patient
(nominated for the Prix d’Italia).
David was Founding Director of The Writers' Development
Trust and a Founding Trustee of The Griffin Prize for poetry.
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Bill House (producer) For over 20 years, Bill House has been dedicated to the creation of independent Canadian films and television. He is the founder House of Films Inc., an independent film and television company that is developing and producing feature films and television entertainment. Credits as a producer include: Foolproof; The Canadian Conspiracy
(Gemini Award and Emmy nomination); and Rumours Of Glory: Bruce Cockburn Live. Prior to founding House of Film, he was ExecutiveVP, Motion Picture Production of the Alliance
Atlantis Entertainment Group. From 1985 – 2000 he worked in the public sector. He was cofounder and Executive Coordinator, Production and Development, of the Ontario Film
Development Corporation (OMDC) and served as Director of Operations of Telefilm Canada.
Early in his career, House production managed the Toronto International Film Festival, where he produced and directed the TIFF Tributes to Martin Scorsese, Robert Duvall and Warren Beatty.
He also produced the innovative performance art trio, The Clichettes, and co-founded Theatre
Second Floor, a seminal force in the development of alternative theatre in Toronto.
Moze Mossanen ( director consultant ) has created a body of popular and critically acclaimed work noted for it’s unique blend of drama, music and dance. His first dramatic shorts Illegal Acts and Canciones brought him to the attention of the CBC where he directed his feature-length documentary film, Dance for Modern Times . The film was released theatrically, nominated for a
Genie Award and won the Chris Award at the Columbus International Film Festival. It was followed by The Golden City (Gemini nomination) and My Gentleman Friends (Gemini nomination) which was singled out by the Globe & Mail as one of the outstanding dramatic programs of the 1999 television season. Productions for CBC/Bravo include; The Rings of
Saturn,Year of the Lion ; a contemporary adaptation of the novel, Dangerous Liaisons ( three
Gemini Awards and the Jury Prize at the Yorkton Film Festival.) “ From Time to Time
”(three
Gemini Award nominations) and, most recently, Roxana , an adaptation of the novel by Daniel
Defoe, (winner of two Golden Sheaf awards, the CSC Award for Cinematography and two
Gemini Awards).
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"Still Desire You Worth Obsessing About" ...
"Part courtroom drama and part concert, Still Desire You at Albert Theatre Projects is a bold, innovative theatrical experience." ... Maritime classics and original songs by Melanie Doane
(are) as electric for the audience as David says they are for him. It’s during these musical interludes that Still Desire You showcases its wonderful theatricality."... "great toe-tapping entertainment". Louis B. Hobson Calgary Sun October 21, 2007
“A Fresh Take On Celebrity Obsession”
”Stories about celebrity stalking generally come in two varieties. There's the they-killed-ourprincess strain, out of which celebrities themselves made hay in the months after Diana's death.
And there's the crazed-fan narrative, with pictures of an unkempt-looking fan and quotes about picking up secret messages from the star's songs or movies. But what if a celebrity really were sending out messages like that? What if they weren't secret? What if they were being sent out to every fan as a fundamental part of the celebrity publicity machine?”
Bert Archer, The Globe and Mail October 20, 2007
“Ostensibly
Still Desire You is a story about a fan’s obsession with a rising star …” “the story becomes a deeper exploration of emotional manipulation, personal perception and, to paraphrase a line form the play, how the mind holds on to what it needs.” “Without giving the ending, I will say the audience is prepped for something other than what happens. And I was still humming the tunes of Melanie Doane the next day.”
Kathleen Renne FFWeekly, Calgary, October 25, 2007
“Homegrown hits “
Paul Ledoux proves a Canadian musical can succeed without Broadway
Martin Morrow, CBCNews.ca October 17, 2007
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“…a cross between a courtroom drama and a musical about celebrity stalking. Talk about fusion theatre! The thrust of the courtroom battle is the question of whether Dave is mentally fit to stand trial, a question Dave pretty much answers by electing to serve as his own legal counsel. At least that’s what we think, until Dave, elegantly dressed in tweeds and a blue sweater vest, looking every bit the thoughtful, if a little nutty, professor, dishes up a fairly lucid defense of himself, to the point where not only does he not seem nuts, he seems like the sanest man in the courtroom.”
… “He might just be a lonely guy, and not crazy. He might be fit to stand trial. He might not have intended to do anyone any harm. There are threads of themes in Still Desire You that eloquently speak to a lot of what ails us these days: our disconnectedness; our media obsessions; our lack of love for one another”
Stephen Hunt , Calgary Herald October 22, 2007
“What makes this tale unique is the degree to which it emphasizes with Stuart…” “It’s not a conventional musical, yet musical performance remains at the heart of the show, teasing audience emotions as it does with Stuart’s. There’s even a good ‘ol kitchen party… which adds to it’s East Coast charm.”
Mike Youds, The Kamloops Daily News, September 29 th , 2007
“Our culture is one that is, undeniably, celebrity obsessed.” …”
Still Desire You , is more than timely and offers several perspectives on the average Joe’s pop star fixation…” “”The justice system’s inability to properly serve the mentally unstable is yet another well-timed theme.”
…”In spite of the extremism of the main character, he carries with him an obvious humanity, which allows the audience to relate to him. The pain of unrequited love has touched most of us in one way or another: admiration from afar that goes unnoticed, a miscommunication that leaves two people with very different feelings — even, perhaps, a window that is driven by too often just to see if anyone is at home. And, as Stuart finds out, when we see our love up close, after all that effort, rarely is he or she what we imagined.
Melissa Berry, FFWeekly, Calgary October 18, 2007
“ATP’s Still Desire You Engaging and Blissfully Schlockless”
"The timing couldn’t be better for a piece of theater that examines this issue....
Still Desire You may be light hearted, but it handles it's subject matter with a lot of grace, while being careful not to point fingers or condemn anyone too quickly. The genius of the play is how carefully the playwrights cultivate sympathy for David.
Stephany Weldman, The Reflector, Calgary October 27
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