Parry Strafford is in his well into his 30s and nurtures dreams of a music career. A songwriter and a singer, Parry performs his compositions on music nights at ‘The high hopes bar & grill’ an establishment owned and run by his girlfriend Jessie. The other leading performer at ‘high hopes’, is Melvin Priestly, famous locally as Melvis Presley. Melvis’ impersonation of Elvis and his act of singing along to the instrumental soundtrack of Elvis’ hits are a rage with the patrons. But the same cannot be said for the original compositions of Parry. He finds himself steadily losing the audience gathered by Melvis as he performs of stage afterwards. A dejected Parry gets support from Melvis and Jessie, who encourages him to explore a new approach for winning the audience over. They tell him that the audience who does not appreciate his slow numbers may find his performance enjoyable if he switched over to faster numbers or performs a cover version of a popular song in his unique style. Jessie even goes ahead and selects the perfect number for him, ‘perfect girl’ as a tribute to her being his perfect girl. Parry reluctantly accepts the proposal, and as he performs the cover version of ‘perfect girl’ at the next event, things change.
‘No one will know me’ is a feature-length screenplay from screenwriter Devin Dugan. Devin tells the tale of hope, aspirations and deceit set against the backdrop if the music industry in a small town aptly named hope. ‘No one will know me’ brings to life the struggles of an unsuccessful musician well past his prime who goes on to discover that it was neither his location nor his talent, but only his mindset that was standing in the way of his success and recognition. He sketches a beautiful arc for parry who goes from being a naïve, diffident and unrecognized artist to becoming confident, smart and street-smart in the cut-throat business of music.
‘No one will know me’ explores the real import of concepts we have come to accept without a second thought. What makes a work of art an ‘original’? What happens when an ‘original’ is improved upon? Does it create a new ‘original’? What is more important for an artist? Recognition or Remuneration? ‘No one will know me’ is an invitation to ponder over these questions.
