AHAB, a Love Story

    SMITHFIELD, VA, November 11, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Herman Melville's Moby Dick, first published in the fall of 1851, introduced the world to the mysterious and deeply focused Ahab, a sea captain obsessed with a great white whale. Author/Composer Stephen Melillo (FOREVER STRONG, a Tribute to the USS Indianapolis and AHAB for Actor & Orchestra) found himself equally consumed by Ahab's tale and in 2011 embarked upon a year-long sojourn through aged whaling manifests, texts, and histories to weave a new story that brings to life the early days of this classic character in Melillo's screenplay AHAB, a Love Story. Originally entitled, "Abie & Abbie," the work has been given its new title and is available on the iTunes bookstore.

Historically fascinating and richly layered on many levels, this epic work begins with the American Revolution and adventures aboard the USS Ranger, and ends with a segue to Scene 1 of the 1956 John Huston film Moby Dick. The screenplay, an homage to, and deliberately stylized in the same form as Ray Bradbury's script for the Huston film, paints the love story of Abraham (Ahab) as a young man, and his beloved Abbie.

"Oh, Abie, dearest Abie... if it was a miracle you wanted, it's a miracle you've received!" These words, spoken by the strong, determined and future-sighted Abbie exemplify the achievement Melillo has made in actualizing an idea that inspired him for a lifetime. "In the seventh grade, we read Moby Dick by Herman Melville. For the following forty-two years, I would find myself mind-storming adventures on the high seas. In the lifelong daydreaming, I continued to wonder about the young Ahab. After all, wasn't he too a boy? Didn't he fall in love, and inhale the beauty of life? What happened to him? What indescribable loss pierced him? How, when and why did he become Captain Ahab?" ponders Melillo.

AHAB, a Love Story is a big-canvas screenplay beginning with the love story of Ahab's parents, his birth, his life, his adventures as a youth, and his fiery baptism into the man who will hunt the white whale. The story's time-line is real. The poignant, visually told history in this work is real. The ship names, manifests and schedules are real. The astrological events, geographies, cultures, places, embedded stories, imprisonments, structures, battles... all real. Superimposed upon this backdrop of actual, intense history and real-to-life events, is Abie, a fictional character. Yet, by story's end, one will wonder. Did Abie exist? Says Melillo, "for me, he did and does... and so did, and does, Abbie."

AHAB, a Love Story, is dedicated to the Crews of the USS INDIANAPOLIS CA-35, the USS BATAAN and the United States Navy. Copyright Stephen Melillo IGNA 31 October 2012

An ASCAP Concert Awards recipient each year since 1992, Composer Stephen Melillo's more than 1120 works include 4 symphonies, several concerti, and over 30-hours of Music for "Ensembles of the 3rd Millennium." Winner of three 2009 Telly and Ava Awards for his 2005 Visualized Concert: Kakehashi:THAT WE MIGHT LIVE, Stephen's concert-version was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Music. His 14 feature film scores include the Academy-Award-nominated 12:01PM. With 23 CDs and 6 books on iTunes, and simply by word-of-mouth, Stephen's pioneering, self-publishing entity known as STORMWORKS has gone from 0 to many thousands of worldwide renderings since 1992. STORMWORKS begins with SON of the STORM, a contemporary opera soon to be released. Stephen's next project is scoring The Unwilling, a Jonathan Heap film. Stephen's 4th Symphony, SYMPHONY IIII: Lightfall premieres in November of 2015.

AHAB, a Love Story is available on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/abie-abbie/id604035162?mt=11

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