Open Forum

The blog article is certainly an interesting point of view. Yes, there are a few large companies that charge big money for shows, typically well known musicals.  Sure, you probably could spend a couple grand on royalties for a blockbuster musical title. But...

While the companies mentioned may have many excellent titles, there are quite a few other publishers and licensing agencies that offer strong titles at a fraction of the cost. No, these shows may not have been on Broadway (or even off-Broadway), but most Broadway and off-Broadway titles were written for adult professional performers, not young people. I understand wanting to do the latest hit because of its name recognition, but it's important also to consider that there are many shows out there that are no less exciting or challenging--and can probably provide a more meaningful theatre experience--but more age-appropriate.

So rather than asking for companies to reduce their royalties or give shows away for free (which isn't generally their call to make), many schools would be better served refocusing and/or expanding their searches.

Cheers,
Jonathan

I think it's about sacrificing short term high profits for the long term health of the industry.
I think there are a lot of schools (particularly junior high schools where there are often no arts programs at all) that would do musicals and potentially launch theater programs if it weren't for the large up front costs involved. Most school theater programs are self sustaining clubs, which means all their money comes from ticket sales and fundraising. Often these are programs with no seed money at all, and the $3-4,000 required for royalties might be too scary to commit to, even if it was not required up front (which at least part of it usually is). No one knows in a new program if they will bring in any ticket money or how much. And if the show fails to sell tickets, who covers that $3,000 royalty bill? The teacher herself out of pocket? Or the admin of the title 1 school which will now have to find that money elsewhere? (this could well mean the teachers job if the principal isn't VERY understanding!)  Her entire program will sink or swim based on how many kids show up for auditions and how many butts she can put in the seats. The risk she is taking is pretty high. So maybe ease off on her a little?

If you are trying to start an arts program at your school, you definitely want a musical and you definitely want something the kids are familiar with in order to build engagement. Maybe in a few years you can try an unknown title from a lesser known publisher (many teachers do) but for your first few times out of the gate with uncertain student engagement and unknown audience support, you need a very VERY recognizable title. Disney is ideal for that, but even the Disney Junior series is not that cheap. Yes, MTI has some great programs to help out poorly financed schools but I'm not sure how many first theater teachers would be aware of them.

I think it would be in the best interest of publishers to do whatever it takes to help build new programs in schools and help floundering programs back on their feet. I can tell you from experience, most parents are shocked when they find out that $3-4,000 of their hard earned bake-sale money went to simply getting the rights to produce the spring musical. When that's half the budget for the entire show it doesn't make the publishers look like the good guys. I know that's industry standard or whatever, and that artists should be fairly compensated for their work, but to the general public it often looks like a greedy industry feeding off of needy children who just want to do a school play. It would definitely be worth looking at how to change that image. 

The blog article is certainly an interesting point of view. Yes, there are a few large companies that charge big money for shows, typically well known musicals.  Sure, you probably could spend a couple grand on royalties for a blockbuster musical title. But...

While the companies mentioned may have many excellent titles, there are quite a few other publishers and licensing agencies that offer strong titles at a fraction of the cost. No, these shows may not have been on Broadway (or even off-Broadway), but most Broadway and off-Broadway titles were written for adult professional performers, not young people. I understand wanting to do the latest hit because of its name recognition, but it's important also to consider that there are many shows out there that are no less exciting or challenging--and can probably provide a more meaningful theatre experience--but more age-appropriate.

So rather than asking for companies to reduce their royalties or give shows away for free (which isn't generally their call to make), many schools would be better served refocusing and/or expanding their searches.

Cheers,
Jonathan

I think it's about sacrificing short term high profits for the long term health of the industry.
I think there are a lot of schools (particularly junior high schools where there are often no arts programs at all) that would do musicals and potentially launch theater programs if it weren't for the large up front costs involved. Most school theater programs are self sustaining clubs, which means all their money comes from ticket sales and fundraising. Often these are programs with no seed money at all, and the $3-4,000 required for royalties might be too scary to commit to, even if it was not required up front (which at least part of it usually is). No one knows in a new program if they will bring in any ticket money or how much. And if the show fails to sell tickets, who covers that $3,000 royalty bill? The teacher herself out of pocket? Or the admin of the title 1 school which will now have to find that money elsewhere? (this could well mean the teachers job if the principal isn't VERY understanding!)  Her entire program will sink or swim based on how many kids show up for auditions and how many butts she can put in the seats. The risk she is taking is pretty high. So maybe ease off on her a little?

If you are trying to start an arts program at your school, you definitely want a musical and you definitely want something the kids are familiar with in order to build engagement. Maybe in a few years you can try an unknown title from a lesser known publisher (many teachers do) but for your first few times out of the gate with uncertain student engagement and unknown audience support, you need a very VERY recognizable title. Disney is ideal for that, but even the Disney Junior series is not that cheap. Yes, MTI has some great programs to help out poorly financed schools but I'm not sure how many first theater teachers would be aware of them.

I think it would be in the best interest of publishers to do whatever it takes to help build new programs in schools and help floundering programs back on their feet. I can tell you from experience, most parents are shocked when they find out that $3-4,000 of their hard earned bake-sale money went to simply getting the rights to produce the spring musical. When that's half the budget for the entire show it doesn't make the publishers look like the good guys. I know that's industry standard or whatever, and that artists should be fairly compensated for their work, but to the general public it often looks like a greedy industry feeding off of needy children who just want to do a school play. It would definitely be worth looking at how to change that image. 

The blog article is certainly an interesting point of view. Yes, there are a few large companies that charge big money for shows, typically well known musicals.  Sure, you probably could spend a couple grand on royalties for a blockbuster musical title. But...

While the companies mentioned may have many excellent titles, there are quite a few other publishers and licensing agencies that offer strong titles at a fraction of the cost. No, these shows may not have been on Broadway (or even off-Broadway), but most Broadway and off-Broadway titles were written for adult professional performers, not young people. I understand wanting to do the latest hit because of its name recognition, but it's important also to consider that there are many shows out there that are no less exciting or challenging--and can probably provide a more meaningful theatre experience--but more age-appropriate.

So rather than asking for companies to reduce their royalties or give shows away for free (which isn't generally their call to make), many schools would be better served refocusing and/or expanding their searches.

Cheers,
Jonathan

I think it's about sacrificing short term high profits for the long term health of the industry.
I think there are a lot of schools (particularly junior high schools where there are often no arts programs at all) that would do musicals and potentially launch theater programs if it weren't for the large up front costs involved. Most school theater programs are self sustaining clubs, which means all their money comes from ticket sales and fundraising. Often these are programs with no seed money at all, and the $3-4,000 required for royalties might be too scary to commit to, even if it was not required up front (which at least part of it usually is). No one knows in a new program if they will bring in any ticket money or how much. And if the show fails to sell tickets, who covers that $3,000 royalty bill? The teacher herself out of pocket? Or the admin of the title 1 school which will now have to find that money elsewhere? (this could well mean the teachers job if the principal isn't VERY understanding!)  Her entire program will sink or swim based on how many kids show up for auditions and how many butts she can put in the seats. The risk she is taking is pretty high. So maybe ease off on her a little?

If you are trying to start an arts program at your school, you definitely want a musical and you definitely want something the kids are familiar with in order to build engagement. Maybe in a few years you can try an unknown title from a lesser known publisher (many teachers do) but for your first few times out of the gate with uncertain student engagement and unknown audience support, you need a very VERY recognizable title. Disney is ideal for that, but even the Disney Junior series is not that cheap. Yes, MTI has some great programs to help out poorly financed schools but I'm not sure how many first theater teachers would be aware of them.

I think it would be in the best interest of publishers to do whatever it takes to help build new programs in schools and help floundering programs back on their feet. I can tell you from experience, most parents are shocked when they find out that $3-4,000 of their hard earned bake-sale money went to simply getting the rights to produce the spring musical. When that's half the budget for the entire show it doesn't make the publishers look like the good guys. I know that's industry standard or whatever, and that artists should be fairly compensated for their work, but to the general public it often looks like a greedy industry feeding off of needy children who just want to do a school play. It would definitely be worth looking at how to change that image. 

The blog article is certainly an interesting point of view. Yes, there are a few large companies that charge big money for shows, typically well known musicals.  Sure, you probably could spend a couple grand on royalties for a blockbuster musical title. But...

While the companies mentioned may have many excellent titles, there are quite a few other publishers and licensing agencies that offer strong titles at a fraction of the cost. No, these shows may not have been on Broadway (or even off-Broadway), but most Broadway and off-Broadway titles were written for adult professional performers, not young people. I understand wanting to do the latest hit because of its name recognition, but it's important also to consider that there are many shows out there that are no less exciting or challenging--and can probably provide a more meaningful theatre experience--but more age-appropriate.

So rather than asking for companies to reduce their royalties or give shows away for free (which isn't generally their call to make), many schools would be better served refocusing and/or expanding their searches.

Cheers,
Jonathan

EdTA used to have a form we could send to the publisher to request a royalty reduction.  I did that once, and Arthur Miller personally allowed a reduction from $75 to $15 per performance for "The Crucible"--endearing himself to me forever.  I hadn't been at this school long, and we had to create all of the costumes and most of the set pieces from scratch.  We paid full-price for the scripts, of course, but that royalty reduction helped us to have a beautiful show early in my tenure at this school.

I teach at a school where nearly 50% of the students are on free or reduced lunch.  We get a little money each year to support the program, but we only have 150 seats.  We can't charge much per ticket, because that would prevent too many of our potential audience members from attending a show. We can't charge anything if we do a performance for students during school hours.  Very few of my students can afford to pay all the costs for traveling to our state or the international festival.  So we budget carefully, and we sprinkle in original and public domain shows.

When we do Shakespeare, I download a script, make abridgements, and then format it in Word to print bookfold for scripts.  The script cost is a fraction of what we play publishers, and no royalties.

I have done the same for plays by Moliere and for "Under the Gaslight," the great old melodrama by Augustin Daly.  Last spring I adapted Edgar Lee Masters "Spoon River Anthology" into a one-act for our state festival, and we presented it at ITF as the Chapter Select from NC.  I did an adaptation of Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" that always makes money.  And Ian Johnston, professor emeritus of Vancouver Island University, allowed us to do his lovely translation of Euripides "Medea" for no charge in our educational setting.

The students and I collaboratively write the 25 minute shows we take to our elementary schools each fall.  We frequently use public domain sources as our jumping off point, such as Aesop's fables, folk tales, or James Mooney's "Myths and Legends of the Cherokee."

One of the most financially empowering things we do is use the profit from our spring collection of Thespian-directed short plays to pay for hotel rooms for our NC Thespian Festival.  Students increasingly write their plays in class with an eye toward that performance opportunity, and several have updated public domain plays.  This past spring, our collection of short plays was entirely student-written, so we had money left over to put toward the ITF.

None of this means that we don't do contemporary plays.  We certainly do.  But we budget for them.  With our small space, we lose money on every single musical, so we balance that with a public domain show.  The same holds true for contemporary shows.  I make financial decisions after much discussion and voting in our Thespian troupe meetings, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that the students understand where money comes from and where it goes in theatre production.  

EdTA used to have a form we could send to the publisher to request a royalty reduction.  I did that once, and Arthur Miller personally allowed a reduction from $75 to $15 per performance for "The Crucible"--endearing himself to me forever.  I hadn't been at this school long, and we had to create all of the costumes and most of the set pieces from scratch.  We paid full-price for the scripts, of course, but that royalty reduction helped us to have a beautiful show early in my tenure at this school.

I teach at a school where nearly 50% of the students are on free or reduced lunch.  We get a little money each year to support the program, but we only have 150 seats.  We can't charge much per ticket, because that would prevent too many of our potential audience members from attending a show. We can't charge anything if we do a performance for students during school hours.  Very few of my students can afford to pay all the costs for traveling to our state or the international festival.  So we budget carefully, and we sprinkle in original and public domain shows.

When we do Shakespeare, I download a script, make abridgements, and then format it in Word to print bookfold for scripts.  The script cost is a fraction of what we play publishers, and no royalties.

I have done the same for plays by Moliere and for "Under the Gaslight," the great old melodrama by Augustin Daly.  Last spring I adapted Edgar Lee Masters "Spoon River Anthology" into a one-act for our state festival, and we presented it at ITF as the Chapter Select from NC.  I did an adaptation of Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" that always makes money.  And Ian Johnston, professor emeritus of Vancouver Island University, allowed us to do his lovely translation of Euripides "Medea" for no charge in our educational setting.

The students and I collaboratively write the 25 minute shows we take to our elementary schools each fall.  We frequently use public domain sources as our jumping off point, such as Aesop's fables, folk tales, or James Mooney's "Myths and Legends of the Cherokee."

One of the most financially empowering things we do is use the profit from our spring collection of Thespian-directed short plays to pay for hotel rooms for our NC Thespian Festival.  Students increasingly write their plays in class with an eye toward that performance opportunity, and several have updated public domain plays.  This past spring, our collection of short plays was entirely student-written, so we had money left over to put toward the ITF.

None of this means that we don't do contemporary plays.  We certainly do.  But we budget for them.  With our small space, we lose money on every single musical, so we balance that with a public domain show.  The same holds true for contemporary shows.  I make financial decisions after much discussion and voting in our Thespian troupe meetings, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that the students understand where money comes from and where it goes in theatre production.