Mr. Sherman's follow-up article on this issue:
The Dramatists Guild of America issued a statement on copyright in the wake of the Hamilton videos, without making specific comments about the Wexford situation. It read, in part:
When their work shows up in unauthorized productions, or on YouTube videos, it’s not just a matter of lost revenues. It is an infringement on the very nature of the dramatists’ authorship and a violation of their right to control their artistic expression. Even the non-commercial public use of their work by well-meaning fans, either on the internet or in amateur productions in their communities, can damage a show’s value in various markets, and it is a copyright violation under most circumstances. Most importantly, it undermines an author’s prerogative to decide when, where and how their work will be presented.
Finally, it is important to note that for every online commenter who castigated the Hamilton team for, apparently, asserting their copyright (“apparently” since the show has made no public statement on the situation to date), it seemed there was another commenter who took the students of Wexford to task, often quite unpleasantly, for their appropriation of copyrighted material. But what is clear from Merriam’s detailing of the context of the performances is that this was not a case of students going rogue, either in performing the material or sharing in hopes for more opportunity to perform Hamilton, but rather students participating in activities organized by and sanctioned by their school.
Original Message:
Sent: 06-18-2016 16:45
From: Michael McDonough
Subject: Musical Cuttings
Resurrecting a year-old thread.
A HS in Canada went to great lengths to petition? impress? showcase? their desire to be the first school to produce HAMILTON. In doing so, they crossed the line between small rights and grand rights. Mr. Sherman (article author, linked to below) does not delve the specifics of small vs. grand, but this is a revealing discussion.
Best of intentions, I suppose. And perhaps a smidgen of "better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission."
Canadian High School Tries Too Hard To Get Rights To “Hamilton”
On the one hand, it’s hard not to admire the efforts of Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts in Scarborough, Canada, near Toronto. A teacher and her students made as thorough a pitch as possible to be the first high school to produce the musical Hamilton, seemingly having staged several elaborate numbers from the show in their effort to be recognized. While YouTube videos showed a only simple set, the lights, costumes and sound demonstrated how much time and effort was spent trying to get the attention of the creators of Hamilton, with full out performances of multiple numbers from the show.
Link to article on ArtsIntegrity.org
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Michael McDonough
TRW --- Director of Amateur Licensing
New York
Original Message:
Sent: 06-17-2015 01:34
From: Michael McDonough
Subject: Musical Cuttings
Licensing houses, in general, represent the 'Grand Rights' for their titles. These rights are the whole of the work including the libretto, music, and lyrics used as a dramatic presentation.
Using the word 'cutting' with a grand rights representative will almost always receive a negative reply, excepting certain circumstances such as competitions, festivals, etc.
A competition performance (such as IHSSA) is not presented to the general public, but to a closed group of participants attending the competition.
When groups produce a revue of their own creation, it must (almost always) be a concert production. A concert production is not a grand right and the material can be used via a small rights agreement as represented by an organization such as BMI/ASCAP. When you begin to add any element of drama to a 'concert' production --- such as scenes, dialog, dance, costumes, scenery, orchestrations --- you tread into grand rights territory where you must produce the show in whole.
A grand rights representative will not permit their materials to be used in a small rights production - sheet music would be obtained from a retail source using material such as vocal selection books. Purchase of the sheet music along with a small rights license is the means by which the authors receive remuneration.
One positive aspect of a small rights revue is that you can include songs that are not available for grand rights production. Think Wicked or Matilda, for example. The grand rights representative would also generally not permit the creation of a revue of a single author's work (for example, Sondheim) since very often there is an existing (e.g. Sondheim) revue available to license --- and when creating an original revue there is a temptation to add a dramatic thread - story - through the use of many songs. Story = grand right. If you wanted to produce a musical as a whole in a concert setting, the license would be issued by the grand rights organization, not the small rights --- because you'd be producing the work as a whole and as a dramatic (albeit non-staged but as a concert) presentation.
Another positive aspect: the small rights organizations (BMI/ASCAP) --- to my limited knowledge --- exempt schools from licensing fees. The same, however, may not be true for private studios.
I'd suggest you cover your bases with BMI/ASCAP and stick to a vocal concert and/or dance concert format. Using a line or two of dialog as an intro to a song shouldn't be a problem, but an entire scene or creating a character(s) would be crossing a line into 'cutting' and grand rights territory.
That's how I understand the nuts & bolts of this issue.
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Michael McDonough
New York NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-15-2015 12:16
From: Sonia Walsh
Subject: Musical Cuttings
I do a revue style show in conjunction with a dance studio in my area. We like to feature bits and pieces of different musicals to showcase in a joint production and I'm finding that most companies do not allow cuttings of musicals.
If anyone has performed cuttings of musicals, would you be willing to share the musical name and the company that holds that title?? Thank you!
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Sonia Walsh
Owner/Instructor
Serendipity Acting Studio
Carroll IA
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