Open Forum

Great topic. I did a little digging on the Rent diabetes issue, which turned up this gem of a link:

https://www.queerty.com/twitter-goes-nuts-high-school-production-rent-appalling-twist-20171007

So it's hard to say conclusively whether it's more than an urban legend, but it's admittedly appallingly hilarious. Of course, Rent itself was at the center of a major lawsuit after the dramaturg sued for part-ownership:
https://www.backstage.com/news/rent-dramaturg-sues-larson-estate/

Personally, I had the recent experience of finding my most produced play on YouTube, produced without a license at a Michigan school's one-act festival (a school with a Thespian troupe, no less), and as I watched, to my growing horror, I discovered that the central monologue, in which a teen writes a letter to a knife company complaining that their knife, with which he tried to cut his wrists, wasn't sharp enough, was now about a knife accident while chopping onions (which rendered the rest of it nonsensical). They'd added multiple monologues from a random divorcee character, cut scenes, adding a scene and lyrics from the musical version of the show, added text to other monologues. I was literally shaking I was so angry by the end of it. While sure, the video has been taken down and the school is paying royalties and additional fees, the level of ignorance and intellectual laziness that allowed it to happen in the first place is disturbing and depressing.

While it's no shocker that plays show up on YouTube these days, it's generally not legal. Many people don't realize that when one licenses a play, one's typically licensing "live stage rights" only. Recording, if allowed at all, is a separate set of rights.

I'm now a member of the Dramatists Guild Education Committee that's co-chaired by Marsha Norman and David Lindsay-Abaire, and one of our goals is to increase awareness and understanding of intellectual property rights at the college and K-12 levels So it's fantastic to hear about courses like this being taught--there need to be more of them. You might actually get in touch with the Guild, as no doubt they're aware of other cases involving intellectual property that might be of interest.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Great topic. I did a little digging on the Rent diabetes issue, which turned up this gem of a link:

https://www.queerty.com/twitter-goes-nuts-high-school-production-rent-appalling-twist-20171007

So it's hard to say conclusively whether it's more than an urban legend, but it's admittedly appallingly hilarious. Of course, Rent itself was at the center of a major lawsuit after the dramaturg sued for part-ownership:
https://www.backstage.com/news/rent-dramaturg-sues-larson-estate/

Personally, I had the recent experience of finding my most produced play on YouTube, produced without a license at a Michigan school's one-act festival (a school with a Thespian troupe, no less), and as I watched, to my growing horror, I discovered that the central monologue, in which a teen writes a letter to a knife company complaining that their knife, with which he tried to cut his wrists, wasn't sharp enough, was now about a knife accident while chopping onions (which rendered the rest of it nonsensical). They'd added multiple monologues from a random divorcee character, cut scenes, adding a scene and lyrics from the musical version of the show, added text to other monologues. I was literally shaking I was so angry by the end of it. While sure, the video has been taken down and the school is paying royalties and additional fees, the level of ignorance and intellectual laziness that allowed it to happen in the first place is disturbing and depressing.

While it's no shocker that plays show up on YouTube these days, it's generally not legal. Many people don't realize that when one licenses a play, one's typically licensing "live stage rights" only. Recording, if allowed at all, is a separate set of rights.

I'm now a member of the Dramatists Guild Education Committee that's co-chaired by Marsha Norman and David Lindsay-Abaire, and one of our goals is to increase awareness and understanding of intellectual property rights at the college and K-12 levels So it's fantastic to hear about courses like this being taught--there need to be more of them. You might actually get in touch with the Guild, as no doubt they're aware of other cases involving intellectual property that might be of interest.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Great topic. I did a little digging on the Rent diabetes issue, which turned up this gem of a link:

https://www.queerty.com/twitter-goes-nuts-high-school-production-rent-appalling-twist-20171007

So it's hard to say conclusively whether it's more than an urban legend, but it's admittedly appallingly hilarious. Of course, Rent itself was at the center of a major lawsuit after the dramaturg sued for part-ownership:
https://www.backstage.com/news/rent-dramaturg-sues-larson-estate/

Personally, I had the recent experience of finding my most produced play on YouTube, produced without a license at a Michigan school's one-act festival (a school with a Thespian troupe, no less), and as I watched, to my growing horror, I discovered that the central monologue, in which a teen writes a letter to a knife company complaining that their knife, with which he tried to cut his wrists, wasn't sharp enough, was now about a knife accident while chopping onions (which rendered the rest of it nonsensical). They'd added multiple monologues from a random divorcee character, cut scenes, adding a scene and lyrics from the musical version of the show, added text to other monologues. I was literally shaking I was so angry by the end of it. While sure, the video has been taken down and the school is paying royalties and additional fees, the level of ignorance and intellectual laziness that allowed it to happen in the first place is disturbing and depressing.

While it's no shocker that plays show up on YouTube these days, it's generally not legal. Many people don't realize that when one licenses a play, one's typically licensing "live stage rights" only. Recording, if allowed at all, is a separate set of rights.

I'm now a member of the Dramatists Guild Education Committee that's co-chaired by Marsha Norman and David Lindsay-Abaire, and one of our goals is to increase awareness and understanding of intellectual property rights at the college and K-12 levels So it's fantastic to hear about courses like this being taught--there need to be more of them. You might actually get in touch with the Guild, as no doubt they're aware of other cases involving intellectual property that might be of interest.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Great topic. I did a little digging on the Rent diabetes issue, which turned up this gem of a link:

https://www.queerty.com/twitter-goes-nuts-high-school-production-rent-appalling-twist-20171007

So it's hard to say conclusively whether it's more than an urban legend, but it's admittedly appallingly hilarious. Of course, Rent itself was at the center of a major lawsuit after the dramaturg sued for part-ownership:
https://www.backstage.com/news/rent-dramaturg-sues-larson-estate/

Personally, I had the recent experience of finding my most produced play on YouTube, produced without a license at a Michigan school's one-act festival (a school with a Thespian troupe, no less), and as I watched, to my growing horror, I discovered that the central monologue, in which a teen writes a letter to a knife company complaining that their knife, with which he tried to cut his wrists, wasn't sharp enough, was now about a knife accident while chopping onions (which rendered the rest of it nonsensical). They'd added multiple monologues from a random divorcee character, cut scenes, adding a scene and lyrics from the musical version of the show, added text to other monologues. I was literally shaking I was so angry by the end of it. While sure, the video has been taken down and the school is paying royalties and additional fees, the level of ignorance and intellectual laziness that allowed it to happen in the first place is disturbing and depressing.

While it's no shocker that plays show up on YouTube these days, it's generally not legal. Many people don't realize that when one licenses a play, one's typically licensing "live stage rights" only. Recording, if allowed at all, is a separate set of rights.

I'm now a member of the Dramatists Guild Education Committee that's co-chaired by Marsha Norman and David Lindsay-Abaire, and one of our goals is to increase awareness and understanding of intellectual property rights at the college and K-12 levels So it's fantastic to hear about courses like this being taught--there need to be more of them. You might actually get in touch with the Guild, as no doubt they're aware of other cases involving intellectual property that might be of interest.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Great topic. I did a little digging on the Rent diabetes issue, which turned up this gem of a link:

https://www.queerty.com/twitter-goes-nuts-high-school-production-rent-appalling-twist-20171007

So it's hard to say conclusively whether it's more than an urban legend, but it's admittedly appallingly hilarious. Of course, Rent itself was at the center of a major lawsuit after the dramaturg sued for part-ownership:
https://www.backstage.com/news/rent-dramaturg-sues-larson-estate/

Personally, I had the recent experience of finding my most produced play on YouTube, produced without a license at a Michigan school's one-act festival (a school with a Thespian troupe, no less), and as I watched, to my growing horror, I discovered that the central monologue, in which a teen writes a letter to a knife company complaining that their knife, with which he tried to cut his wrists, wasn't sharp enough, was now about a knife accident while chopping onions (which rendered the rest of it nonsensical). They'd added multiple monologues from a random divorcee character, cut scenes, adding a scene and lyrics from the musical version of the show, added text to other monologues. I was literally shaking I was so angry by the end of it. While sure, the video has been taken down and the school is paying royalties and additional fees, the level of ignorance and intellectual laziness that allowed it to happen in the first place is disturbing and depressing.

While it's no shocker that plays show up on YouTube these days, it's generally not legal. Many people don't realize that when one licenses a play, one's typically licensing "live stage rights" only. Recording, if allowed at all, is a separate set of rights.

I'm now a member of the Dramatists Guild Education Committee that's co-chaired by Marsha Norman and David Lindsay-Abaire, and one of our goals is to increase awareness and understanding of intellectual property rights at the college and K-12 levels So it's fantastic to hear about courses like this being taught--there need to be more of them. You might actually get in touch with the Guild, as no doubt they're aware of other cases involving intellectual property that might be of interest.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Great topic. I did a little digging on the Rent diabetes issue, which turned up this gem of a link:

https://www.queerty.com/twitter-goes-nuts-high-school-production-rent-appalling-twist-20171007

So it's hard to say conclusively whether it's more than an urban legend, but it's admittedly appallingly hilarious. Of course, Rent itself was at the center of a major lawsuit after the dramaturg sued for part-ownership:
https://www.backstage.com/news/rent-dramaturg-sues-larson-estate/

Personally, I had the recent experience of finding my most produced play on YouTube, produced without a license at a Michigan school's one-act festival (a school with a Thespian troupe, no less), and as I watched, to my growing horror, I discovered that the central monologue, in which a teen writes a letter to a knife company complaining that their knife, with which he tried to cut his wrists, wasn't sharp enough, was now about a knife accident while chopping onions (which rendered the rest of it nonsensical). They'd added multiple monologues from a random divorcee character, cut scenes, adding a scene and lyrics from the musical version of the show, added text to other monologues. I was literally shaking I was so angry by the end of it. While sure, the video has been taken down and the school is paying royalties and additional fees, the level of ignorance and intellectual laziness that allowed it to happen in the first place is disturbing and depressing.

While it's no shocker that plays show up on YouTube these days, it's generally not legal. Many people don't realize that when one licenses a play, one's typically licensing "live stage rights" only. Recording, if allowed at all, is a separate set of rights.

I'm now a member of the Dramatists Guild Education Committee that's co-chaired by Marsha Norman and David Lindsay-Abaire, and one of our goals is to increase awareness and understanding of intellectual property rights at the college and K-12 levels So it's fantastic to hear about courses like this being taught--there need to be more of them. You might actually get in touch with the Guild, as no doubt they're aware of other cases involving intellectual property that might be of interest.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Great topic. I did a little digging on the Rent diabetes issue, which turned up this gem of a link:

https://www.queerty.com/twitter-goes-nuts-high-school-production-rent-appalling-twist-20171007

So it's hard to say conclusively whether it's more than an urban legend, but it's admittedly appallingly hilarious. Of course, Rent itself was at the center of a major lawsuit after the dramaturg sued for part-ownership:
https://www.backstage.com/news/rent-dramaturg-sues-larson-estate/

Personally, I had the recent experience of finding my most produced play on YouTube, produced without a license at a Michigan school's one-act festival (a school with a Thespian troupe, no less), and as I watched, to my growing horror, I discovered that the central monologue, in which a teen writes a letter to a knife company complaining that their knife, with which he tried to cut his wrists, wasn't sharp enough, was now about a knife accident while chopping onions (which rendered the rest of it nonsensical). They'd added multiple monologues from a random divorcee character, cut scenes, adding a scene and lyrics from the musical version of the show, added text to other monologues. I was literally shaking I was so angry by the end of it. While sure, the video has been taken down and the school is paying royalties and additional fees, the level of ignorance and intellectual laziness that allowed it to happen in the first place is disturbing and depressing.

While it's no shocker that plays show up on YouTube these days, it's generally not legal. Many people don't realize that when one licenses a play, one's typically licensing "live stage rights" only. Recording, if allowed at all, is a separate set of rights.

I'm now a member of the Dramatists Guild Education Committee that's co-chaired by Marsha Norman and David Lindsay-Abaire, and one of our goals is to increase awareness and understanding of intellectual property rights at the college and K-12 levels So it's fantastic to hear about courses like this being taught--there need to be more of them. You might actually get in touch with the Guild, as no doubt they're aware of other cases involving intellectual property that might be of interest.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Professional set designers read the script, ignore all the stage directions (which, in the vast majority of cases, were put there by the stage manager for the first production, i.e., taken from the prompt book), and create an "original" space that supports the story.


Do you know how hard it is to train kids to ignore the stage directions?  Every single show, I have someone say "but the stage directions say...."  and my response is always "That was for their production, not ours!"  My favorite is when they try to follow stage directions to use a set piece that we won't even have in our production.

As far as anecdotal pieces for the original question, we once requested permission to make Marcus Lycus female in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.  Permission was denied, even though the role had been played as female on Broadway my Whoopi Goldberg.  We were instructed that we could cast a female actor as long as the role was played as male.

On the flip side, we asked and were granted permission to make the minstrel in Once Upon a Mattress female.

Great topic. I did a little digging on the Rent diabetes issue, which turned up this gem of a link:

https://www.queerty.com/twitter-goes-nuts-high-school-production-rent-appalling-twist-20171007

So it's hard to say conclusively whether it's more than an urban legend, but it's admittedly appallingly hilarious. Of course, Rent itself was at the center of a major lawsuit after the dramaturg sued for part-ownership:
https://www.backstage.com/news/rent-dramaturg-sues-larson-estate/

Personally, I had the recent experience of finding my most produced play on YouTube, produced without a license at a Michigan school's one-act festival (a school with a Thespian troupe, no less), and as I watched, to my growing horror, I discovered that the central monologue, in which a teen writes a letter to a knife company complaining that their knife, with which he tried to cut his wrists, wasn't sharp enough, was now about a knife accident while chopping onions (which rendered the rest of it nonsensical). They'd added multiple monologues from a random divorcee character, cut scenes, adding a scene and lyrics from the musical version of the show, added text to other monologues. I was literally shaking I was so angry by the end of it. While sure, the video has been taken down and the school is paying royalties and additional fees, the level of ignorance and intellectual laziness that allowed it to happen in the first place is disturbing and depressing.

While it's no shocker that plays show up on YouTube these days, it's generally not legal. Many people don't realize that when one licenses a play, one's typically licensing "live stage rights" only. Recording, if allowed at all, is a separate set of rights.

I'm now a member of the Dramatists Guild Education Committee that's co-chaired by Marsha Norman and David Lindsay-Abaire, and one of our goals is to increase awareness and understanding of intellectual property rights at the college and K-12 levels So it's fantastic to hear about courses like this being taught--there need to be more of them. You might actually get in touch with the Guild, as no doubt they're aware of other cases involving intellectual property that might be of interest.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Great topic. I did a little digging on the Rent diabetes issue, which turned up this gem of a link:

https://www.queerty.com/twitter-goes-nuts-high-school-production-rent-appalling-twist-20171007

So it's hard to say conclusively whether it's more than an urban legend, but it's admittedly appallingly hilarious. Of course, Rent itself was at the center of a major lawsuit after the dramaturg sued for part-ownership:
https://www.backstage.com/news/rent-dramaturg-sues-larson-estate/

Personally, I had the recent experience of finding my most produced play on YouTube, produced without a license at a Michigan school's one-act festival (a school with a Thespian troupe, no less), and as I watched, to my growing horror, I discovered that the central monologue, in which a teen writes a letter to a knife company complaining that their knife, with which he tried to cut his wrists, wasn't sharp enough, was now about a knife accident while chopping onions (which rendered the rest of it nonsensical). They'd added multiple monologues from a random divorcee character, cut scenes, adding a scene and lyrics from the musical version of the show, added text to other monologues. I was literally shaking I was so angry by the end of it. While sure, the video has been taken down and the school is paying royalties and additional fees, the level of ignorance and intellectual laziness that allowed it to happen in the first place is disturbing and depressing.

While it's no shocker that plays show up on YouTube these days, it's generally not legal. Many people don't realize that when one licenses a play, one's typically licensing "live stage rights" only. Recording, if allowed at all, is a separate set of rights.

I'm now a member of the Dramatists Guild Education Committee that's co-chaired by Marsha Norman and David Lindsay-Abaire, and one of our goals is to increase awareness and understanding of intellectual property rights at the college and K-12 levels So it's fantastic to hear about courses like this being taught--there need to be more of them. You might actually get in touch with the Guild, as no doubt they're aware of other cases involving intellectual property that might be of interest.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Great topic. I did a little digging on the Rent diabetes issue, which turned up this gem of a link:

https://www.queerty.com/twitter-goes-nuts-high-school-production-rent-appalling-twist-20171007

So it's hard to say conclusively whether it's more than an urban legend, but it's admittedly appallingly hilarious. Of course, Rent itself was at the center of a major lawsuit after the dramaturg sued for part-ownership:
https://www.backstage.com/news/rent-dramaturg-sues-larson-estate/

Personally, I had the recent experience of finding my most produced play on YouTube, produced without a license at a Michigan school's one-act festival (a school with a Thespian troupe, no less), and as I watched, to my growing horror, I discovered that the central monologue, in which a teen writes a letter to a knife company complaining that their knife, with which he tried to cut his wrists, wasn't sharp enough, was now about a knife accident while chopping onions (which rendered the rest of it nonsensical). They'd added multiple monologues from a random divorcee character, cut scenes, adding a scene and lyrics from the musical version of the show, added text to other monologues. I was literally shaking I was so angry by the end of it. While sure, the video has been taken down and the school is paying royalties and additional fees, the level of ignorance and intellectual laziness that allowed it to happen in the first place is disturbing and depressing.

While it's no shocker that plays show up on YouTube these days, it's generally not legal. Many people don't realize that when one licenses a play, one's typically licensing "live stage rights" only. Recording, if allowed at all, is a separate set of rights.

I'm now a member of the Dramatists Guild Education Committee that's co-chaired by Marsha Norman and David Lindsay-Abaire, and one of our goals is to increase awareness and understanding of intellectual property rights at the college and K-12 levels So it's fantastic to hear about courses like this being taught--there need to be more of them. You might actually get in touch with the Guild, as no doubt they're aware of other cases involving intellectual property that might be of interest.

Cheers,
Jonathan