Sorry for my error. And I have revised my post. Thanks for pointing that out to me.
I was referring to the accepted practice where students may perform selections from plays and musicals for school events when and where students may be adjudicated and or graded and that work is for and purely for educational purposes.
I think this just points out how difficult copyright is for Theater Educators, there are a large number of concerns for various circumstances and in many cases different considerations need to be made for class work, teacher led collaborative efforts, student created work, public performance and or festival work.
The best thing to do in these circumstances is to seek out help from the publisher and or author. Publishers are often more than willing to help teachers and to answer questions.
As I mentioned earlier, we are currently engaged in the adaptation of a novel for the stage and we made sure to ask the author and publisher for the rights to do so before entertaining the idea. It is very important that we uphold the standards of royalty and property as we know them to be applicable for our situation and circumstance.
These opinions are simply that my opinions and should not be taken with any legal weight what so ever.
Thanks for the opportunity to contribute here on this community. I find it a very helpful environment for us as theater educators.
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Michael Johnson
Trinity NC
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-11-2015 08:41
From: Aaron Hunsaker
Subject: Hercules the Musical
Yeah I will admit I have never heard that term either.
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Aaron Hunsaker
Drama Director
Cedar Hill MO
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-10-2015 10:59
From: Michael McDonough
Subject: Hercules the Musical
Do you have a source to cite for your statement:
The only way i could see performing any of this is if "it is 1/3 or less of a Grand Work"
That's a new one for me; thinking it's an oft-repeated internet fallacy.
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Michael McDonough
New York NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-10-2015 10:06
From: Michael Johnson
Subject: Hercules the Musical
The only way i could see performing any of this is if "it is 1/3 or less of a Grand Work" and even then I think it would be pretty sticky. i certainly would not perform a work in it's entirety with out permission. Don is probably correct as others have mentioned.
Often, the rights for songs are separate from the book or story of a work. I could see however, doing this sort of thing in class-- selecting a popular book or film and have the students write, adapt and perform their work. That to me is a totally different animal.
We are currently adapting a novel to the stage and I made sure to get permission from the publisher and the blessings of the author before proceeding or even entertaining the idea.
Theater Folk has a Copyright for Teachers Handout on their website. Worth reviewing for us all, I think.
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Michael Johnson
Trinity NC
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-09-2015 14:11
From: Michael McDonough
Subject: Hercules the Musical
As Don says above: most likely illegal and now the profile of the production has been raised, it will probably come under scrutiny of MTI and Disney.
As far as materials: Disney looks to have created a stage version of Hercules (the Muse-ical) which played on their cruise ship(s).
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Michael McDonough
New York NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-09-2015 11:16
From: Aaron Hunsaker
Subject: Hercules the Musical
This year I have given my students the opportunity to help choose out spring musical and on of the shows that has come up in discussion is Disney's Herucules. Now upon my research on it I have found there are no rights or scripts available anywhere yet I have found a high school that performed the show in question last June. So my question is, does any one have any idea how they did this or where to get the materials?
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Aaron Hunsaker
Drama Director
Cedar Hill MO
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