Thanks for posting this, Becca. Speaking as someone who's both an author and also runs a licensing company, if you are asking for a permission of some variety, start with the licensing company.
At that point, unless the licensing company also has decision-making ability (or it's just a business matter), they're going to email the author, so know that the answer you get from the licensing company is the answer the author has given them. In some cases, particularly if it's about a script change, the author might even email you back directly. At YouthPLAYS, we often give our authors this option, and I know that in the past, Playscripts has given me the option of emailing the customer directly as well.
Could the customer have emailed the playwright directly about a script change? Yes, but it means that the publisher is potentially in the dark that the conversation is even happening, which can spell trouble down the road. Or here's another example: A group that's doing one of my Playscripts plays asked about whether it was OK to do a preview performance at their home theatre before their festival run. For contractual reasons, that's not a decision I can make, so I referred them back to Playscripts; that query never should have come to me in the first place.
I believe that most playwrights love to hear from people who are performing their plays and would be delighted to talk to them about the artistic elements and answer questions (i.e. "What were you thinking when you wrote the dog into Scene 3?") or offer input. I certainly do. In fact, I try to proactively write people who produce my plays and let them know I'm open to answering questions about the script. But if the query is even remotely business-related, start with the representative. That's why they're there, and not trying to upend the communications chain allows business to be conducted efficiently, and--not to be underestimated--protects the playwright from receiving an email that may unintentionally put them in an awkward position.
Cheers,
Jonathan
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Jonathan Dorf
Playwright/ Co-founder of YouthPLAYS/ Co-chair of The Alliance Of Los Angeles Playwrights
Los Angeles CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-21-2018 10:37
From: Rebecca Lillias
Subject: "Going around" licensing to talk to author
I keep seeing references to teachers encouraging other teachers to "go around" the licensing company and try to talk to the author for a different answer.
Honestly, this seems really disrespectful to the author. Do we really think the licensing company doesn't talk to the writers or their agents? Why do we think we know better? If it was coming from a place of curiousity or education, that would make sense to me, but a lot of these comments seem to come from a place of entitlement. It's like we think we DESERVE to do a certain version of a show or certain cuts because it's for education. Of course we want to put on the best show for our students, but why don't we trust that the author has the licensing company representing them for a reason?
One time a teacher friend of mine emailed an author for different orchestrations for a show. It turns out that they only talked to one author (the main composer), and the old orchestrator wasn't happy that the author gave permission to use the new orchestrations. The licenisng company had already told them no for this reason, and it was a big problem.
Even if there's just one author listed, sometimes a whole group of people own the rights to the show. Unless we try to contact everyone (and how would we know if we did), I think we should stop trying to think we know more than the licensing company and let them do it for them.
This isn't meant to attack anyone, I promise. I'm just curious what people's thoughts are!
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Becca Lillias
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