Copyright Issues

Do's and Dont's of Licensing

This article covers several areas where copyrighting is concerned in theater. It discusses what theaters need to make sure they do and don't do if they want to avoid a problem with copyrighting. Very general topic.


Theater concedes violating copyright, closes ‘Judas’ play
Theatre Concedes Violating Copyright
This article is published by the San Francisco Chronicles. It discusses how the Shelton Theatre had to cancel their production of Last Days of Judas Iscariot due to copyright violations. Playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis revoked the rights after he was notified that the company made significant changes to the script without permission. 

That’s What They Wrote and ‘That’swhatshesaid' 

The writer of this article talked with the creators of a play titled, That’swhatshesaid.' They discussed their intent by creating the play and how they never intended on copywriting any work. The writer also spoke with intellectual law attorney’s about the way the artist's play was considered copyright infringement 

The Writer is King: Copyright in Devised Theatre

The whole idea of Devised theatre is that nearly everyone involved in the production can pitch ideas on how the script should be made. With this in mind who of these idea pitchers can lay claim to copyright laws? This article discusses this subject with examples of recent productions that went through similar issues.

Property Rights and Wrongs 

This article addresses the gray area of copyright violations involving direction and design work in theatre. Several cases of infringement are explored and the author acknowledges that better copyright laws as a potential solution. The author also acknowledges that laws won't necessarily fix the problem.  

When a Writer's Rights Aren't Right: The "Virginia Woolf" Casting Fight 

This article uses the frame of a 2017 struggle between Edward Albee's estate and Director Michael Streeter over casting that deviated from Albee's original intention to argue that the licensing of plays should favor artistic choice over historical or authorial precedent. Other traditionally close-minded estates are mentioned such as Beckett's which are contrasted with playwrights like Shakespeare and Chekhov whose plays are often reworked to fit a modern perspective allowing them to stand the test of time.

"Whose Production is it Anyway?": Violating Copyright in Theatre

This article, written by Tom Briggs on March 9th, 2018 for OnStageBlog, goes into his personal experiences with breaking and upholding copyright laws, while also discussing artistic integrity and how easy it is for us to sometimes slip into copyright issues when working on a production with detailed scene descriptions/stage directions.