Good point cast me about the blocking directions.
Invariably you will be working on a postage stamp, when compared to the differing orientation of the set, to that of the original production.
Logistically this would come into the grey area between the white & black bits.
Your welcome to tea leave my lines at any time Castme. I probably ?arf inched it in the first place! As I doubt I have had an original thought in my life!
{If memory serves me correctly. I first heard it, as a freindly gape between Lionel Bart & Harry Hudson [Who did the piano score for Barty - because he couldn't read music] during the rehearsals of 'Fings ain't wot they used to be' back in the '50's}
Anyway isn?t that why they invented pencils for in the first place?
as for being nicked under copyright.
The two I remember is a group in Geraldton for changing the overture to ?Oliver?, because the MD didn?t like the way it was originally set out.
That cost them about $10 000 [AUD] back in the early 90?s. Or the Venue at Karratha that paid out an undisclosed amount to Rolf Harris. Because they allowed the punters to take flash pics of his performance & didn?t post notices of no recording devices allowed.
These are a regional City & the later a remote country town, in the north west of the state.
So your never that isolated, to get away with it these days.

Originally posted by TheActingTechie Well our next show is Fools, so I hope Neil Simon isn't that picky.

It has nothing to do with the playwright being picky or not.   It has everything to do with whether you have the right to change that which you do not own, the words of the play.   You do not.

I hope that you or your group does the right thing.  If not I sincerely hope that someone has the good sense to drop a dime to Samuel French or Neil Simon's attorney.

Craig,

Welcome! Of course, by throwing your 2 cents into this discussion, you know you've opened yourself to a gazillion questions. I'll start it off;

Could you give us a brief idea of how this kind of request should be made? I think most of us are a little skittish about approching the publishing houses about anything, given some of the experiences we've had.

 

Mike, the best way to approach us here in the high towers of our licensing world is simply to send a letter or email that details the changes or types of changes that you would like permission to make.  And send that letter early and with plenty of time to spare.  Do NOT write to us a week or two before you open, saying "Oh, by the way, can we change x?" As soon as you know you want to produce a play and think you might want to aks about changing something, sit down and write.

The responses will be varied.  Some authors may not mind some "toning down" of language.  Others may say no changes may be made.  Requests to cut or replace some profanity are likely to at least be considered by most authors or agents, but requests to make larger cuts or alterations will be increasingly harder.  Changing gender of characters is not likely to be allowed unless the character in question is a minor one.

The only other thing to keep in mind is that the answer may be "No."  And you may have to live with that.  If you feel it's impossible to produce a play without the changes, then you should have another possible choice if the author won't approve the changes.  Again, nothing is worse for you than getting a call saying you have to close your play in the middle of the run.  And I don't like making that call, either.

I've been doing some surfing on several topics in this thread. I'm not vouching for the info one way or another, just some things I've read. First of all here's a theater professor named Louis E. Catron on stage directions and copyright infringement:

 

"There is an urban myth about stage directions.  Some theatre practitioners claim stage directions aren?t worth much because so many are written by the stage manager of the play?s first professional production.  Nonsense!  What you see within the script is by the playwright."

"Strangely and for at best weird reasons, some directors preach that the director should cross out all stage directions before beginning to prepare the play for production.  That?s a violation of copyright."

 

http://lecatr.people.wm.edu/copy.htm

http://lecatr.people.wm.edu/stagedirections.html

 

And here's something on the personal liability of board members of non-profits. This is specific for my state and could be different elsewhere.

"Officers and directors of corporations normally are not liable for conduct of the corporation that causes harm or injury. The rules vary with respect to unincorporated associations. Of course, officers and directors can have personal liability for their own conduct or criminal acts, but this liability does not arise from the status of merely being an officer or director. Because officers and directors frequently are named as additional defendants in litigation arising from an act of a nonprofit organization, the Virginia Code has specified many statutory immunities:

• Limitations of liability. Officers and directors of non-stock, nonprofit corporations will have no liability for acts of the corporation if they are uncompensated. If they are compensated, liability is limited to one month?s prior compensation."

http://www.vscpa.com/Financial_Fitness/Nonprofit_Resources/L iability.aspx