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 Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board :Producing Theater :Directing |
 Topic: changing profanity( Topic Closed) |
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teridtiger
Star 
Joined: 10/24/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 69 |
 Posted: 10/27/06 at 3:58pm |
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Go back to the start of this thread....
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TheActingTechie
Player 
Joined: 3/13/06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 29 |
Posted: 10/27/06 at 8:55pm |
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I realize that what we have done is not 100% legal, but we did it in the most tasteful manner we could with our restrictions. It's kind of like Jaywalking, technically illegal, but who is gonna be thrown in jail for it?
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B-M-D
Celebrity 
Joined: 11/03/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 346 |
Posted: 10/27/06 at 9:56pm |
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My day job involves copyright licensing, though not with dramatic works. Believe me people get sued, pay huge penalties and fines and people go to jail for copyright infringement. Messing with the dialog is a form of copyright infringement. Tell it to the judge when you get caught. Your restrictions are your problem. What you did is almost like taking a rental car from Avis and painting a racing stripe on it. It didn't hurt the car and it still runs. But it's not your property. And you don't own the intelectual property that's represented by the words in the play. Until the play is no longer protected by copyright (which is now the life of the author plus 70 years) you do not have the right to change it without permission. Bottom line it's not ok no matter what. |
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BD
"Dying is easy, comedy is hard." |
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reds
Walk-On 
Joined: 10/27/06 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 0 |
Posted: 10/28/06 at 9:10am |
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I direct for my school and my theatre company as well as for other companies and this comes up a lot. I always refuse to change anything. I put a "Warning" at auditions if children are involed in the cast, and the same warning in the advertisement of the show if necessary. I got flack last year because during "Annie" Warbucks says damn. I am preparing now to direct "The Last 5 Years" for a community theatre (they picked it) so if they have a problem with it, they should have read it. I will tell you though, that some authors will allow changes and adaptations....some even have "suggested alternatives"...but you should not just do it on your own.
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red diva
Celebrity
Joined: 5/15/06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 199 |
Posted: 10/28/06 at 2:05pm |
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As B-M-D points out, being sued and having to pay huge penalties is a real danger. Case in point: about 30 years ago one of the community theatres in our state infringed on a copyright, was sued as was their board, and went under because of the financial judgement against them. Chances are you won't be caught, but what if you are? It's always a possibility. |
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"I've worked long and hard to earn the right to be called Diva!"
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jayzehr
Celebrity
Joined: 8/11/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 537 |
Posted: 10/29/06 at 1:24am |
Could you provide any further details on this case or other similar examples? What sort of infringement was this? I have no previous experience in being any kind of board member. Are you saying I could be personally liable if, for example, the guy playing Murray the cop won't say "for Christ sakes" in our CT's production of the Odd Couple? |
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red diva
Celebrity
Joined: 5/15/06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 199 |
Posted: 10/29/06 at 2:58pm |
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Jayzehr: I'm not an attorney, but my understanding is that if you are a board member of a not-for-profit group, you can personally be held responsible in any judgement against your theatre. If there is an attorney out there that can tell me whether or not that's correct, I would appreciate his/her comments, but that is the belief that our theatre has operated under since I've been involved (34 years). I don't remember the details of the case, but I will email the Exec. Dir. of our state organization and see if she recalls the circumstances. If Neil Simon is as picky as I have heard and the agency that handles his plays is aware that you have asked for permission to edit and were refused, they may choose to keep an eye on you....or not. A friend who is an executive for MTI told me that if they investigated all the possible copyright infringements that came to their attention, they would have to build a new wing on their corporate headquarters....it's just not worth their time, effort, and expense to pursue infractions. But are you willing to take the chance that an agency might just want to make an example of your theatre? Quite a few years back, our Playhouse advertised our Weds. night final dress as a "Club Performance" (for families and friends). Even though we were not charging admission, we received a letter from Dramatists, French, or whichever one it was, telling us that unless we paid royalty rights for that "performance", they would take legal action against us. We paid, and are very careful now to call that night a final dress rehearsal, and not any sort of performance! You never know who might have access to your advertising or newsletter, and as unlikely as it seems, somehow one of our publications ended up in their hands. Big Brother is indeed watching! |
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"I've worked long and hard to earn the right to be called Diva!"
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falstaff29
Celebrity
Joined: 9/17/04 Online Status: Offline Posts: 155 |
Posted: 10/29/06 at 5:20pm |
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If I'm directing a show with profanity, I post warnings- at auditions,
on advertising, but I don't change the line for a couple of reasons:
1. That's what the author wrote, and we should respect his wishes and his property. Granted, there are some playwrights who I feel use profanity gratuitously, more as a gimmick than as a stylistic dialogue tool. But, if I feel that way, I don't pick their show! 2. If you eliminate or substitute rough language, often it's rather obvious, because any good writer will incorporate profanity into the meter of their dialogue. Think about when you watch an R-rated movie on tv, and they silence out or dub over the f-words. That's how your play's gonna look, except without the obvious lip movement. 3. There's often a real purpose behind it. Legally, a production may not change dialogue or the gender of characters, but may change blocking, in most circumstances. People do it, but they often prove why it's a bad idea. I've directed some plays where I've been nudged to make a male character female, eg, and I've refused, because even if gender doesn't seem to make a difference, the more I work with a text, the more I realize, "This character HAD to be male." Blocking, of course, is different, except for Beckett, who insists upon keeping it the same. There's a great version of Krapp's Last Tape published in the nineties probably where he made a number of seemingly-insignificant revisions to his blocking from the original version, and the appendix is really illuminating, because he explains why he made each change. Goes to show that writers do write with a purpose. Language is part of that purpose. Now, granted, stuff where you legally can change the text (eg, Shakespeare), people often do. And I have myself. The one caution I'd go with there is- make sure you understand why the text was written as it was before you go cutting stuff. If you think a scene is superfluous, figure out why it is there before you decide to cut it. That way, you'll understand how your cut affects the playwright's intent and helps to solidify yours. |
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jayzehr
Celebrity
Joined: 8/11/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 537 |
Posted: 10/29/06 at 11:33pm |
Wow, that's an eye opener. Would that extend to, say, someone getting hurt and receiving a judgement that wasn't completely covered by insurance? Now, regarding my totally hypothetical Odd Couple example--does the copyright infringement usually extend to stage directions as well? The stage directions call for Oscar to take off his pants at one point--what if that isn't done? How about gender changes? Say, hypothetically, you need to use a woman for one of the small cop parts in "You Can't Take it With You" to cast the show. Is that copyright infringement? Do you need to contact Dramatists or Samuel French to get permission for that and do they usually allow it? Based on what I've seen this happens a lot, especially at schools and I suspect people aren't always or even usually getting official permission. |
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red diva
Celebrity
Joined: 5/15/06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 199 |
Posted: 10/30/06 at 1:10pm |
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jayzehr: Again, this is all based on my understanding and that of my theatre: 1. Yes, a board member would be liable in any judgement. 2. In most cases, stage directions/blocking noted in a script are NOT written by the playwright (with exceptions, of course); they are the notes of some past stage manager of an earlier production that wrote that director's blocking down in his script and then it was included when the script was printed for sale. Therefore, unless the blocking directly relates to lines in the script and you would have to change the lines to go along with the changed blocking, you are free to do whatever blocking you want. When I direct, I usually tell my cast to totally ignore the stage directions in the script unless I tell them not to. After all, your stage and set design are different than that of the original production, and chances are the printed blocking would not work in your show's design. Perhaps you meant "business", not "blocking"? Very often, business stated in the script directly goes with the lines (as I mentioned above). In that case, you need to keep it as it is in the playbook. 3. Yes, gender changes need to be cleared with the licensing house. My experience is that, depending on the playwright, they are willing to let you do so. Some scripts even state that these changes are permissable. It's best to err on the side of caution and check. 4. Yes, some theatres/schools do violate copywrite laws without permission. I have worked in some that have done this. As I said in my earlier post, however, if you are the one theatre that they find out about and want to make an example, you're up ----- creek with-out a paddle (and perhaps without money)! Again, if an attorney out there would like to correct anything I believe to be true, I would welcome the correction! |
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