I know that we shouldn't change ONE word in a play without the author's permission. But I recently read where New City Theatre in Overland Park, Kansas did the "Americanized version" of the English play, Busybody by Jack Popplewell this past summer.

The original play is set in London and obviously the actors are required to speak with a British accent (one is even quite cockney).   The author is dead so where did they go to get permission to change it?

I just talked with a gal in the theater and she told me that the producer and director re wrote it themselves and set the play in San Francisco.

I know our actors are not of the caliber to do good English accents, but I would love to see us to the play. It would be really fun.

Maybe I just need to send my actors to a coach to learn accents.

As with all things weigh your decision carefully.  What might happen if you change things and get caught?  Is it worth the chance?  Also remember that you just put out the name of your group and the play you wanted to do in a forum where we know people feel very strongly about changing even one word, so yours chances of someone dropping a dime on you have gone up already. 

Thank you everyone. Good advice. Our committee decided not to do Busybody this year but we may try it another year. I love that play so I won't give up and as Gaafa says---we will just do it without worrying about the accent.
Barb

I think we will be rewriting a play in a somewhat different situation.  It was performed for the town's 50th anniversary, and the 100th is coming up.  The museum wants us to perform it again.  It was written by a local gal, since deceased.  They performed in the fairgrounds arena with a huge cast and heavy narration.  We would be in a building, with a small cast, and I would like the actors to speak, rather than narrating everything.  Other than that, the script changes would likely be for political correctness (or not), and length.  I don't think there will be a legal issue, but what of the ethical one?

There is no surviving family.  The museum had the manuscript (photocopied from a typewriter version with handwritten stage directions).  The museum said it would be ok to make those minor changes.  We will definitely credit her as the author/playwright in the program.  She hasn't been dead THAT long, but I doubt there's much of an estate to speak of.  I have a note of who the museum got the script from, but it's probably just the actor who had that copy.  Also, at least one of the two people whose name is listed is also deceased.