"Pirates" was wonderful! What now?
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Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Play Suggestions
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Topic: "Pirates" was wonderful! What now?
Posted By: lucyvanpelt
Subject: "Pirates" was wonderful! What now?
Date Posted: 6/15/06 at 6:43pm
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We just finished Pirates of Penzance for our community theatre youth production. It was a huge success.
The theatre doesn't pay royalties for the youth productions as the would for the big adult musicals we do. So we usually do some no name play with cheap royalties. Well, now we are spoiled, because Pirates has a name and was royalty free. How can we top that? What are some great plays AND musicals for youth that will bring down the house like Pirates did?? A great comedy would be wonderful! Help! |
Replies:
Posted By: castMe
Date Posted: 6/15/06 at 10:24pm
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Lucy. Good luck finding royalty free stuff. The way the
copywrite laws have been amended means it's extremely unlikely anything
else will move into the public domain. The copywrite laws (at the
risk of offending Playwright) are crap. Thank Disney for
that. Mickey Mouse was due to move into the public domain a few
years ago, but Disney threw their weight (money) around and got
congress to extend the term for copyrights to last for close to one
hundred years. These were never intended to be lifetime payments
and were designed originally to last for a few years and expire, thus
encouraging the creators to create some more. What else is Walt
Disney likely to create? Pretty ironic when you conside that most
of Disney's biggest money makers were based upon public domain works
(Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast) Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, a few others. I can't name a single important property that came into the public domain in the 20th century. Spend the $35 to $50 per show and find something you like. I know how expensive musicals are. Is Gilbert and Sullivan all public domain? I think they are. I will now back slowly away from my soap box. ------------- Investigate. Imagine. Choose. |
Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 6/16/06 at 3:36am
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Any G&S original works is in the public domain & does not
attract any royalties. However any of the adaptations created later
will have royalty fees, depending if it does not succeed the 70th
anniversary of the death of the author or it being first published. It
can be a wee bit of a legal mine field! Our copyright law was out of step with the rest of the world, until 2005. As it used to be, that it came into the public domain on the 1st January after 50th year. Which all changed happened when we agreed to the trade deal with USA! So we now have to wait until 1st January 2026 for the next works to be available. What used to be ridiculous here, before the trade agreement, was the number of CT groups who stupidly paid up the royalties, when they didn?t have to! But castme is right about the US pushing to have a world standard, which is happening in a rather adhoc manner & I think it hasn?t quite happened completely yet? But what I don?t understand is your adult groups reluctance to pay fees for their youth section? I assume they take all the dosh from the box office of your productions or are they done at no ticket price?  ------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
Posted By: POB14
Date Posted: 6/19/06 at 10:39am
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If Pirates was a huge success, go with Pinafore or Mikado. Our American Cousin is in the public domain, and it's silly. (You might want to play down the "play Lincoln was watching when he got shot" angle. I agree with Gaafa, though; why no royalties? CastMe, you now owe Disney $6.95 for even mentioning Mickey Mouse. Oops, I mentioned Mickey Mouse too! Aaargh, I did it again! CastMe, why did you bring up Mickey Mouse? OH NO! AGAIN! I'd better sign off before I'm in hock to Disney up to my elbows. ------------- POB Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard |
)
Posted By: lucyvanpelt
Date Posted: 7/10/06 at 11:30pm
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Thanks for your replies. I am sorry I haven't gotten back to say that sooner. After directing 48 youths in Pirates, I have found myself being a little lazy now since it is all over!
I don't know why our theater does that. It is like they don't care as much about the youth productions. Which is crazy, because with Pirates we sold out 2 weeks before opening night! And yes, we are charging ticket prices the same as we do the adult shows. Who knows. Sigh. Anyway, I will check into these authors and plays that you all mentioned. I thank you again for your help! |
Posted By: Slovak68
Date Posted: 8/16/06 at 1:37pm
I saw Our American Cousin recently, and they actually emphasized the Lincoln connection (it was done around the anniversary of his death, April 15). Several times, the action on stage would freeze and a voiceover would describe what happened at that point in the play on the night of the assassination in a suitably solemn tone (e.g. "At this moment in the play on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth entered Ford's Theater and made his way to the staircase leading up to the boxes. He had a .32 caliber revolver hidden in his coat pocket.") It was interesting, because you were on the edge of your seat waiting for "the moment." It was particularly affecting when they stopped the action at the exact moment Lincoln was shot, because during the voiceover narrative, the actors, with dramatic backlighting, slow-motion pantomimed their horrified reaction to a gunshot ringing out from the Presidential box, then they instantly shifted back to their "freeze" positions and continued the play. The production company claimed that it was the first time Our American Cousin had been produced since Lincoln's death, but I didn't believe it. |
Posted By: POB14
Date Posted: 8/17/06 at 9:25am
Sounds like http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/catalogdetail.cfm?listcode=O23 - this version .
I don't either. And a few minutes with Google will convince anybody else. I'm shocked, shocked that a company would stretch the truth for publicity purposes! ------------- POB Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard |
Posted By: B-M-D
Date Posted: 8/17/06 at 12:38pm
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Since my day job involves copyright licensing perhaps I can shed a little light on what is certainly a mine field if one is not carefull. While you may be right that Disney threw it's weight around to have copyright protection extended (although I'm certainly not privy to that one way or the other) it benefits more than just Disney. Current works are now protected for the life of the author plus 70 years. This acctually benefits the creators of new works ensuring that they will be paid for the fruits of thier creations and thus enabling them the ecconomic freedom to continue to create new works. Previous copyright protections were far shorter. Without going into long drawn out details anything published prior to 1923 is in the public domain. After that it depends on when it was publsihed and if copyright was renewed and which revision of the copyright law might apply to it. It's possible that some works from the 1930's and maybe the 40's could be in the public domain. Here's a link to a table that will give you an idea if a US work has passed into the public domain: http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm - http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm
------------- BD 
"Dying is easy, comedy is hard." |
Posted By: castMe
Date Posted: 8/17/06 at 5:26pm
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Thanks B-M-D for sharing information (from your uniquely qualified
perspective) on the copywrite issue. What an interesting job you
have. While I certainly understand the importance of ensuring the
creator's intellectual property is protected and the artist rewarded,
my major hang-up with the now extended period of protection provided by
law is it far excedes the time granted for other similary protected
properties (a drug patent, for instance). While the case may be
made that a drug is more important in the great, grand scheme of
things, how wonderful it would be for our grammer school, high school,
college and community theaters to have more royalty-free productions
from which to choose. Not to mention the newly written works which
might include the aforementioned Mouse. One can only guess what
wonders might spring from others given the opportunity to use such
images, characters and stories at will.
------------- Investigate. Imagine. Choose. |
Posted By: Slovak68
Date Posted: 8/18/06 at 2:16pm
Close, but no cigar. No night watchman, no bowing to the president. Just freezes with the voiceover. I bet if they had known this version existed, they would have used it, though. Good find... |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 9/28/06 at 2:43pm
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Try the PIONEER website. They have a lot of musicals which are inexpensive in the royalty market (compared to Tams-Witmark, etc.), but are hilarious for the audiences. Ones that have been extremely well received at our high school: Tied to the Tracks, Wagon Wheels West, The Lady Pirates of Captain Bree, Give My Regards to Broadway, The Ransom of Red Chief, Orphans in Candyland. Others that we can't do because of strict standards, but I would love to do: Ducktails and Bobbysocks; Flapper; Oh, Horrors! It's Murder!; A Connecticut Yankee; Lucky Dollar, Private Eye Other scripts I have my eye on that I will do eventually: The Secret Garden (PIONEER--not the Broadway version), A Little Princess; Sleepy Hollow ------------- |
Posted By: Thespian_4_ever
Date Posted: 4/18/07 at 7:17pm
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I'm sorry your theatre doesn't care about the youth. Mine does and we're very greatful for it, we just finished a 2.78 million dollar theatre for the kids, and our opening show was G2K Oklahoma! - an hour long version with all the best parts of Oklahoma but in a short version. R&H has the copyright for it along with King and I, Cinderella, and Once Upon A Matress for kids. MTI has tons, like Annie Jr, Guys and Dolls Jr, Into the Woods Jr, and probally 10 more. However your gonna have to pay at least 600 to 700 to produce any of those shows. ------------- |
Posted By: falstaff29
Date Posted: 4/21/07 at 3:58pm
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In response to the dispute about the Copyright Term Extension Act, I don't agree that it's a good thing. For all of the works which were set to soon enter the public domain when it was passed, it fails to promote progress (the Constitutional intent of copyrighting in the first place) because they have already been created. All it does for those works is continue to limit their exposure and dissemination. Even theoretically legally-protected fair uses (such as parody) are often curtailed through legal action if the copyright owner is powerful enough. While a creator is alive, protecting his interest is fine, but once he's dead, other policy considerations (like allowing free exchange of ideas) should carry the day.
Btw, please learn to spell, people. Copyrighting and copywriting are two fundamentally-different things.
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Posted By: roryatnextgen
Date Posted: 5/02/07 at 6:45pm
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Hi there,
Not sure if you are still looking, but can I suggest, if you are seeking good quality works which will get an audience on its feet and the cast enthused then perhaps you can check out our site -
http://www.nextgenpublications.com - http://www.nextgenpublications.com
We are a boutique publisher specialising in musicals and plays for youth theatre and schools, created using leading entertainment industry professionals.
We pride ourselves on our friendliness and attention to detail, so if you are still looking for a show, by all means get in touch as I'd be happy to help out.
My personal e-mail is
mailto:rory@nextgenpublications.com - rory@nextgenpublications.com
Kind Regards
Rory Stevens
Managing Director
Next Gen Publications
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