royalties on ten-minute plays
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URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3375
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Topic: royalties on ten-minute plays
Posted By: jayzehr
Subject: royalties on ten-minute plays
Date Posted: 8/21/08 at 11:06pm
I was looking into an evening of ten-minute plays for actor and director development but the going price appears to be 35 dollars per play per performance. So you'd have to charge the same for 20 minutes of theater as you would for a 2 hour show. And these aren't exactly well known playwrights or a format that will draw conventional audiences (maybe I'm wrong there.) A lot of them are pretty edgy. I might be missing something or maybe it's just those high schools with the $50,000 play budgets that can afford these. 
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Replies:
Posted By: Shanahan
Date Posted: 8/27/08 at 2:54pm
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If you're looking at published shows, it's the publisher who most often sets the royalty--so not much blame to the playwright there. If on the other hand you're scouring playwright web sites looking for unpublished work, don't hesitate to drop the playwright an e-mail asking about royalties. I can only speak for myself but while I do typically expect to be compensated if someone chooses to perform one of my shows, I have often waived royalties for schools for 10-minute shows. On the other hand, I know a few 'wrights who make pretty good money on the side from the school-play market. And--if I may be so bold--some of us "not-exactly-well-known playwrights produce some pretty fine work. Remember: every playwright you know was unknown at one point! :-) peace & power, john ------------- Laughter guaranteed. Plays by John Shanahan http://www.johnshanahan.net Dinner for Several One Before Forty Bob's Date Brushstroke Worst Possible Time for Writer's Block & more! |
Posted By: donzolidis
Date Posted: 8/27/08 at 9:55pm
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True. The 10-minute play royalties are a little bit ridiculous. I've seen most of them for $30, but that's probably too high. If you think that full-length play royalties were $60 up until last year, (and now they seem to be hovering at $75), you're not really getting your bang for your buck.
You sometimes get a good discount on collections of 10-minute plays by the same author. An evening of 10-minute shows by Rich Orloff, say, might only cost you $75, whereas if you were to do all 10 of them separately it would be $300.
------------- www.donzolidis.com |
Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 8/28/08 at 8:39am
John, I wasn't criticizing playwrights for the cost of royalties; I realize they don't usually set them and are only getting part of the money anyway. If people are getting 35 dollars a pop from high schools for ten minute plays, more power to them I guess. It's just way too much for me to do a night of ten minute plays at that price. Regarding your comment above, this is another issue that's been discussed here. Of course there is some fine work from lesser known playwrights and our group has done a lot of lesser known contemporary material. The problem is getting an audience to come watch these shows which in the final analysis is a financial problem. It often has little to do with the quality of the show. |
Posted By: actor98
Date Posted: 9/11/08 at 1:06pm
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Does your area have a theater message board on the web? We do a one act festival every year and last year we asked for submissions and were inundated by them. We got a lot theat weren't so hot but loads that were great! We didn't have to look again this year since we still had lots from last year. Royalty free by the way. ------------- Acting is the art of speaking in a loud clear voice and the avoidance of bumping into the furniture-Alfred Lunt |
Posted By: Chris
Date Posted: 9/19/08 at 11:59am
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Hello Folks~
I'm new to the forum but I hope to become a familiar "face."
Ten minute plays should be reasonably priced. As stand alones, they provide extreme flexibility and in combination they create a "Dell style" evening of entertainment. If you are producing 12 shorts to create a full evening, your total royalty cost should be similar to what you would expect to pay for a single, full-length play.
****WARNING, Self Promotion follows*****
http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/advanced_search_result.php?typeid=128&type=Ten&modle=theater - Here are some very well written ten minute plays that start at $10 to $15 each per performance. You will not recognize all of the names but we have always been and will continue to be willing to publish strong works by new writers.
Chris ------------- Chris The Dramatic Publishing Co. http://www.dramaticpublishing.com - http://www.dramaticpublishing.com |