Business Article Archive for Theatre Writers

In the entertainment industry, the term “billing” refers to how the people who worked on a show are given credit for their contributions. For artists who make their living on their names and reputations, billing is an important form of compensation. In some industries, credits can directly impact financial compensation; in others, the impact may be indirect but it is still critical. 
 
In the theatre, customary billing credit for the author requires the following:

• No one may receive billing larger or more prominent than the author, except for stars billed...

On the cusp of a new year, we look back at 1998 with pride and regret. While the Guild is proud of its accomplishments on behalf of its members, we regret that some of our actions were made necessary by circumstance and that circumstances continue to justify vigilance about certain important matters. 

The most prominent concern currently confronting playwrights, composers, and lyricists writing for the theater today remains the notion of “non-...

The creation of a dramatic work with a partner can be a very personal and intimate activity. At the beginning, it’s all hearts and flowers… the first blush of creative synergy fairly bursting off the page. The collaboration is in the honeymoon phase, and no one is thinking of contracts or “what if” scenarios. Like a prenuptial agreement, collaboration agreements at this point might be considered “unromantic”; after all, anticipating a divorce could provoke one, in this kind of magical tautology. “Oh, we’re friends… we don’t need a contract,” they say.

But it’s at this point in the...

Although devised theatre is now well established, there has been little discussion on the legal issues it has generated relating to authors’ rights. This article outlines those issues, discusses a legal framework, and suggests approaches by which authors involved with devised theatre productions might better protect themselves and their work.

Tari Stratton: I’m Tari Stratton, Director of Education and Outreach here at the Dramatists Guild. I’d like to welcome you all here for the second in our series of seminars called Contracts 101. I am very happy to introduce our Executive Director of Business Affairs, Ralph Sevush, who will be your guide.

Ralph Sevush: Thank you, Tari. I’m glad to have tonight a great panel of people. I have two Dramatists Guild Council members who’ve been working together for over forty years, and who better to talk about collaboration than Nancy Ford and Gretchen Cryer? On my right, we have...

The Guild materials were not created to limit the collaborative spirit found in devised theatre. The sharing of ideas, thoughts, and suggestions among multiple individuals is invaluable. Rather, they were created to assist authors engaged in a devised or collaborative process to form appropriate relationships with co-authors, devisors, and sponsoring theaters. Ultimately, it is the author’s responsibility to preserve authorial ownership and control when creating work of this type – rights that have been established under law and preserved in the theater industry for a century or more....

In recent years, members of both SDC and Dramatists Guild have raised questions regarding director participation in subsidiary rights. In an effort to examine the issue, Guild President Stephen Schwartz and SDC President Karen Azenberg suggested that an informal group composed of an equal number of writers and directors convene to discuss the practice. These were casual meetings, not formal negotiations, and they took place over the course of two years, from 2011 to 2013.

Both groups were heartened by the consensus that we achieved in these discussions. Everyone acknowledged that...

The relationship between author and actor has a sordid and glorious history. There is a natural tension in the collaboration between those writing the words and those speaking them, perhaps borne out of helplessness and necessity, each for the other. Sometimes this tension creates profundity… and sometimes lawsuits.

We did host a panel discussion on the actor-author relationship (see “The Actor – Author Relationship: A Cathedral Built on Wickets” transcript published in The Dramatist, July `03), but there is little history of our institutions, the Dramatists Guild and Actor’s...

I (Ralph Sevush) wrote the following letter to Suze Allen, the Guild’s regional representative in San Francisco. She had contacted us to ask about our position on dramaturgs and dramaturgy, in response to a query she received from a dramaturg, Todd Gutmann, who raised questions on his blog about the Guild (See http://opendramaturgy. blogspot.com/). She asked us for “any words of wisdom on this topic,” but I thought I should answer her anyway. Here, then, is my attempt to present her with the history and context for the continuingly volatile issue of...