Advocacy Newsroom

What are the Basic Terms of a Production Agreement?

You get the call that you have been waiting for; someone is interested in producing your script! Before you know it, you are looking at a multi-page production agreement, and being asked to sign on the dotted line. Even if you are lucky enough to have an agent or an attorney on your team, it is critical that you read the agreement and understand its terms.  This article will review the six most basic terms in a production agreement. Having a working knowledge of these...
Advocacy Newsroom

DGF Bridge Grants for Dramatists

The Dramatists Guild Foundation is now offering Bridge Grants to eligible playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists!apply hereThese Bridge Grants are need-based awards of up to $500, now available to support theatre writers with non-emergency and essential daily life expenses including:Medications...
Advocacy Newsroom

DG Advocacy Update: Our Legislative Agenda

Sometimes, what goes on in Washington D.C. can feel worlds apart from what happens on our stages but that couldn't be further from the truth. When you vote, you have the power to help elect officials who will prioritize issues that matter to writers like you.  Here are some of the policy and legislative relative issues the we've been working on in our advocacy efforts on behalf of playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists. Discover our...
Advocacy Newsroom

New Copyright Management Resource: DGCM Copyright Catalog Form

Make life easier for your heirs with DG Copyright Management's new Copyright Catalog form!Access the resourceYou've chosen someone to manage your literary estate of plays, songs, libretti, and/or musicals. Now what?The next step is to equip your estate manager with as much information as possible about you and your...
Advocacy Newsroom

Operatunity! Librettists in Conversation - Part I: How to Craft an Opera

Join the Dramatists Guild for a new series of conversations about the art, craft, and business of creating opera! It can feel lonely to make opera; sometimes, it's hard to find resources, career training opportunities, craft development tools, or chances to connect with kindred spirits. Nevertheless, there is new opera being made all over the country, by people who are fascinated by such an emotional, powerful method of storytelling....
Advocacy Newsroom

DG Career Alert on Brown Paper Tickets

The Guild does not generally offer business advice regarding self-production; however, we understand that many of DG members self-produce their work. As such, we wanted to inform our members of an ongoing issue with the popular ticketing platform, Brown Paper Tickets. Recently, a member reached out to the Guild informing us that they had not received their ticket sales revenue from Brown Paper Tickets nearly two months after their...
Advocacy Newsroom

New Resource for Dramatists: An Update from the Copyright Claims Board

Recently, the Copyright Claims Board (“CCB”) made a new resource available that may be beneficial to any playwrights, composers, lyricists, or librettists who are looking to bring copyright claims before the CCB. This new resource is a directory of both clinics and organizations who work with law students to represent parties in a dispute before the CCB. It also includes a list of organizations that provide a range of pro bono assistance. While having legal representation is...
Advocacy Newsroom

Career Alert: Update on Infringing Websites

Back in August 2022, the Guild released a Career Alert concerning idoc.pub, a website that hosts a wealth of scripts, sheet music, and other forms of copyrightable material which have often been posted without the author's permission.  A DG member recently informed us of two other sites that appear to be doing the same thing, docplayer.net and docslib.org. The member...
Advocacy Newsroom

What should I do if someone performs or changes a play, musical, or devised work without permission?

Your work cannot be performed without your permission. And it is never okay for someone to change your words, lyrics, or notes, without your approval.  This rule applies whether the desired alteration is a significant change to the text, such as rearranging scenes, adding lines, cutting an entire monologue, or removing an explicit word. It also applies to changing the setting or casting requirements. Casting requirements and settings are a part of an author’s work; if any...