Did you change the title to Once Fell Off a Mattress?
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
Do they offer a script with those changes? "In a Little While" makes no sense without that and Lady Larkin needing to flee (or even her urgency for the marriage ban to be lifted) has no purpose.
Just don't sit next to me if you're wearing those curtain rods.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
Directors make changes ALL THE TIME. Anyone who is an actor on this board has been in a production were at the very least a line was changed. There is no crime in what my director is doing. So what? She made a change. The production isn't charging admission, and we got the rights from MTI.
This is no better or worse than when in a mentioned production of Annie the ending was changed to where it was all a dream, or in a production of Company when some of the couples where changed to same-sex couples. Or any alteration large or small for ANY production.
In order for a piece to be fresh, things for certain productions are added or cut. It happens all the time. It's not like we're completely destroying the piece. And none of this, "It's not what Jonathan Larson would've wanted!" bull****, because for all anyone knows, he would've changed it later on.
I stand by my director 100% by her decision, and while everyone's entitled to their own opinion on the ending change, your basis for why or why the change affects the work shouldn't be based purely upon legality. The organization I'm working with has been a generous sponsor of MTI and has launched many premiere shows from them, so we're not out to f**k over their work.
Recent Broadway and Off-Broadway:: Carrie, Merrily, Ionescopade
Next On The List :: Clybourne Park, Once, Streetcar, BOM
She changed a crucial part of the plot. Having Mimi die is a LOT different than changing a single line. People make fun of each other on this board, get used it.
You can stand by your director but what she is doing is illegal, no matter how minor you think it is. EXIBIT A:
"Music Theatre International makes clear that scripts cannot be changed:
Some people think making "minor adjustments" to a show (such as changing the gender of a character or changing the name of a town to give it local significance) is inconsequential to its integrity, or believe they have the right to "experiment" with the authors' intentions as an expression of their artistic vision. This is simply not the case. When you are granted a performance license, by law the show you license must be performed "as is." You have no right to make any changes at all unless you have obtained prior written permission from us to do so (emphasis mine). Otherwise, any changes violate the authors' rights under federal copyright law. Without prior permission from MTI, your actions will subject you to liability—not only to the authors, but also to us—for breaching the terms of your license agreement, which clearly forbid you to make any changes or deletions."
Most of the changes that people make are illegal unless they have written permission from the show's authors (or their estate) to make said changes. Even a line change, without permission, is illegal.
And that production of ANNIE that your refer to was shut down by the author when he found out about it.
Your director is opening the company up for a major lawsuit should MTI get wind of this change. And posting about it on a fairly high-profile message board is one way to do just that.
Cheyenne Jackson tickled me. AFTER ordering SoMMS a drink but NOT tickling him, and hanging out with Girly in his dressing room (where he DIDN'T tickle her) but BEFORE we got married. To others. And then he tweeted Boobs. He also tweeted he's good friends with some chick on "The Voice" who just happens to be good friends with Tink's ex. And I'm still married. Oh, and this just in: "Pettiness, spite, malice ....Such ugly emotions... So sad." - After Eight, talking about MEEEEEEEE!!! I'm so honored! :-)
Charging admission or not is also not an arguement for tampering with a script. The production has to be licensed (and a fee has to be paid) even when admission is complimentary. The rules are no different.
When I was in eighth grade, the director of the show we were doing changed two word into one word because I said it in rehearsal. It was like "cocoa puffs" to "cheerios." Naturally, we were middle schoolers and didn't know that it was kinda bad. Of course, this wasn't as major a change as this production of Rent, but it was still there. Anyway...I just felt that I should get that out here because every time I read about illegal changes in script, I feel bad. Also, what about adlibs? That same high school did a show last year where one of the actors adlibbed things pretty much every scene. Is that legal?