Ethical Dilemma Regarding MTI — Page 2

WHO CARES IF IT HAS BEEN CAST.

YOU PEOPLE ARE RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CALL MTI TOMORROW MORNING. PLEASE. GIVE ME A F*CKING BREAK.

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I hate when people want to turn a blind eye if it affects the kids. The kids need to be shown that these actions shouldn't be tolerated. If they're old enough to be acting in a show, they're more than old enough to understand the difference between legal and illegal. It sucks that they can't do the show, but maybe 50 kids pissed about losing their parts in the school play and even more pissed off parents will make the teacher/school/administration think twice about trying sh*t like this in the future.

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Someone needs to do what's right and report them to MTI:

Music Theatre International
421 West 54th Street
New York, NY 10019
Tel: (212) 541-4684
Fax: (212) 397-4684
Licensing@MTIshows.com

Updated On: 10/18/06 at 10:53 PM

I don't think you should turn a blind eye. I think you should call MTI and I hope that this teacher gets fired-or at least forbidden to direct shows with the school anymore. I just think that it would cause far less harm if you waited a couple months to make this phone call-it would still have the desired effect of letting MTI know that their stuff is being stolen and stopping this teacher/school from doing this in the future. And it would avoid the highly undesirable effect of dozens of angry and disappointed students and parents. If you can punish the guilty without hurting the innocent, then that's the approach you should take. You can argue that the show being stopped would teach kids about the theater business and not doing what's illegal-but we all know that none of them would actually think that way. Kids deprived of their roles in a play will just get angry and bitter, they won't take it constructively, if they're anything like the kids I performed with while in high school.

How much can the rights be for a school anyway? See, the story might be slightly different if they were doing, let's say "Hairspray", where the rights are not even available.
But this is a production that is available for performances, nothing that a few bake sales or so wouldn't fix (plus tickets sales). If they report the production, don't feel too bad about the kids here, they can still raise the money to do it legally.

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I don't know what I find more repulsive...not paying royalties or drastically altering the show?

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with musicals, royaltaries are based on number of perfomances, number of seats, and ticket prices... so, for free admission, the fee should be significantly lower I believe

Try seeing the world in gray every now and then.

I, for one, am actually of the opinion that it's that very mentality that has contributed to the decline of modern society, but, meh, that's just me.

for the sake of your own integrity, esp. if you have a relationship with this woman I say go to her first. If you sneak around doing it. You have to live with doing it behind her back. Two wrongs definitely don't make a right. You should be honest with her and then take action you feel is necessary.

I didn't think of that, orangeskittles...if there's a reasonable chance that mti is just going to demand payment, or that the school will eventually be able to buy the rights so that they can still do the show, I would be all for calling mti immediately. I'm just afraid that MTI would have a harsher reaction and maybe stop the school's drama club from functioning for a while, and I think it would be more harmful to the students to not be able to perform at all than it would be for mti to be in ignorance of this for a little longer than necessary.

And in response to an above poster, I would guess that they're probably charging for tickets; my point was just that high school theaters generally either don't charge or charge very little, so ticket prices wouldn't necessarily be able to cover the rights.

It's a tough call as to whether you should tell her first. On one hand, it might be awkward if you don't and she someday suspects that it was you and confronts you about it.

On the other hand, I can imagine a situation where you tell her and she assures you that she'll take care of it and then doesn't, leaving you in a quandary as to whether you should call MTI as the last minute. And then everyone will know it was you who caused the show to be cancelled at the last minute.

erinrebecca: I never said you HAD to have evidence. However, when it comes to re-writes, they DO appreciate hard proof. Otherwise it is very hard to prove.

The main problem here is that the production is illegal - it is not paid for. The re-writes and character addictions are secondary at this point. If a school pays for rights and decides to tinker with a few things to make the production work for them, well, I think there are instances where that is okay. But the show isn't even PAID for.

And doing it behind her back? What, is this person entitled to be confronted before she is reported? In no way, shape, or form would it be wrong of the poster to contact MTI without a word to the director. Please.

You people.

Get a GRIP. REPORT THIS.

I SAID THIS BEFORE:

IF YOU DO NOT FEEL COMFORABLE DOING THIS YOURSELF, PASS THE REQUIRED INFORMATION ON TO ME, AND THIS MATTER WILL BE SETTLED MOMENTS LATER

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