As a Samuel French playwright, now represented by Concord and a DPS playwright now represented by Broadway Licensing, I can tell you that generally speaking, modern play licensing contracts are for perpetuity and don’t expire, unless the licensing house chooses to cancel the agreement at some point (when they find it no longer marketable—this rarely happens—it doesn’t cost them anything to keep it in their catalogue, and scripts are now published On Demand only, for the most part). This wasn’t always the case, there used to be specific periods of time such as 15 or 20 years for certain titles, which is why there are shows that have bounced from one house to another (perhaps SF or wherever didn’t want to renew the contract, or perhaps the writer(s) got a better offer from a rival house). Thus it makes sense licensing houses want perpetuity nowadays. When Concord took over Samuel French, contracts were not rewritten, but Concord only acquired whatever rights were in the original Samuel French contracts (I.e. if the Samuel French contract was for North America only, then Concord had no rights to license the show overseas, etc.). There may be cases where Concord wanted additional rights and created a new contract or rider for certain titles. Similar situation when DPS was acquired by Broadway Licensing. When both of these mergers/take-overs occurred writer’s contracts were still considered valid, due to various legalese. Btw, working with SF, Concord, DPS and Broadway Licensing have all been very positive experiences for me, and I hope other playwrights feel the same—but everyone has a different story. Hope that helps! And good luck!
Updated On: 10/24/21 at 05:51 AM
