OOB Director sues playwright

[peeps2]

Posted: 1/30/06 at 10:25am

Oddly, I've had some history with this director, when he got his lawyers involved so that he COULD mount a show that I thought took someone else's ideas (my company's).

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/theater/newsandfeatures/29gree.html

Maybe this is boring, but this case could really change the way theater works, if they find for the director.


Wow, I just found this, too: http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0036,sightlines,17907,11.html


Updated On: 1/30/06 at 10:25 AM

[OddExoticCreature]

Posted: 1/30/06 at 11:56am

as a playwright...this is very distressing. The idea that a director should have copyright claims over a play is ludacris...of course a director's visions are important but they are just elaborating on what the playwright created! GRRRR....

Though I do agree that director's should not blatantly copy other directors. The fact that Joe Mantello had to fly to Florida to see a near exact replica of a play he had previously directed is terrible.

Why can't people just use common sense?

"Mr. Weidman, who worked with Mr. Mantello on the recent Broadway revival of "Assassins" — and who, in gratitude for his directorial contributions to the show, offered him a share of the authors' royalty, which Mr. Mantello declined — is more diplomatic. The director is an interpretive artist, he said, often doing brilliant work. For his work to be systematically copied by someone else, he agrees, is "manifestly unfair."

I think that is the integral point. Now, the director in question who filed a lawsuit against the playwright so she could not direct her own play, is totally missing this point. Of course it is unfair if she (or anyone else) copied his work, but instead of being greedy and trying to prevent the work from being produced again, or getting money out of the situation, he should just BE HONEST and make sure she doesn't deliberately copy him. Though I suppose that is part of the entire problem...hearsay and subjective perception.

[peeps2]

Posted: 1/30/06 at 12:18pm

Yeah, Mantello got screwed.

Legal questions aside, I think most people can tell what is the right a wrong way to look at directors/designers/choreographer's contributions. I do think that usually producers are the one's to take advantage of the gray areas involved, but I guess they are not the only ones.

Some people just don't get that theater is a community of purpose. We're all (commerical and nonprofit) trying to put on shows with a limited pool of resources. PLayt legal hardball doesn't help anyone in the long run. There is such a thing as losing by winning in these cases.

Suppose you're an actor whose agent is so good that you get 20% more money out of a theater company than other actors, but then the company can't afford to extend the show, or od as much advertising as it might've. What have you won, exactly?

What playwrights are going to be jumping all over themselves to work with a director who has done this sort of thing?

[peeps2]

Posted: 1/30/06 at 12:20pm

nm Updated On: 1/30/06 at 12:20 PM

[OddExoticCreature]

Posted: 1/30/06 at 12:20pm

"There is such a thing as losing by winning in these cases."

Exactly.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 1/30/06 at 12:33pm

"What playwrights are going to be jumping all over themselves to work with a director who has done this sort of thing?"

Ditto.