R & H halts high school production of ALW's Phantom- Page 2

[caitiesus1522]

Posted: 11/15/05 at 5:43pm

Can you report them after the show is over so it is just a fine? I mean there is an extremly good chance that the students have nothing to do with it and know nothing about the contract rules, I didn't even really know about them until after high school, and if they were for some reason shut down I would feel really bad for all the hard work they put into it. If there isn't a way to do it after the fact....you should either turn them in OR see if you can arrange a meeting with them and explain the contract rules to the students so they get a lesson out of it

[Fosse76]

Posted: 11/15/05 at 5:56pm

They only have to list the production as the school edition, using the school edition logo. Ads do not have to list the licensor or the authors. I personally wouldn't do anything, since I doubt anyone is going to confuse this production with the tour. This is a nitpick I wouldn't worry about. If you had reason to suspect it's an illegal prduction, then I would say something.

[EganFan2]

Posted: 11/15/05 at 7:23pm

>>>Would that happen to be the group in California?

I have no idea about the dvd part, but they are charging $15 admission and there's no school that I know of involved.

I think they were in CA. It was on several Phantom boards. They are charging admission, whoever asked. Someone I know found out about the DVD part.
Updated On: 11/15/05 at 07:23 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/15/05 at 7:29pm

The adults involved in this blunder (actually THEFT) should be ashamed of themselves.

"It's for the kids" is not an excuse or philosophy for any crime I can think of.

[Gingersnap]

Posted: 11/15/05 at 7:39pm

EganFan2...we're certainly thinking of the same group, then. I think it originated with the Tarts at gerardbutler.net.

[Plum]

Posted: 11/15/05 at 8:19pm

Of course it's for the kids. It's adults passing on the all-important moral value of "rules are for other people."

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 11/15/05 at 10:25pm

The school edition may use the Cosette logo, bout only if it is the logo in which she holds the school books in her hands. However if she is not holding the books, and the rest of the stuff is missing then yeah, its breach of contract. But don't forget they may be getting charged per character on their posters, or maybe a student was put incharge of making them and the details were accidentaly looked over. MTI is one of the major places to obtain rights for high schools and if they get banned for doing shows over an advertisement technicality alot of kids will miss out on doing great theatre when they aren't at fault. Save turning them in for when they re-write a show or something big like that. Don't skrew over years worth of studens because you know the technicalities that someone else overlooked.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 11/15/05 at 10:33pm

Still, how will the students learn the correct way to do it if no one is calling them on their mistakes? You could go tell the school's director that the flyers were done improperly and explain how they were supposed to do it. If they continue to do this, I would report them, because it IS breach of contract. Even if the students has to suffer and not do any shows for awhile, that's life.

Considering how often my English teacher dragged us into folding programs for her shows back in high school, I think I STILL know most of the basic rules.

[PerforMeg]

Posted: 11/15/05 at 11:06pm

Oh how I miss high school politics!!!!!!!!!

Michael Bennett, I'm with you-this would have been one entertaining bootleg. Yikes.

It seems that some schools will pull anybody off the street and let them be a theatre director. No one who knew a damn thing about theatre would let that kind of thing continue. Kids want to sing Phantom? Let them do it in the talent show or choir or something. (Although that might be illegal too)

Maybe these kids could benefit from doing a show that they could have the rights to on paper, like, I don't know, the eight million there are to choose from? What ever happened to Bye Bye Birdie?

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 11/16/05 at 11:02am

I just went ahead and asked MTI what they thought, without naming the school involved. They were gracious about how they handle these things; their process is to inform the school's principal and give a very mild warning that future violations could lead to fines or restrictions and then let the administration scold the teacher.

[TabooPhan1]

Posted: 11/16/05 at 1:41pm

I kind of agree with Bobby Bubby. I think we take for granted the assumed knowledge that HS directors have about rights. It's entirely possible that this was not an intentional act of "thievery", but just a mistake. I'm not saying it's right, but I'm also saying that maybe we shouldn't pass judgement without really knowing what happened. That's sort of the reason I hate watching the news...

[Born2cthelightsofbway]

Posted: 11/16/05 at 2:20pm

Who does Phantom in school anyway? The singing is very hard, especially Christine. It would have been so bad, I too would have loved to see some video clips!!!

[AuditioningWaitress]

Posted: 11/16/05 at 3:03pm

When I worked at Samuel French, I was always shocked how many high school drama teachers would call up and then freak out when we would ask them about how many performances they were doing, etc. - standard questions, and they honestly didn't believe that they had to pay for rights, just because they were a school...

[Amneris]

Posted: 11/16/05 at 4:09pm

2 years ago, i found a website where a high school did a full out production of "mamma mia!"..kind of shocked they never got caught.

[grizzabella]

Posted: 11/16/05 at 9:57pm

Though it can't be done as a stage production, I know that there is a legal, choral version of some of the music from ALW's Phantom available. It doesn't include "The Music of the Night," but does include "The Phantom of the Opera" (including the high E),and "All I Ask of You". Sorry, I don't remember any other details as I saw the collection several years ago.