So if you can't change things in licensed shows...

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 6:12pm

To the OP:

Design decisions are not covered by the licensing agreements. You could set The Sound of Music in Italy or Texas or anywhere else (in terms of design), if you really wanted, provided of course that you make no changes to the text of the script or any alterations to the score. Your audiences may leave confused as hell and wondering what the hell you were thinking, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization may question your abilities as a director if they heard, but, as long as no textual changes were made, it would not be a violation of your performance license.

And now please continue the fun part of the thread.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 8:07pm

Actually, some agreements DO say that you cannot change locale as well. I was just signing an agreement with R&H for a show of theirs, and it specifically stated that.

I couldn't tell you if ALL contracts read that, but I just read over this contract yesterday and it was fresh in my mind.


But this thread was, indeed, great fun.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 8:10pm

With some shows you don't really have a choice, do you? South Pacific for example...lol.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 8:17pm

Another interesting thing on the contract that I don't ever remember seeing before: by signing we agree to COMP tickets to reps from R&H if they so desire -- and for however many performance they wanted.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 8:30pm

You would think that, Clap, but there are some really, really bad designers out there in some low budget community theatres who seem to think that all locations looked the same across the entire world. I haven't seen something as bad as a poorly researched South Pacific, but I have seen some very odd choices out there where yes, they may have been pulling research from the right time period, but clearly not thinking about actually checking the region they were designing for.

Dramamama, I know it would be a violation to change the setting for the show (and alter the text to reflect that change), but I'm curious if it would actually be a violation to either A) make poor design decisions (as in my example above, research from the right time period but from the wrong region) or B) cut a certain location from the show due to space/design limitations, or the use of a unit set, but keep the scene and text in tact (as in the example from the OP of moving the song "The Sound of Music" from the mountaintop to the abbey). For instance, with example B, way back in the day when we did How to Succeed at my high school I know we didn't have nearly as many different sets as were called for in the script. That script, at least as it was published back then, called for numerous different hallways and office spaces and due to our severely cramped backstage and lack of fly space many of those took place in our one main office set. I don't feel that that was a violation of the license, as the text was not changed, but it makes me wonder if MTI/R&H/Tams would feel differently about that.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 8:54pm

The contracts are in my office at work....I'll check the specific wording on it on Monday and report back.

I know we are getting ready to produce Once Upon a Mattress: it states several "hallways" trust me when I say we will have the same hallway each time. (although we might move the suit of armor around.)

TECHNICALLY, it would go against your agreement, but would they actually DO anything about it even if they did know? No idea.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 5/22/11 at 12:22am

^ That's what we did for Oklahoma!. We used the same farm house the whole show even though it calls for different locations. The house was on wheels and we just moved it around and changed some props on the porch.

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 5/22/11 at 1:08am

then what happens if you do a bare-stage production of a show? How do settings work then?

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/22/11 at 6:28am

Bare stage would still SUGGEST setting -- in the program, by small pieces, etc. How you portray the setting would be considered an artistic choice.

[Paul Bland4]

Posted: 5/22/11 at 3:12pm

I have often reduced multi-set shows to a unit setting. My production of Jerry Herman's THE GRAND TOUR took place entirely in the living room of S.L. Jacobowsky's grandson, as the family re-enacted their patriarch's story. The "Rolls Royce" became a loveseat and two chairs to suggest theatrically the seats of the vehicle, for example. The driver simply pantomimed a steering wheel.

It worked brilliantly; sometimes economy is the mother of invention.

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/22/11 at 11:27pm

I saw a production of Beauty and the Beast once in a unit set with heavy use of projections- for "Maison des Lunes," instead of having the scene in the tavern, it was in the asylum. I don't THINK any lines were changed, it was just a more sinister setting for that moment.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 5/22/11 at 11:43pm

Darn. I guess this means I can never stage my dream production of Oklahoma, set in Kansas.

[Actor2]

Posted: 5/23/11 at 4:54pm

"Darn. I guess this means I can never stage my dream production of Oklahoma, set in Kansas."

Hahahahaha.