ceebeegee: (CAWFEE)
ceebeegee ([personal profile] ceebeegee) wrote2006-05-11 09:55 am
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Chicago in the Bronx

I've been reading some more about this production of Chicago in the Bronx--a high school was about to put it on without the rights, and Sam French (they manage the rights) and the Weisslers (producers of the current incarnation on Broadway) found out about the HS production and sent a cease-and-desist letter, shutting it down. This story first broke on Monday or Tuesday--the show was due to go up this week. There was some media coverage, and eventually Sam French said they could go ahead. I figured it was a fairly innocent case of kids not knowing any better. Apparently not--the drama teacher transcribed the dialogue? From the movie? What drama teacher doesn't know you have to secure the rights? And when confronted with the inconvenient reality that yes, you have to pay to perform this material, both the teacher and the principal tried to spin it as though Sam French and the Weisslers were being unreasonable. Again--drama teacher? And you're that ignorant? Then you shouldn't be teaching drama. I have nothing but contempt for a so-called educator who is ignorant of that BASIC reality in play production.

I certainly hope the "teacher" and the principal explained to the kids how they were solely at fault, and how gracious Sam French and the Weisslers were to let the production go on anyway.
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[identity profile] mollyx.livejournal.com 2006-05-11 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Wait a minute.
Transcribed the dialogue from the movie?
Urge to kill... rising.

You're the drama teacher and you don't know this?
You know what? I just dealt with a director who thought she didn't need to deal with Equity and thought she could rearrange the script any way she pleased.

I've seen it happen.

Th drama teacher? Is he/she new? To the school? To teaching drama? To basic human contact?!

Holy... I'm looking for the right words and they're just not coming. Not the least of which, they used the movie dialogue?! Isn't that stepping on the toes of Miramax? And extremely tacky?!
Ugh! I'm ill.

[identity profile] wonderpanther.livejournal.com 2006-05-11 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
It was reported it AMNY and Metro yesterday as if the Broadway producers were being bad guys or something. The producers of the show go a go ahead for a "Single Unlicensed" production of the show. However, the papers did not even mention the published, rights or anything. Basically the kids were made out as victims and the school, too, as victims of big, bad, Broadway. Seriously, who in the world does not know that you need rights to perform. Also, I grew up in Niskayuna, NY and we were thinking of doing Chicago at one point but when the revival was announced, we knew we could not get rights. I was just within 75 miles away and WE knew that!

[identity profile] dry-2olives.livejournal.com 2006-05-11 02:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Apparently not--the drama teacher transcribed the dialogue? From the movie?

So I guess that means they cut "Class" from this version too.

[identity profile] camussaysthecow.livejournal.com 2006-05-11 03:12 pm (UTC)(link)
You know, originally, I was willing to keep an open mind, because I was very cognisant of the lack of opportunities of most high school students in the Bronx to get to do these kinds of things (or much of anything due to underfunded public schools). Not that I know the specific demographics of the school in question, but I was willing to keep an open mind. The idea of a big corporate entity swooping down and telling these kids, oh, you can't do that seemed to be just more of the same, more of The Man shutting possibly disadvantaged New York City public school students in such a way that might lead them to gang activity or drugs or something The Man might view as more suited to their demographic. This is what it appeared to be to me, at the outset. And I'm saying this as a playwright, aware of copyright laws, etc.

But now I guess it just sounds stupid. I still think, though, that this ends up screwing the students in ways that keep them down. Can we fire the drama teacher and get the kids who were in the show to maybe come down and see some real theater on The Man's tab (and not Mamma Mia either, something that could legitimately change their lives)? Then my sense of social justice might be appeased.

[identity profile] alexlady.livejournal.com 2006-05-11 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
there are rules, and you have to follow them. they got caught. it was really really gracious for samuel french to allow them to follow through.

now that i know how easy it is to get a job as a drama teacher, i am reconsidering getting into teaching.

[identity profile] wonderpanther.livejournal.com 2006-05-11 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
As a law student who has taken copyright law and actually applied and was granted a copyright once, I add this...demonizing Samuel French is ridiculous. The way that copyright law works is that it is your job to enforce your own copyrights (and trademarks, actually) and if you don't, you actually lose your rights. There is no such thing as saying, "Okay, I am being robbed of my intellectual propery but it is only kids so I will overlook it." If you overlook and you chose not to enforce your copyright rights, you lose them. That is why that although one production is being granted, the rights owners are very clear to state that this is still an "unlicensed" production. Samuel French and others had no choice unless they wanted to lose the ability to ever grant rights again.
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