After Professor Lodge’s brownbag this afternoon, I decided to research a bit further into the play she mentioned, Grease and Desist. As Professor Lodge mentioned, Grease and Desist came out of a cease and desist letter that was sent to a theater company in Philadelphia, from the publishing company Samuel French, who own the rights to the original production. The Philadelphia company received this letter as a result of their decision to perform Grease with an all-female cast. According to Samuel French, “changing the gender of the actors was the same as changing the script.” Madi Destefano, the artistic director, reacted, saying that she and her coworkers “did not seek permission to change the gender of the cast because they didn’t know they should.”
I found this example of copyright and licensing exceptionally interesting and a good example of the intricacies of copyright law in theater. I’m sure there are many others like it, that run despite their contracts, that are shut down because of copyright infringement, as so on.
I think I would agree that changing the genders is like changing the script; after all, the company was trying to make a comment on the play. However, if they truly didn’t know that they had to seek permission, it might be to the fault of Samuel French. The copyright holders should be informing production companies as much as possible, so that infringement cases like this won’t happen as often.
Going along with the idea of the intricacies of copyright in theater, I thought it was interesting that for Arabian Nights, Professor Lodge was given so much freedom. I expected the play to come with stricter guidelines, especially when it came to cutting parts out.
I also agree that changing the gender is like changing the script, but then why are some all girls or guys schools allowed to do the plays. I feel like elements are lost in a play when it is all one gender when it is intended for a mixed cast.
It’s definitely one thing to change the gender of the characters. That in itself is a step to changing the script and the play itself. However, having actors play different genders should be different. For example, while an actor is male, as long as he plays a female character as female, there is relatively no difference. The script remains the same, and if the acting is passable, there is no real need to point it out. In Japanese kabuki theater, all the roles are played by men, even the roles of women. However, they play the roles so well, that it would be difficult to tell otherwise. In that regard it would be no different if a woman played the same role.