I found the brownbag on Tuesday to be very entertaining as I was very interested in the discussion. I was extremely shocked to learn that the play Arabian Nights was allowed so many changes by the director. It even seemed to shock the speaker herself that so many changes were allowed without much effort in trying to contact the author. I think it is funny how some plays are allowed to be changed from the original work while others can not be altered the slightest bit. I had gone into the brownbag thinking that all plays exhibited the same copyright laws and could not be altered at all, and came out with this notion completely shattered. After learning this, I decided to do a little more research on the copyright laws of plays to learn more about them. I stumbled upon this site which helps out students who want to put on school performances but do not know the legal way to go about it. It mentions that amateur rights to perform a play may be revoked if there are too many productions of the same play or musical in a certain region within a certain year. This really surprised me because I thought that this is something that author’s would want–shouldn’t they be happy that their play is being performed so frequently?
I thought it was really funny that the speaker herself was so taken aback with the amount of changes she was allowed to do. It also put her in a position that she had never been in before – it gave her the creative license to make the play however she wanted it to be.
Great find! If I were a playwright of a play, I would want it performed as much as possible so many people would be able to enjoy my work. It’s great to see that there are websites that help students put on plays the correct and legal way.