Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: A question about Royalties?

Message

   Hello Friends!  My company is being asked to be a part of a fall celebration around Halloween.  This is a great promotional tool for us and a way to make a few extra dollars!

We do not want to do a full staged show.  (We are finished with our 2003 season and not yet in swing for 2004.)  We are considering readings from Poe, etc; musical numbers from "scary" musicals (Jekkyl, Phantom) or a combination of both.  Now, here's the question:  We know we have to pay for the rights to perform music, natch; but will we have to pay to do selected readings from horror novels, etc.?  I would think Poe is public domain but some of the others (King, Stine, etc.) are not.

Who do I contact?  Any ideas about how much this would cost us?

Thanks for you feedback.

Author	Message
Guests Guest	Topic: A question about Royalties? Posted: 9/18/03 at 9:53am
	Hello Friends! My company is being asked to be a part of a fall celebration around Halloween. This is a great promotional tool for us and a way to make a few extra dollars! We do not want to do a full staged show. (We are finished with our 2003 season and not yet in swing for 2004.) We are considering readings from Poe, etc; musical numbers from "scary" musicals (Jekkyl, Phantom) or a combination of both. Now, here's the question: We know we have to pay for the rights to perform music, natch; but will we have to pay to do selected readings from horror novels, etc.? I would think Poe is public domain but some of the others (King, Stine, etc.) are not. Who do I contact? Any ideas about how much this would cost us? Thanks for you feedback.

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Guests Guest	Posted: 9/18/03 at 5:21pm
	I would contact their publishers. I do not know how much it would cost, shouldn't cost any more than royalties for an entire play. If you are just reading excerpts, maybe they will just grant you permission? Dramatic Publishing does have Stephen King's "Misery" if you are interested in doing some from that.
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Guests Guest	Posted: 9/18/03 at 5:45pm
	I think what we are looking for is readings of things like "The Raven", "Tell-Tale Heart", and excerpts from horror novels past and present. Not anything fully staged, and we had not considered any scary-plays.
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Guests Guest	Posted: 9/18/03 at 11:04pm
	Poe is in the Public domain. I'm doing a program of Reader's Theatre, all of which is PD literature so there is no royalty. See www.wordplaytheatre.com Thom
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Guests Guest	Posted: 9/19/03 at 4:56pm
	It has been awhile since we looked into this, but, if I remember right. There may be a small performance fee to do songs from a musical in a concert and/or review situation. No major royalties need to be paid, UNLESS, you are using costumes, then royalties are due. John
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