Advice needed about performing rights

Hi KimberleyLike Blak Yak I'm sure a few of us have been caught in this situation before.I remember receiving no replies to 4 letters sent to an overseas agent enquiring about the availability of performing rights. Our final letter informed them we were going ahead and staging the show anyway. A few hundred dollars were kept aside for 4 years in case someone contacted us seeking the rights, but nothing ever eventuated.In another instance repeated phone calls and faxes to a UK agent were required to extract a contract that arrived 9 weeks after the initial enquiry and 3 days before we were due to open. The contract stipulated a fee precisely double what we had been quoted over the phone! The signed contact (amended by us) was returned to the agent with half the required payment. No response.More recently though, i've heard reports of playwrights and agencies doggedly pursuing companies that don't obtain a license PRIOR to performance. Legally it would appear the onus is clearly on the company to obtain a licence. Most published scripts clearly inform you that a licence is required for any public performance of the work. If you can't obtain one, you can't perform the play.On the other hand....CheersGrant