OLIIVER @ IPAC

You have every right to react negatively to people who assume that simply because they have "bought the rights" to a play that that gives them the right to change dialogue, intention, whole scenes and characters etc. I really think that the whole area of copyright needs to be made far more clear to community theatre groups, schools and the like. Paying money for the rights to a play allows you to perform the play that script.If you wish to alter a scene , a character , you need the permission of the playwright. I remember clearly going to see a play written by a friend of mine at a school , only to find that the entire meaning of the play had been changed, scenes had been rewritten, characters had been changed and the entire show was nothing like the original. I then listened with great interest to the student director who said at the end of the performance " when I was given this play by my teacher, it was boring, so I rewrote it". Thankfully I didn't take the playwright with me to see it. Teachers, theatre groups, directors etc should be made very aware of what they are allowed to do and should never forget that what they are showing an audience has a playwrights name on it and that playwright had the right to have his/her work shown in the way he /she wants it to be. Kerri