A Cautionary Tale About Edinburgh Festival 2012

MrFrankenstein

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Consider this a cautionary tale for playwrights. I got contacted by what seemed to be a solo actor asking about my play on Charles Manson ( http://ianfraserlive.com/Plays.html )
He'd read the sample, wanted to see the whole thing. I sent it to him. He said he'd have his agent be in touch.

Next thing, I'm contacted by someone who gradually lets me know that a) the 'actor' works in his theater company b) they want my play for the Edinburgh Festival, c) they intend to stage it as a 'free' production. The person talks my ear off for an hour, telling me of grandiose plans they have for future plans for my Manson play. The end result is: they want my play for free, against all these future productions they intend doing after Edinburgh 2012 - which 'could' make me a lot of money.

They send an 'option agreement' contract which reads like a land grab. Twenty or more free performances for them at the Festival and elsewhere. Among the legalese nonsense: they hold rights to a percentage of profits of any other productions of my play for SEVEN years after their production. No money mentions except for a brief reference amidst a very convoluted contract.

There's also no mention of it being a free production without admission price. I ask them to fix this and I let them know the seven year thing isn't acceptable.

A month passes, I send them mail asking what's up. A new contract appears, listing the venue name but with the seven year clause still tucked away, firmly in place.

I get in touch with my literary agent, and he in turn passes the contract to a very reputable known theater agency, who are kind enough to look it over.

Between these two, mention is made that its a bit of a 'bare knuckled' contract. Suggestion is made that its unlikely my play is likely to be hitting Broadway or any other of the dangling carrots the company has mentioned. They reckon I call this Company's bluff - and ask for two things: some money upfront, and a max of 60 days option after the Festival ends. I add mention of wanting a massively simplified contract.

The company concerned doesn't alter the contract - instead, they send a message saying 'can they chat with me and my agent' - by this point I'm very unimpressed with them, but remain polite, and send mail back declining, saying unfortunately, I'm busy - and if the parameters of the contract I've set out for them are not acceptable, I'd rather pass on the project and wish them well with whatever they do find to produce.

I get the following letter. Now remember, these guys are talking to me, an established playwright / performer with a couple of decades of work and awards under my belt. I've personally repeatedly staged the play in question, and I'm currently writing novels - so I'm not overly invested in 'getting my theater work on.' I'm also not desperate for exposure, and I've never responded well to bullying or provocative behavior aimed at me...
Additionally, the writer doesn't seem to understand that I've had some serious theater agency heavyweights look over the contract they want me to sign...


Hi Ian:

When are your agent and theater agents producing your play that they are so opinionated as to its legal structure?

Can we expect to see it at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2012? We've brought
('X') shows since 2004 and won (award removed).
Or will it go straight to Off-Broadway? We've won
(award and nomination for an award removed).

I would once like to hear a playwright say, "My friends have decided to produce my piece and I will not require your services." This never happens.
Friends, acquaintances and colleagues are free with complaints about potential producers, but not forthcoming with their money.

Did you understand that we had a strategy for building your play into a viable commercial and critical property? Probably not, because you're too busy to speak.

Prince Charles was not too busy to see one of our shows twice in one year. My US mobile number is ***************** have any agent, yours or a theater agent, call me since you're too busy.

(end snip)

Obviously, this company and person has their head so far up their self-important behind that they fail to grasp that being nice to people who have work you want to stage, is a basic prerequisite in professional theater. Mentioning people not being forthcoming with money when you're not being forthcoming with money is also rather dumb. Its not a good business tactic to try be provocative when you're wanting someone to sign a contract that'll scr*w them over.

Furthermore, they seem to think I really want my show staged at all costs. I actually don't. Especially not when its subject to the kind of 'contract' these people are trying to peddle.

Point being. If anyone is contacted by a theater company or an actor ostensibly looking to stage a show at next year's Edinburgh Festival, and then starts getting the same 'we're doing it as a free show, so give us your work for free, and sign the thick contract because we have big plans in the future for your work' - Don't sign it.

Just...don't.
:)
-Ian
 
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Shakesbear

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Thanks for the warning Ian. Can I ask if you have told the organisers of the Edinburgh Festival about this? If not I think you should. Many students use the Fringe as a way of getting noticed and these people could easily take advantage of someone who is not as savvy as you.
 

MrFrankenstein

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RE Letting the Fringe folk know - no, I haven't. The whole saga is so convoluted I don't think they'd be willing to get involved, after all, they have a Festival to run. Its ultimately not their concern 'how' the shows appear at the festival - and there's practically, very little they could do to ensure artists aren't getting scr*wed over.

From the way this company behaved, I'd guess they've been pulling this stunt for a number of years - grabbing shows for free and contractually tying up products, to pad the overall numbers of 'their' shows on display, including their 1 or 2 'paying' productions.

I reckoned the safest way - stepping cautiously between the obvious legal issues - to alert the unwary about this practice, was to simply set out the bare facts of the kind of 'agreement' this company was attempting to achieve, and hope that any folks doing a little research (on Edinburgh Fest) will run across this post and be warned off certain kinds of 'deals'...

Beyond that, I think there's not much one can do, unfortunately.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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Its not a good business tactic to try to be provocative when you're wanting someone to sign a contract that'll scr*w them over.

Oddly enough, I've seen that happen a lot in the visual arts world. Maybe they're trying to embarrass / fluster / overawe people into signing.

It all sounds scuzzy, and you're well out of it.
 
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MrFrankenstein

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re it sounding scuzzy - absolutely.

I'm just grateful the company in question has left a nice legal paper trail of emails, including my own submission of their 'contract' to my agent and the nice heavyweight theatrical agency.
Hopefully though, they're not that stupid as to try stage a show without obtaining the rights.
But I'm ready for it, just in case.

EDITED TO ADD. Had a rethink. I have just emailed the section of the Fringe (mentioned by this company in their 'contract'), directing them to my original post here. If the powers-that-be respond to the email, I will, of course, supply them with the theater company's particulars. But at very least, now they (the specific part of the Fringe) are aware that some impresario companies are up to some questionable behavior.)
 
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Shakesbear

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MrF I think you have done a good thing in alerting the Fringe - this sort of thing can so easily reflect badly on the Festival. Go You!
 

MrFrankenstein

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Just for the record, I sent mail pointing to my post here - and I got a very quick response from the Free Fringe (which is where the company I was dealing with, was aiming for).

And just to be clear, the Free Fringe themselves are a splendid bunch of folks, not to be confused in any way with the shenanigans of the company I was dealing with.

The Free Fringe is a whole parallel entity running alongside the 'formal' Fringe, and it looks to be providing a great service to those wanting to break into the Festival. They can be found at: http://www.freefringe.org.uk/

I hope these above posts of mine help some unwary playwright one day :)
 

Maryn

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This has been quite the eye-opener, Ian. I'm sure the people who run the Fringe Festival do not want their figurative eye blacked by such unprofessional conduct. I'm glad you let them know of it.

Maryn, waving to the Free Fringe people who might see her
 

ghostlygalleon

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As a couple of people have indicated but which i still want to make clear: the Festival and the Fringe are entirely different. The Fringe is a coordination of disparate groups and individuals who want to stage a show.

You'd be invited to the Festival by the Festival itself, or to the Book Festival by the Book Festival. With the Fringe, you can apply to be part of it. Clearly the company you're talking about is putting on events at the Fringe (or plans to). Anybody can do this. That's why the fringe is so wonderfully hit and miss and kind of anarchic, and the Festival is the opposite of that. I just really don't want people to confuse the two.

MrF - the approach you had sounds bizzarre! You did well to be suspicious!
 

zander

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Wow. Just wow.

What a bunch of asshats. (I use that as a technical term.)

As if they were doing you an immense favor by performing your show without remunerating you and then additionally performing it elsewhere without compensation, and then, because they were so awesome, and so generous to perform your script for free, to seize a percentage of your royalties for seven years? They sound great.

Go jump in a loch.
 

MsArtwriter

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I see the same tactics in the visual art world as well. I am a visual artist also and someone is always trying to get something for nothing. When I first started years ago, someone emailed me about an art work for sale and said if I would sell it to her for next to nothing, she could guarantee me that 50 of her friends would buy more work for big $. I said, ok, send me the names and contact info of your 50 friends and as soon as they sign contracts for art work, I will give it to you for $1. Funny thing, I never heard back. ;)
 
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MrFrankenstein

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As a New Year's PS, if there's any further contact from the company in question, I'll put it here. I'm not planning on contacting them again.

*I forgot to mention in my initial post that another of the company's contract 'traps' was a basic 'minimum money in' before any payout could happen to the playwright*

I forget the figure but if memory serves me right it was either $2000 or $5000 in.

In other words, not only did the company cover its own backside by getting a free play, it also was contractually ensuring covering a large chunk of its own expenses before deigning to give the playwright a percentage of the take: thus putting the likelihood of the playwright seeing any money at all, even further distant.

This 'minimum money in' clause is rather important. One doesn't give a play away for free and then sit back and help the company recoup its own money before they're 'legally' obliged to give the writer anything of the subsequent profits. That's just excessively unfair. The company gets a free play, runs it, uses it as an advert for their other plays (I assume), and then, because it never made the 'minimum money in' amount, simply shrugs when the playwright asks for their cut. Its loaded dice.

(Speculation: The company could conceivably gather a whole handful of plays for essentially no money at all, with little expectation that any will cover the 'minimum money in' figure - and then have all these plays pay for one another, yet spread its name around as free PR, while it focuses on the one or two 'real' plays it intends trying to make a profit from.)

And the company, as I stated, dangled potential Broadway productions in the contract (right down to reserved seating for the Playwright), *rolls eyes* - and verbally spoke of Australian Festivals and UK tours as a carrot to getting one to essentially hand them work to which they would own a chunk of for years.

My feeling is: Read your contracts slowly and carefully. If you can't understand it, try find someone who will, and ask their advice. When in doubt, use forums like this one to bounce convoluted paragraphs off of users. What is said by a company is of less importance than what is written in black and white on the contract itself.

Anyway...

Nice to see this initial post/thread has got as many views as it has. Hopefully it means any playwrights confronted with these kinds of red-flag items in verbal discussion or contracts will think twice before signing. That's not to say all companies are snake-oil salesmen - but always get advice, and/or second opinions before signing contracts - especially if they're written in a manner that mean you don't fully understand what the company are getting and what they're offering you in exchange.


A Happy New Year to one and all. Forward to a great Edinburgh Fest for those lucky enough to be performing there :)
 
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