Licences etc
I was recently discussing the issues of licensing with some parents and they were surprised to hear that we have to pay for licence fees for productions. They were surprised to hear that we do, and that no exemptions are given for Children’s performances or for Schools in general. If we use our recent performance of Shrek Jr for example, we had to pay a performance licence fee for the rights to use the script and music, which in total came to £500, with an additional box office fee on top of that of another £150. This is without our other associated costs such as venue hire, Costume and Crew. All in all, to put on a musical on that scale costs us well in excess of £1,000. This is not to moan, but merely to give you an idea of the commitment involved in these productions. Whilst I’m sure you would all agree that this is quite a lot of money, I also believe that we should be happy to pay people for their creative endeavours. You’d be surprised how many groups infringe licence rights, Copyright and intellectual property. We don’t do that at Up-Stage. In fact, I myself have been a victim to this, when some of my plays have been performed in other countries with no licence fee. Fortunately my publishers were able to pursue the offenders for the fees (These amounted to around £36 by the way….I’m not quite in the ranks of Shrek!).
What happens if you break these rules and perform without a licence? Well if caught, you could face huge fines…Large companies like Music Theatre International, Disney Etc Etc will pursue you and it could quite easily put you out of business, but perhaps more importantly, they could put the dreams of the youngsters at risk. Imagine rehearsing for a production only to find out that your owner has broken the rules and your production is cancelled. There are even restrictions on licences, which limit the size of venue for example….Here is a recent case where a production was lost as a result of carelessness.
Use of logos, crediting of writers and composers are all covered by the licence agreements we sign. Editing and copying of scripts is not allowed with out express permission. There are even strict rules about Variety shows and public performances of music, which can be a minefield. One of the things we pride ourselves on is the fact that we do these things properly and above board. We are aware that many other groups don’t and take shortcuts. Rest assured that we take no shortcuts.
Keith - 27th March 2025
