Haines His Way

Well, I must be going.  I'm still house-sitting and Monday night is the last night that I will be staying overnight.  But I have to get there now, because the cat is still outside...and she will need to be fed!

So goodnight, all!  And thanks BK, for a wonderful evening!

It's great to see the photos of this evening's northwestern festivities.

I'm envious of all the fun and frolic, merriment and music.

Thanks for sharing.

More on the director's copyright issue.  I did a bit of research on the members website of the Dramatist Guild.

"In a nutshell, it does not appeal that direction is protected by copyright."

There have been instances of directors sending the author's playscript to the copyright office with their director notes scribbled in the margins. Since the copyright office simply accepts these (but does not examine them), directors assume their work is copyrighted.  It is not.  They are essentially amending and altering work that they have no right to...the playwright's work...as it is already copyrighted.  

The Guild goes on:

"At most a director's copyright in written stage directions merely means that no other person can copy the director's written words as they appear in the margins , it does not mean that a second individual cannot reproduce the actual staging."

"Since a claim to copyright by a person other than the author can complicate further exploitation" and production, the guild has all sort s of recommendations how a playwright protects himself from any claim of intellectual property from a director regarding his script.

But basically the position of the copyright office is "copyright only protects the specific expression of an idea, not the idea itself."

It doesn't seem like the guild has any technically position one why or the other regards to the direors' claim that their staging is copyrightable...only in where it might intrude on the further exploitation of the author's play or usurp authorship.

In a letter to the Frank Loesser estate, the copyright office wrote:

"The copyright law protects the expression of an author fixed in any tangible form.  With regard to stage directions, this expression will generally be in the form of literary authorship.  Reference to 'stage directions" in an aplication, however, does not imply any protection for a manner, style, or method of directing, or for actions dictated by them."  

As for TOD:

It would have to NYC for the culture available.
Or LA for the weather,

But since I like Florida, I would like to live about 20 miles south of me in Fort Lauderdale.

DR Tomovos, I'm listening to it as I type!

Good morning, all, especially my only early morning companion Tomovoz!  DR George, thanks for the photos; I'm experiencing the feelings everyone on the West Coast feels when there's an East coast gathering of the acolytes.  I wanna be there!

I, too, have been thinking about the stage directions debate from yesterday:  on a first class production, the director probably has a share in the royalties; an orchestrator is usually work-for-hire, although other deals and persentage shares have been known to be made.  The amateur stock rights through Dramatists Play Service, French, Dramatic Publishing Company, I believe, are handled through the producer's office, and the script is usually the stage manager's copy.  sometimes, as in the case of SUMMER BRAVE where William Inge revised the script of PICNIC to remove all of Josh Logan's "interference," the playwright will take the opportunity in his own publication to remove the director's traces.  Joe Mantello, if I'm correct, is getting a royalty from LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! in its amateur/stock edition, so he probably should have been flattered that he was being imitated.  It was probably the viewing of the video at the NYPL Theatre Collection that was the final straw, and I believe something similar happened with the Promenade Theatre revival of PACIFIC OVERTURES in the 1980s because Harold Prince felt he had been too faithfully reproduced without consent.

London is where I want to own a flat.

I'm not quite sure how Mantello can get a piece of that royalty unless he made an arrangement with the playwright to do so...which, in the stuff I read, the Guild expressely frowns upon.  The playwright is not the employer of the director and therefore should be making no deals with him...particularly when it comes giving away his royalties.  So unless the playwright agreed to give him a cut...which I can't see an experienced playwright doing, Mantello would have to try to assert his rights in court which, given the copyright office's standards which I go into above, would seem to make a pretty weak case for Mantello.

DRCharlesPogue, the director's deal is not with the playwright, it's with the producer, and his royalty is a part of the production's income.  With a musical, once it's sold to stock and amateur rights, all the investors and production team see a royalty check or return in investment on occasion.

Yes, I have eaten a Boca Burger and other variations. I like them. They are a good tasting alternative to meat burgers.

TOD:  This is actually something I daydream about in my "when I hit the mega millions" however I have never come to a satisfactory answer.  If I had all the money in the world I woulld want to live  on several acres of wooded land  in a moderate climate that nonetheless had all four seasons.  

Although having money would be a necessity for any of the three locations, I wouldn't mind living in Paris, New York or San Francisco.  I might have to do something else about the winters though.  Amybe I could live all three places plus Phoenix... and LA and Melbourne and Chicago, and......

I have not caught up.  The Vixter and her outh group wne to t see my friend Frank  in his production of "Ten Little Indians" Fiday night so the Mr. and myself were on our lonesome... unfortunartly he had been sick all week witha terrible sore throat and cough so our "date night " turned into "Fall asleep on the couch in front of the TV night"

The  Vixter came home from the play around 11 PM all smiles but with a complaint about a slight tummy ache  

Unfortunately around  1 AM her tummy ache  turned into a major tummy ache and she spent the rest of the night  in the bathroom being very ill

Of course  the Mr.  & I were up as well so by Saturday morning no one was feeling at all well.  The Mr. & the Vixter retired to their respectivee beds for naps  but since my car had  been making some terrible squealing noses when I applied the brakes I was comiterd to taking the car in to be serviced


They said rotors, calipers, brack pads and brake shoes.....and threw around numbers like $1000.00

Fortunately the pads & shoes and labor are guaranteed as long as you opwn the car so that knocked about  $300 of the bill, then I have a extended warrantly plan that covers some parts so that knocked about another $350 off... they said the car would be ready around 1..., then 2... then 3.... then they said the master cylinder failed when they tried to bleed the brakes.  My extended warranty co decided they wanted  to send an inspector to check it out so my car still sits at the shop awaitng a  ok to repair .


The I finally walked home and  took a nap.

I shall now attempt to catch up.

Thank you, DR GEORGE, for wonderful photos from the gathering.  I wished I’d have been there.

Hope dear readers who attend dear BK’s reading/signing and/or a dining gethering will have fun, fun, fun, today/tonight!

And Enjoy your Portland stay, dear BK.  Hope some Claritin works a/o you’ll get some Actifed successfully this morning a/o you’ll get better by Boca Burger (I’ve never eaten) Power.  

Lovely picures from Saturday  dearreaderlaura!    I am so glad that you are all right.. a blowout at that speed could have been very very nasty!!

I like Boca burger's very much, as long as I know what I'm eating is a Boca burger.  Someone once tried to pass one on to me as a regular burger and I thought it tasted terrible.  Once I learned it was a veggie, I adjusted my attitude and found it quite tasty.

I like my Bocas with lots of mustard slathered on them.