Good day all. It's a hot, sticky, gross day in New York and it's nearly as warm in the office as it is outside. Yuck.
Regarding the licensing process: I don't know from what company you're obtaining the rights for your play, BK, but this is how it works at MTI.
Step 1: Apply for the rights to the production. At MTI it takes anywhere from 7-10 days to process applications, though it rarely takes that long. At other licensing houses such as Tams-Witmark and Samuel French, it could take two to three weeks. Don't ask me why. Why does it take 7-10 days, you ask? Well, MTI deals with nearly 50,000 customers in the United States alone, and we handle nearly 5,000 phone calls, emails and loose applications in the mail daily with a staff of only 10 licensing representatives. They're fast, but they're also swamped with work.
Once the application has been processed, you will either be granted a production contract or your application will be refused. Application refusals are based on several factors, some of which include moritoriums on certain shows (i.e. LES MIZ, THE PRODUCERS or MILLIE, which still have first-class [Broadway productions or national tours] running), the proximity of other productions of the same show in your area (MTI uses a 150-mile radius), past relationships with MTI and/or moritoriums placed by the authors. If you're accepted, you'll receive a production contract in the mail. The time the contract is in the mail is also figured into the 7-10 day processing time.
Step 2: Fill out the production contract with all necessary information including where and when the production will take place, how many performances and how much tickets will cost. Read and sign any riders that may be included in the contract package and return one copy of the contract and/or rider(s) to MTI and include your $400 security deposit for the materials, as well as the royalty payment and rental fee for any additional materials. Two months before your opening night, your materials will arrive to the specified address and you can begin rehearsals.
Now, in your situation, there might be a problem. Technically the producer(s) of the show should have applied for rights quite a while ago to allow for processing and shipping, whether it be a play or a musical that you're working on. It sounds to me like you've already started rehearsing the show, which will likely raise a red flag for the licensing house--they'll be curious how you've started rehearsals without having "official" materials. I don't know how that will affect your rights request application, if at all. I also don't know if and/or how the time crunch will affect their decision, either. I know that several companies have been denied the rights to a production because of time constraints and/or because they'd already started production rehearsals without having secured the rights to the show. There again, for larger-scaled productions, we certainly have been known to do rush work.
And then there are the illegal productions. We've issued 'Cease and Desists' for illegal productions, as well, threatening fines of anywhere from $10,000 to $35,000 per copyright infringement (meaning per performance without a license). It's always fun for us to get calls from people reporting illegal or horribly altered productions of our shows. An all-white production of AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' or the movie version of ANNIE as opposed to what we actually license are big no-no's. Switching the order of songs or scenes or gender-bending roles isn't permitted, either. Well, that's not exactly true...you can have a girl playing a boy as long as the character in the show is still a boy. Sally can play Bobby in COMPANY as long as she plays Bobby as a man. You can't make Bobby into "Bobbi," the lesbian who sleeps around and finds out that what she's been missing all her life is true love. Ya can't do that. Anyway, you get the point...
And that, my friends, is a short lesson in theatrical licensing.
