taimatsu: (Default)
taimatsu ([personal profile] taimatsu) wrote2008-09-15 07:12 pm

Various theatre-related questions

Come on, thesps, help me out!

First, I need ideas for a) energetic warm-ups, b) getting-into-character warm-ups, and c) voice warm-ups. The first two must be suitable for hearing-impaired performers, so nothing which involves someone talking while players are not looking at them will work (e.g. games where you run around and someone calls a command are not possible).

Second, I need advice on theatre music/performing rights. The play on which I am working needs some music. The PRS website has a whole thing about telling them stuff 30 days before the performance so they can clear rights, but this then seems to refer only to interpolated music (which is when the performers actually produce the music on stage). We just want to use recorded music. Will the venue have a licence which covers this already, or am I dim and we need to talk to the PRS anyway? (My director may know this stuff already, please don't judge her by my incompetence - I just haven't had time to talk this bit through with her.)

A further, related question, which geeks may be able to help me with - if a piece of music is Creative-Commons-licensed, can it be played from a recording for a theatre performance? (Of course the commercial vs. non-commercial thing is relevant, and I would tbh just contact the composer/performer and check what they thought of our enterprise.) Does a reproduction like that come under general CC usage? I know this is stupid but I want to check.
lovingboth: (Default)

[personal profile] lovingboth 2008-09-15 06:35 pm (UTC)(link)
The venue will almost certainly have a licence for recorded music.

The PRS and other copyright collection societies only have authorisation to collect on behalf of works their members have assigned to them. (The vast majority of commercially recorded music is, so they tend to assume that if music is involved, they need paying.) It would be unlikely that someone who's CC licensed their work will have done so, but checking is a good idea - definitely if it's not one of the 'commercial use ok' ones.
lovingboth: (Default)

[personal profile] lovingboth 2008-09-15 06:43 pm (UTC)(link)
As an example of that assumption, "A PRS Music Licence is needed for all concerts at which copyright music is performed" - erm, no, only if the composer / rights holder is a member of the PRS.

If I compose some music, it will be copyright, but I can let you play it without paying them (unless I've signed over the collection rights to them).