If you are a member of the Dramatists Guild, you may have had contact with Dana Singer, who as Associate Director of that organization, has been providing sane, sage business advice to playwrights since her association with the Guild in 1988.
During her tenure there she has helped any number of playwrights through contract negotiations, repaired shaky collaborations and advised members on matters such as copyright and the problems inherent in the adaptation of existing works.
Now Ms. Singer has taken her years of experience in advising playwrights and put them in a practical guide. Any writer for the stage, novice or established. will benefit from reading her new book.
What Singer so wisely addresses is the fact that stage writers, whose job it is to manipulate the audience's emotions, can be an emotional lot themselves. But emotions better not get in the way of business. Because theatre is a collaborative art, Singer carefully addresses the role of the writer with other members of the creative team, as well as the relationship with cowriters, specifically the team that creates a musical: the librettist, composer and lyricist.
Singer recognizes the constantly evolving role of director and dramaturg in the creation of new works, but makes a strong case for the rights of the writer, the person who first stared at the blank piece of paper or computer screen and came up with the initial work.
Singer avoids talking down to her reader. Which is important as she suggests several alternatives for problem solving (such as whether to use an agent, lawyer or both).
Because copyright law changed significantly during the Bush administration, Singer devotes her opening chapter to the subject. This alone is worth the price or the book. There are many old wives tales involving copyright law, often commonly taken as truths, and Singer dispenses with them. Further on, she examines underlying rights: the adaptation of existing works or the depiction on stage of a real person. While underlying rights to copywritten works are protected by Federal haw, each state has its own laws about the depiction of real people on stage. (This can be a very grey area. One of her sources, lawyer Robert Harris says, "Deader is better.")
Singer examines both the emotional and legal issues involved with collaboration and suggests any number of ways to maintain harmony. Vital to her chapter on collaboration is the concept of "merger" where individual contributions cease to exist on their own end the work becomes a jointly owned single property.
In addition, Singer addresses contracts and negotiation, writer-agent relationships, submission of scripts, marketing and promotion. She suggests ways to deal with theatrical publishers who license plays to amateur, stock and regional theatres.
While Singer's book is primarily geared for playwrights, it also serves as a valuable resource for those in the business of dealing with writers: producers, agents, publishers and theatres.
What is particularly refreshing is that Singer has been able to capture her own voice in print. She is calm. She is caring. It is clear that she believes in and loves the theatre. She wants her writers to have the protections they deserve. Brava.