Doomsday.

Today is the day of heavy, serious phonecalls, answerphones, touchtone systems, and unreturned phonecalls.

Yes, today is "acquiring the rights" day.

In the past I have dealt with the rights for several shows. Hell, I remember when I was sixteen years old, studying theatre at college, and an old friend of mine informed me that "plays need to be bought, you can't just put on a writers work without paying for the right to do so, that's what copyright is all about."

My futile arguement from the perspective of an actor that would later evolve into a director/writer/ape-based organism was that "surely the joy of seing your work onstage would be payment enough?" How naive was I?

Several years later, in a very early incarnation of my theatre group, I published several of my playsripts online (they're still up there, the webhosting service has ignored my emails to take them down for five years!) and someone staged one of them without even notifying me. The news that someone had printed out my scripts, rehearsed, then ran the show for over a week made my blood boil! I wanted tickets, acknowledgement, and most of all... the cash!

Therefore, I understand why copyright should exist, and why performance fees are payable to the author. I just wish the people that governed these rights weren't so angry all the time! I don't think I can recall a single phone discussion regarding performance rights that has left me feling informed or elated. I always seem to feel slightly numb, a little unwashed, and very, very tired.

I'm currently waiting for my third call of the day to be returned. I've waited 45 minutes so far. I'm going outside to garden.

*update* I just had a very helpful, polite, and pleasant conversation with a member of the rights team at Joseph Weinberger! Not only did I find out pretty much everything I needed, I was also overjoyed at the price!

This tour may actually work...