Memorandum submitted by Samuel French
Ltd
Samuel French Ltd is the largest play publisher
in the world both for straight plays and for musical plays. Our
primary aim is to promote our titles to the world amateur performing
market and to collect performing royalties for our authors from
productions of those titles. Although we have an American parent
we are an autonomous British company primarily promoting the work
of British authors.
We are extremely concerned at the current dearth
of British talent in Musical Theatre and applaud all that Mercury
Musical Developments and The Bridewell are doing to reverse this
trend. The current way for new work to filter down to the amateur
sector is for French's to acquire the right to represent new work
through seeing new productions, both West End, fringe and regional,
which will in the course of time become available for amateur
production. Many amateur societies have large budgets for their
show—not only for performing royalties but also for scenery,
costumes and the hire of an orchestra and Musical Director. Amateur
drama is a thriving leisure activity throughout Britain and in
many rural communities, without benefit of theatre or cinema,
is often the only live entertainment available.
With the increasing number of revivals and American
shows on the professional circuit there will rapidly be a situation
where no new shows are filtering down to the amateur who currently
generates a large amount of income for British authors and for
the support industries. If amateurs have to rely on American imported
shows in the future then performing royalties will flow out of
the country to the USA. We feel that organisations such as The
Bridewell, for encouraging showcases of new work, and the National
Youth Music Theatre, for nurturing new performers, are essential
to the wellbeing of Musical Theatre in Britain.
19 November 2003
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