Michael Paulson and Alexandra Alter

At least eight theaters from California to Massachusetts were being forced to cancel productions of “Mockingbird” that would have used a decades-old script by playwright Christopher Sergel. Rudin, whose “Mockingbird” now playing on Broadway uses a new script by Aaron Sorkin, invoked a contractual provision that prevents theaters around many cities from putting on the play while a version is playing on Broadway.

The clause is intended to protect the financial viability of Broadway productions, but Rudin’s moves, reported Thursday by The New York Times, were criticized by many as bigfooting.

Rudin called several of the theaters — some of them tiny nonprofits with all-volunteer staffs — to apologize, to explain what happened and to offer them the scripts to the new adaptation. Rudin said there would be no fee for use of the new script.

The offer was extended to any theater whose rights to stage the old version had been challenged by Rudin’s legal team.

But as a practical matter, the offer was too late for some of the theater companies, which had already rehearsed the older script, and were days away from beginning performances. At least one, the Kavinoky Theater in Buffalo, New York, had already torn down its set after receiving a threatening letter from Rudin’s lawyer.

Some of the theaters, though, said they would accept Rudin’s offer and stage the Sorkin version.

“This is wonderful,” said Jill Brennan-Lincoln, chairwoman of the theater arts department at Azusa Pacific University, a Christian college outside Los Angeles that had been planning to cancel its production of the play after getting a cease-and-desist letter from Rudin’s lawyers. “APU is grateful and excited about the prospect of producing Sorkin’s version.”

Lyn Adams, executive director of the Oklahoma Children’s Theater, which had abandoned its plan to produce the Sergel script, was also intrigued, saying that “if given the opportunity, we definitely could and most likely would take them up.”

Doug DeGirolamo, president of Hill Country Theater in Buda, Texas, said he had received a copy of the Sorkin script from Rudin’s office and was hoping to stage it. “For our small little theater to do a show that’s on Broadway right now would be a huge boon to us,” he said.

But his theater’s production will have to be delayed so the cast can learn new lines and movements, and some actors have already taken other roles, he said.

Rudin defended his actions in a brief statement, saying, “As stewards of the performance rights of Aaron Sorkin’s play, it is our responsibility to enforce the agreement we made with the Harper Lee estate and to make sure that we protect the extraordinary collaborators who made this production.”

But he also blamed the situation on the Dramatic Publishing Co., which is run by Christopher Sergel III, Sergel’s grandson, saying it had erred in issuing licenses to present the play to theaters that should not have received them. Rudin has argued that a 1969 agreement between Lee, author of the novel, and Dramatic Publishing bars productions by theaters within 25 miles of a city that in 1960 had a population of more than 150,000 people, as well as productions using professional actors, when a “first-class” production is running on Broadway or on tour.

“We have been hard at work creating what I hope might be a solution for those theater companies that have been affected by this unfortunate set of circumstances, in which rights that were not available to them were licensed to them by a third party who did not have the right to do so,” Rudin said. “In an effort to ameliorate the hurt caused here, we are offering each of these companies the right to perform our version of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ Aaron Sorkin’s play currently running on Broadway.”

It was an unusually conciliatory gesture for Rudin, who has a reputation in the theater industry for being strong-willed and litigious. Before the Broadway adaptation opened, he was locked in a legal battle with the Lee estate, which argued that the play departed too much from the novel; the dispute was eventually settled.

It is also rare for a hit Broadway show to grant licenses to local theaters, particularly when a national tour is anticipated. Rudin’s “Mockingbird” has grossed $24 million since opening in December.

When news broke that local theaters were canceling their performances after Rudin’s lawyer threatened them with copyright infringement lawsuits, many supporters of community theater were outraged. Some called for a boycott of Rudin’s productions, using the hashtag #boycottRudinplays.

“Unfortunately this issue has been the shot heard ‘round the fine arts world over recent days,” said Davis Varner, president of the board of the Theater of Gadsden, a community theater in Alabama that is planning to stage the Sergel version this month. The theater is not near a big city, so its rights appear to be unchallenged, but Varner issued a statement referring to Rudin as “the bully from Broadway” and said, “I am saddened and disappointed for those groups who have been forced to cancel their productions through no fault of their own.”

Some community theaters are intrigued by Rudin’s offer but wary of the logistical challenges involved in staging a completely different version of the play on such short notice. While Sorkin’s version closely tracks Lee’s novel — the story of Atticus Finch, a small-town lawyer in Alabama who defends a black man, Tom Robinson, against false charges — it follows a dramatically different narrative structure, and gives more prominent roles to the novel’s two main African-American characters, Robinson and Calpurnia, the Finch family cook.

Seth Miller, executive artistic director of the Grand Theater in Salt Lake City, which canceled its planned production of “Mockingbird,” said it was too late for his theater to mount a different version of the play in the scheduled time slot. It would have to do it next season, but he said he was not sure how long Rudin’s offer was good for.

For some, like the Dayton Playhouse in Ohio, which was scheduled to stage “Mockingbird” on March 8, there was little time for the cast to prepare.

“At best we could mount a reading,” said Matthew Lindsay, chairman of the theater’s board, describing a performance in which the actor would hold scripts. “The optimal situation would be that Mr. Rudin offers us the opportunity to perform the Sergel script.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/theater/scott-rudin-mockingbird-broadway.html" id="2d9e7b88-5107-3816-aa9c-f589e7a30493">The New York Times</a>.

Producer Relents on 'Mockingbird' Rights, Letting Local Shows Go On

Broadway producer Scott Rudin, facing a barrage of criticism over his efforts to shut down productions of “To Kill a Mockingbird” around the United States, on Friday offered an olive branch to the affected theaters, letting them put on a version of the play.

Rudin called several of the theaters — some of them tiny nonprofits with all-volunteer staffs — to apologize and to offer them the scripts to the new adaptation. Rudin said there would be no fee for use of the new script.

The offer was extended to any theater whose rights to stage the old version had been challenged by Rudin’s legal team. But the offer was too late for some of the theater companies, which had already rehearsed the older script, and were days away from beginning performances. At least one, the Kavinoky Theater in Buffalo, New York, had already torn down its set after receiving a threatening letter from Rudin’s lawyer.

Some of the theaters, though, said they would accept Rudin’s offer and stage the Sorkin version. “This is wonderful,” said Jill Brennan-Lincoln, chairwoman of the theater arts department at Azusa Pacific University outside Los Angeles, which had been planning to cancel its production. “APU is grateful and excited about the prospect of producing Sorkin’s version.”

Doug DeGirolamo, president of Hill Country Theater in Buda, Texas, said he had received a copy of the Sorkin script from Rudin’s office and was hoping to stage it. “For our small little theater to do a show that’s on Broadway right now would be a huge boon to us,” he said. But his theater’s production will have to be delayed, he said.

But now, across America, small theaters are canceling productions of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” citing a threat of litigation from a powerful Broadway producer related to a contract that dates back half a century.

The theaters were planning to stage an adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel, by playwright Christopher Sergel, which has been widely staged by adults and students for decades. Lawyers for producer Scott Rudin, backed by the Lee estate, are telling the theaters that their productions are no longer permissible because there is a new adaptation, by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, which opened on Broadway in December.

Rudin is the lead producer of the new adaptation. In January, he asserted what he called his exclusive stage rights in forcing the shutdown of a British touring production of the Sergel version.

Now he is making the same claim in the United States, leaving small theater companies scrambling and creating financial shortfalls for several tightly budgeted nonprofits. The Kavinoky Theater in Buffalo, New York, was two weeks away from staging “Mockingbird” when it received a cease-and-desist notice from Rudin’s lawyer.

The Buffalo production had been shaping up to be a success, with some 3,000 advance tickets sold. The cast of 19 actors, which included six children, had been rehearsing for weeks, and the set had been built. Now, the theater is offering refunds to ticket purchasers, and plans to stage an adaptation of George Orwell’s “1984” instead.

“I truly don’t understand why this is a problem for them,” Loraine O’Donnell, the theater’s executive artistic director, said of Rudin’s company.

Lyn Adams, executive director of the Oklahoma Children’s Theater, is similarly puzzled. “The truth is our audiences are high school and middle school kids, and I just don’t know how we would hurt anybody,” she said.

Nonetheless, Adams has canceled a production of the play, scheduled to take place in September at Oklahoma City University, saying the nonprofit could not afford to risk the cost of losing a lawsuit. “It was a very strong-arm kind of letter, shaking their finger at us and telling us we were doing a bad thing and would be sued if we went ahead with a production,” she said.

The theaters are caught in the middle of a dispute between the Lee estate and Dramatic Publishing Co., founded in 1885, which sells theaters the rights to put on the play.

The estate’s lawyers sent several letters to Dramatic over the last few weeks protesting its granting of rights to a number of theaters. The letters invoked a 1969 contract between Lee and Dramatic that blocks “Mockingbird” productions within 25 miles of cities that had a population of 150,000 or more in 1960 (the last census year before the agreement was signed) while a “first-class dramatic play” based on the novel is playing in New York or on tour.

The estate is also objecting to some productions featuring performers who are members of Actors’ Equity, the professional actors union, saying that Dramatic may license only amateur productions.

In late February, with the dispute apparently unresolved, Rudin’s lawyer sent letters directly to the theaters warning them not to put on their shows.

In a statement, Rudin said: “We hate to ask anybody to cancel any production of a play anywhere, but the productions in question as licensed by DPC infringe on rights licensed to us by Harper Lee directly. The Sergel play can contractually continue to be performed under set guidelines as described in detail in its own agreement with Harper Lee — and as long as those guidelines are adhered to, we have no issue with the play having a long life.”

Representatives for the Lee estate, and the original playwright’s grandson, Christopher Sergel III, who now heads Dramatic Publishing, declined to comment.

One copyright expert said he thought the producer was within his rights to demand the venues cancel the productions. “If they own the rights, they own the rights, and they can police them as much as they want,” said the lawyer, Jordan Greenberger, who is not affiliated with the case.

The restrictions on local productions are meant to protect the financial viability of a national tour by restricting competition. The new Broadway production, with a cast led by Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch, has been selling well at the box office, but was also costly to mount — up to $7.5 million to capitalize, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is high for a nonmusical play. It is expected soon to announce a plan to tour.

Even so, several theaters said they were stunned to learn, only at the last minute, that they had to kill their shows.

The Dayton Playhouse, a theater that seats around 170 in Dayton, Ohio, was preparing to open “Mockingbird” on March 8, and had sold more than $11,000 in advance tickets. Then, on Feb. 20, theater officials got their warning letter.

“We feel we have arguments to make, but we can’t afford to go to court to make them,” said Matthew Lindsay, chairman of the playhouse’s board, who was also set to play the role of Atticus Finch. “We have a very disappointed all-volunteer cast.”

Olivia Mongelli, an 11-year-old girl who was to play Scout, Atticus’ daughter, in Dayton, said the cast learned during an evening rehearsal that the play would be shut down.

"Everyone onstage was just in shock,” Olivia said. “I just sat there for a second and said, ‘Is this a joke’?”

At least eight theater companies in the United States have canceled “Mockingbird” since receiving a letter from Rudin’s company, though one of them, the Mugford Street Players in Marblehead, Massachusetts, is not giving up. It won’t stage the play at its usual venue, 16 miles outside Boston, but instead is moving the production to Gloucester, Massachusetts, about 40 miles from Boston.

More than 25 community theater productions of “Mockingbird” are scheduled to be staged this year, according to lists on Dramatic Publishing’s website. It’s unclear how many of those will go forward, or how many will be permitted in the future, though ones outside urban areas, like an April production at Pennsylvania State University, appear to be safe.

“We’ve paid for the rights, we’re deep into rehearsal, and we’re about to load our scenery in,” said Rick Lombardo, director of the Penn State theater school.

Rudin is nothing if not strong-willed, and willing to litigate. After he bought the stage rights to the novel and won Harper Lee’s approval for Sorkin as the playwright, Lee’s estate sued him, asserting the new adaptation deviated impermissibly from the novel; he countersued, and offered to stage his play in front of the judge to prove his case. The dispute was settled. (Lee died in 2016.)

For decades, Sergel’s version of the play has been a staple at community theaters around the country. The play is staged every year in Lee’s hometown, Monroeville, Alabama, and is scheduled to go forward there this spring as planned.

Besides the productions in Buffalo, Dayton, Marblehead, and Oklahoma City, others have been called off in Braintree, Massachusetts; Buda, Texas, near Austin; Azusa Pacific University in Southern California; and Salt Lake City.

In Utah, 21 actors at the Grand Theater in Salt Lake City were practicing their lines during a recent rehearsal session, when the theater’s artistic director interrupted with the bad news.

The theater had paid Dramatic Publishing nearly $6,000. It had sold roughly $8,000 worth of tickets, and planned to stage free matinee performances for 2,500 school children.

But with the specter of a legal battle looming, it decided to cancel the play. Seth Miller, the Grand Theater’s executive artistic director, estimates the cancellation will result in a loss of some $20,000.

“I’m angry and frustrated, because we’re not impacting his show, not even a little bit,” Miller said. “They know we’re not in any position to mount a legal defense.”

Anne Cullimore Decker, an 83-year-old actress and a local legend who has been performing since the 1950s, was preparing for the role of the play’s narrator, a grown-up Scout Finch.

“It was a shock,” she said. “There’s more than a little irony in it, since ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is about a trial against an innocent man.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/theater/scott-rudin-mockingbird-broadway.html" id="b2d79fe7-1776-3598-acbe-0a2810a28beb">The New York Times</a>.

Legal Threats From Broadway's 'Mockingbird' Sink Productions Around the Country

They had cast the actors. Sold the tickets. Rehearsed the scenes.

<h1>They had cast the actors. Sold the tickets. Rehearsed the scenes.</h1>

But now, across America, small theaters are canceling productions of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” citing a threat of litigation from a powerful, sharp-elbowed Broadway producer related to a contract that dates back half a century.

More than 25 community theater productions of “Mockingbird” are scheduled to be staged this year, according to lists on Dramatic Publishing’s website. It’s unclear how many of those will go forward, or how many will be permitted in the future, though ones outside urban areas, like an April production at Pennsylvania State University, appear to be safe.

This article originally appeared in <a id="5e08ba67-a01e-4364-b949-e451c6ddc21d" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/theater/scott-rudin-mockingbird-broadway.html">The New York Times</a>.

The theaters were planning to stage an adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel, by playwright Christopher Sergel, which has been widely staged by adults and students for decades.

Legal threats from Broadway's 'Mockingbird' sink productions around the country

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Michael Paulson and Alexandra Alter

Articles written by the author

Producer Relents on 'Mockingbird' Rights, Letting Local Shows Go On

Producer Relents on 'Mockingbird' Rights, Letting Local Shows Go On

Legal Threats From Broadway's 'Mockingbird' Sink Productions Around the Country

Legal threats from Broadway's 'Mockingbird' sink productions around the country