The artistic director of a Minnesota theatre group has responded to a letter from Doug Wright, president of the Dramatists Guild, which used the words "arrogant" and "cowardly" to describe guidelines posted by the Words Players Theatre of Rochester, MN, for its planned 2015 Original Short Play Festival.
In an Aug. 4 letter to Daved Driscoll, artistic director of Words Players Theatre, Wright took issue with guidelines that said the theatre's directors and casts reserved the right to change submitted playscripts in any way they chose, while offering the playwrights no money for the use of their plays.
Driscoll told Playbill.com Aug. 5 that he responded to Wright seeking his advice on how to re-draft the submission guidelines "to make clear that we do, in fact, ask for author permission to make changes."
Here is the complete text of Wright's letter, followed by the published guidelines.
Mr. Driscoll,
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<a href='http://ox1.playbill.com/www/delivery/ck.php?n=a0b85aad&amp;cb=668730350' target='_blank'><img src='http://ox1.playbill.com/www/delivery/avw.php?zoneid=10&amp;source=news&amp;cb=668730350&amp;n=a0b85aad' border='0' alt='' /></a> I write to you today as President of the Dramatists Guild of America, the national association of playwrights, lyricists and composers, with over 7000 members around the world. We at the Guild were dismayed to read your call for submissions for the Words Players Theater's 8th Annual Original Short Play Festival, in which you announce shockingly errant guidelines for festival submissions.
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