Amateur Dramatic Scripts

[Elijay]

Where is the best place to obtain short comedy scripts? Royalty Free preferred, as it's for a charity we don't want to pay too much

[follyfancier]

try your local library

[Bambiagain]

Samuel French publish lots of scripts. You only pay a royalty if you put on a performance. samuelfrench-london.co.uk.

[saxy_jag]

Actually you might not need to pay a royalty. If it's anything like a musical concert, it's the venue that has to pay for a performing rights licence (and I guess the idea is they recoup it from hire fees). You need to fill in a form that the venue then sends to PRS and the writer/publisher is allocated their royalty fee from PRS funds (which they get from all those venue licences).

[Bambiagain]

If it's a play - and from the way the question is asked I suspect it will be - then generally a royalty has to be paid to the author or owner of the copyright unless the copyright has expired, which is usually 70 years after the death of the author. However, levels of royalty vary depending on size of audience, length of play etc., and some authors may be willing to let amateurs perform with no royalty, although this does not usually apply with popular pieces that are also put on by professionals. The best people to advise about this are the publishers of the any work that is under consideration. I was once in a play of a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel which we were allowed to perform without payment, but I believe that a royalty may now be payable for these plays. It's worth checking, of course. What Sexy Jag is saying may apply if you use a venue that organises copyright payment if you hire it, but I suspect that your charity may in that case be expected to pay a fair whack for hiring the venue.

www.samuelfrench-london.co uk - forgot the www last time, sorry.

[Bambiagain]

https://www.samuelfre...rm/scale-of-fee-codes

Shows the levels of fees. The script itself tells you what the code for the play is but they start at £10, which is not too bank-breaking.

[Elijay]

What I am looking for is the sort of thing they entertained the troops with at concert parties, good old fashioned humorous entertainment.