Recently I was putting on a production of "Into The Woods"; due to certain circumstances the production was cancelled, and I never was able to show my vision of the show. This was not the first time I had tried to put on this production at this theatre, Soluna Studio. Both productions ended with them being cancelled. When I put on the first production it was due to a lack of male cast members.
From this moment on I had wished to finally put on the production I always wanted. Unfortunately it did not go like I planned. I would like to express my voice on the issue because it seems like everyone else who does theatre on the island expressed their opinions, and I, the person whom was working with an extremely talented cast, did not get to express what I thought about it.
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Putting on a production for "Into The Woods" for a second time was a blessing but also a curse. I was able to have a dream cast and this cast of mine truly made my vision of "Into The Woods" one of the best I have ever seen. We had been rehearsing this extremely difficult show (for those of you that perform you know Sondheim is not an easy composer) for a couple of months. The day before the show was supposed to open, it was cancelled. After all of this hard work that I put into making the show come alive, character development, but most importantly my cast of 20 memorizing a 200 page script along with extremely difficult music, it was thrown down the drain. The cast and I were extremely upset and once it had been cancelled everyone was posting all over social media about this tragedy. The reason the show was cancelled was due to lack of rights.
This brings me to the show's rights - which a theatre company must pay for in order to do a live show. We have been told that, at first, the theatre did not receive a sufficient amount of production fees, ($75 per each cast member) to pay for the rights. For all who are knowledgeable about how rights work, you know that to legally have auditions, advertise and perform a live theatrical performance a company must purchase the rights prior to conducting these activities. It was illegal because this theatre did not own the rights and according to the law you must own the rights from MTI, (Music Theatre International) prior to conducting these activities. Professional individuals who run other theatre companies such as the heads of places like CK Productions, Bayway, and CM Performing Arts understand that, if you are going to charge a production fee you secure the rights prior to auditions and use the production fees to satisfy the payments you have already made.
Furthermore, after the cast was told the show would have to be cancelled due to insufficient funds, my good friend volunteered their own money to pay for the funds which was $300. After this person donated the money for the rights two days before the show, the next day one of the theatre's owners had posted a message on our Facebook Group saying:
"We just got an email from MTI explaining that they were unable to process our balance and finalize the rights so close to the show. Our rep has been trying to work with us and he did say that if we got everything to him by yesterday it was okay, but unfortunately he does not have final say."
This had turned out to be a lie. Someone had spoken to John O'Connor who is the head of New York's branch of MTI and the distribution of rights to shows. He has informed this person that they have received NO PAYMENTS from Soluna Studio (where did those production fees that were used as a down payment go then?) and had NO IDEA they were even trying to do "Into the Woods." Mr. O'Connor also explained that a REP would never give licensing two days before a show opened. REPS don't make "deals".
Now, I understand that this article might make some people extremely angry, but I do have the right to express how feel just as all of you did. Understand that we have documentation that NO MONEY was given to MTI.
On another note, I would just like to say how proud I am of the cast that I was able to work with. I know by writing this article I might lose some people as friends but I needed to say what I had to say. Whether you believe a thing I say or not is entirely up to you, but just know that I'm looking out for the people who do theatre because I love every single one of you.
For those of you who don't know, "Into The Woods" is a show that means the extreme world to me. It deals with real life situations in a classic fairy tale setting. The show is beautiful. I'm so sad nobody was able to see this production with this cast because it was truly the most beautiful thing that was ever made. I cried every time we ran the show. Now, the next time I try out on this production again I'll just remember that the third time's a charm.
