Industry Pro Newsletter: Jujamcyn Ruling in Covid Suit, Easter Bonnet Competition Returns

Dance news, lawsuits, and J.J. Abrams is coming to the stage all featured in this week's newsletter, along with a surprisingly strong report on the state of the creative economy in California. If California is any indication, there is reason for hope even as the bounceback is slower in other parts of the country as we re-emerge from the pandemic.

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Employment Opportunity

Director of Marketing - Barrington Stage Company

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), an award-winning theatre in the Berkshires in Pittsfield, MA is seeking a Director of Marketing. The successful candidate must have superior leadership and organizational skills, be a strong collaborator with other departments and have the ability to translate internal marketing needs into strong and consistent messages. Candidate needs to be a strategic thinker while possessing the ability to execute tactically. Click here to learn more...

Industry Trends

Dueling ANNE OF GREEN GABLES Musicals Head to Court by Cara Joy David

Theater fans are used to seeing multiple shows with the same name. Kate Hamill's adaptation of PRIDE & PREJUDICE is widely produced, but new adaptations of the novel pop up consistently with the same name. And we all know about the dueling WILD PARTYs. This seems normal--the underlying properties are in the public domain, meaning there is no need to license the source material. So, from that perspective, it would seem like multiple musicals could utilize the ANNE OF GREEN GABLES moniker. Yet the producer of ANNE OF GREEN GABLES: A NEW MUSICAL has felt the need to go to court to ask the court to declare the show legally entitled to keep its name.

The situation is a bit bizarre. Concord Theatricals licenses a musical ANNE OF GREEN GABLES - THE MUSICAL (which I'll call ANNE 1) featuring a book by Donald Harron and music by Norman Campbell. Prior to the pandemic, ANNE 1 was produced at the Charlottetown Festival on Prince Edward Island every summer since 1965. In 1971, it had a run at New York's City Center, and has had scattered productions elsewhere in the US, Canada and London.

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES: A NEW MUSICAL (ANNE 2, for short) premiered at the Finger Lakes Music Theatre Festival in 2018 and ran at Goodspeed Musicals last year. It has book and lyrics by Matte O'Brien and music by Matt Vinson.

ANNE 1 has the approval of the Anne of Green Gables Licensing Authority Inc., which is partially owned by the heirs of original author L.M. Montgomery. While the underlying ANNE OF GREEN GABLES is now in the public domain and therefore the source material no longer has copyright protection, Anne of Green Gables Licensing Authority trademarked the name ANNE OF GREEN GABLES to be used with a variety of goods, including tote bags, scarves and live performance. What does this mean? While a copyright protects an original work, trademark protects a mark that identifies goods or services. Basically, you generally cannot trademark simply a name, but you can trademark a name that becomes linked with a good or service.

Anne of Green Gables Licensing Authority has registered trademarks for both ANNE OF GREEN GABLES for live performance and ANNE OF GREEN GABLES - THE MUSICAL (which bears a "TM" on the Concord website). This means they have a legal presumption--which is rebuttable--of ownership and the exclusive right to use the marks in connection with live performance. According to the complaint filed by Anne With An E, Limited Liability Company, producer of ANNE 2 (which has so far only sought $1 million in a capital raise), Anne of Green Gables Licensing Authority started threatening Anne With An E with trademark infringement litigation if they didn't cease using the name ANNE OF GREEN GABLES: A NEW MUSICAL. ANNE 2 beat them to it, filing suit to preemptively ask the court to find that its title does not infringe on anyone's trademark rights.

"The licensing organization is saying: 'Hey, no, we actually own a trademark in Anne of Green Gables and your use of Anne of Green Gables in the title of your play is too similar to our trademark and people are likely to think you're associated or sponsored by us," explained Katy Basile, a partner at Reed Smith who specializes in trademark law, when asked to put the issues in simple terms. "The new play company is basically saying: 'No, we are simply putting on a play based upon this book and we're using the name in the title. It's the title of our play. It's not trademark use. We have a First Amendment right to say this and no one is likely to think we are associated with this other company who is selling all this other stuff.'"

This will be an interesting one and will likely impact the trajectory of ANNE 2. The musical is being prepped for Broadway and the team likely brought this action rather than have the threat of a lawsuit hanging over its head.

In Dance, Communal Leadership Begins to Emerge

The collaborative culture at professional dancing institutions typically does not carry over to the boardrooms and offices. The majority are hierarchical, with one or two people-an artistic director and an executive director-at the very top. A common organizational structure supporting a single creative vision is centered around the choreographers who created and, in some cases, still direct many notable dance troupes. Nonetheless, a number of dance organizations have recently started to embrace communal leadership. Click here to read more...

Broadway/New York

20at20 Participating Show's Announced

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, The Off Broadway Alliance will again sponsor 20at20, the bi-annual celebration of Off Broadway. The popular promotion, which begins March 20th and continues through April 9th, makes $20 tickets for participating Off Broadway plays and musicals available to theatregoers twenty minutes prior to curtain. Click here to see the full list of participants...

Red Bucket Appeals Return Ahead of Easter Bonnet Competition

Beginning over the weekend, groups of volunteers from all over the nation have pulled out the iconic #Red Buckets for the spring installment of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS in-theater fundraising. Audience members at participating performances can make donations until Sunday, April 23, 2023, to support individuals in need of food, medicine, healthcare, and hope. The Easter Bonnet Competition (#BroadwayBonnets), which had been absent for four years due to the pandemic, will return this year. Click here to read more...

Federal Court Rules on Jujamcyn Covid Related Lawsuits

Jujamcyn lost its action against Federal Insurance Company at the hands of a federal court in the Southern District of New York, and its claim against Pacific Indemnity Company was also reduced. Jujamcyn filed a lawsuit against Federal and Pacific, two insurance titans owned by Chubb, in August 2020. Jujamcyn claimed that even though they did not file a lawsuit for a specific cash number, the insurance plans taken as a whole should have covered tens of millions of dollars. Click here to read more...

Bad Robot, J.J. Abrams' Production Company, Forms Stage Division

The newly established theater subsidiary of J.J. Abrams, Bad Robot, has agreed to a three-year exclusive relationship with theater owner and producer Ambassador Theatre Group. As a result of the collaboration, Bad Robot Live will have the ability to collaborate on projects with ATG's producing division as well as help bring to stage theatrical works with ATG, which operates theaters on Broadway and the West End. Bad Robot Live will be led by Elizabeth Rothman, previously of Manhattan Theatre Club. Click here to read more...

Regional

California's Creative Economy Bounces Back Surprisingly Strong

Unexpectedly encouraging news about California's creative economy can be found in a recent report. Despite the pandemic's disproportionate impact on cultural sectors, the state's creative economy outpaced the general economy in its recovery, according to the most recent edition of the "Otis College Report on the Creative Economy," an annual assessment from the Los Angeles arts school. Overall, 7.6% of its jobs were directly attributable to the creative sector to the tune of 14.9 percent of the #3.4 trillion economy ($507.4 billion). Click here to read more...

Eric Avery Named Artistic Director of AlterTheater

Eric Avery has been named as AlterTheater's new Producing Artistic Director, the company has announced. The Director of New Play Development Diana Burbano, the Literary Committee, and the Producing Artistic Director will all work together to lead AlterTheater under the theater's shared leadership paradigm. Click here to read more...

International

Britain's Only All-Wheelchair-User Professional Dance Company Goes on Tour

The only all-wheelchair user professional dance group in Britain was founded with the intention that its upcoming debut national tour will "create a ripple effect" and help more individuals realize they can dance. Click here to read more...

Missed our last few newsletters?

March 6, 2023 - Cherry Lane Acquired, Weissberg Commissions Announced

A few interesting items this week that continue to highlight the different ways that theatre and other forms of entertainment are intertwined - first, in Massachusetts a proposal for live production tax credits - a scheme commonplace with many states to woo the film industry, but not overly common in the world of theatre. The Massachusetts program is designed after those seen in New York state and Rhode Island. Also, A24 is entering the live theatre realm - the revered production and distribution company has acquired the Cherry Lane Theater. We've long seen media companies make their way toward Broadway, but A24 entering the off-Broadway space comes after Audible successfully did so a few seasons ago. Click here to read more...

February 27, 2023 - Antisemitic Protests at Parade, New AEA Report on EDI

The growing threat of antisemitism in our culture spilled onto Broadway last week as a group of neo-Nazi's protested outside preview performances of Parade. Cara Joy David dives into that, not only looking at the protests themselves, but how it fits into the wider cultural conversation and what each of us should be doing in our day to day lives to further combat this alarming growth of antisemitism. Beyond that, some good news from governmental budgeting processes - as Wisconsin's governor has proposed an increase in arts funding, and the Scottish government reversed their planned cuts to arts funding. At this critical cultural juncture, seeing those in positions of power recognize the importance of the arts is an important step to protecting the industry as a whole. Click here to read more...

February 20, 2023 - Hal Luftig Company Declares Bankruptcy, New Ohio to Close

Earlier this month, the Box Office of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Kimmel Center became tied up in a cyber attack - not unlike the attack that tied up the Met's box office for weeks - offering everyone a reminder that cyber security vulnerabilities should be examined by institutions of all shapes and sizes. In the newsletter this week, we also have stories about leadership changes, a bankruptcy filing, and the closing of the New Ohio, an off-Broadway institution for the last 30 years. Click here to read more...

BroadwayWorld Resources

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