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The following areas of the material on this web site may be used free, provided that there are no ticket charges and/or requests for an offering/donation*:
1. Esther Purim/Children Script (short programs).
2. All Communion / Stewardship Meditations (these may also be used without attribution).
3. Ruth, Act 1, Scene 1 (the “I will never leave you” section of Ruth).
If Esther or Ruth is used, please attribute the work in a format substantially similar to the following:
“Esther/Ruth [insert one or the other] was written by Dennis L. Dunn, who holds all copyrights. It is used with his permission. Dennis’ creative works may be viewed at BibleTheater.org (not “com”).”
Alternately, if you are using the Esther program (and you want to help out the author), please use the format suggested in the "Royalties / Donations / Expanding the Show" section of the script.
* If done by churches, a “passing of the plate”, done as part of
a normal service, is not considered an offering/donation.
2. Standard Royalties.
Standard Royalties for the use of the material are as follows:
1. Complete Ruth play -- 10% of revenue.
2. Esther Play -- 10% of revenue.
3. Easter presentation -- 10% of revenue..
"Revenue" can be either Ticket Charges (without including service fees) or donations when free-will offerings are taken.
NOTE: It is the author's desire to (1) get his work seen; (2) be fair to those presenting the work and himself.
Therefore, Royaties may be adjusted pursuant to the "Golden Rule", as suggested below.
3. Golden Rule Usage.
The "Golden Rule" states that we should: "Do unto others as you wish they'd do unto you."
People wish to treat others fairly. The author trusts that people will appreciate the material and are willing to pay him for his time and effort.
Therefore, no royalty need be paid if there are ticket charges but something similar to the following is presented to the audience in the program and verbally stated:
We are grateful that the playwright, Dennis L. Dunn, has allowed us to present this material without charge. However, as writers have to eat, please consider making a donation to support the author’s continued work (checks to us will be forwarded to him). Also, if you have friends in theater suggest they review his plays at BibleTheater.org (that's org. not "com").
4. Golden Rule Usage -- Part 2. Being fair to each other includes adjusting contracts so that they work for both parties. So, if you've got a suggestion on using the material that is fair to you and to me, make it. Without being exclusive (I'll try to create a large list later), any of the following are reasonable variations of a "fair" contract: 1. A theater company that would normally pay 15-20% royalties for Fiddler on the Roof (and sell out) offering to pay 5-8% royalties to me. 2. A group of college students presenting Esther at a park or community picnic and having a hat in which there is hardly enough to cover lunch and transportation. Nothing should go to the author other than a "Thank you" prayer. 3. A college student presents portions of the Easter presentation and also presents other works. In that case, a percentage less than 10% would be appropriate. Also: Keep in mind that one of my main goals is to have the material presented and/or to earn enough through writing that I can continue to produce these works and help support my family. Therefore, even if you can't pay full royalties, you may be able to provide significant help to the work by doing any of the following: 1. Suggesting a director, artistic director, or church drama director look at this (or others) as a potential play for their presentation (only 10%, or so, of the people looking will seriously consider putting it on, but I need 9 looks to get one "Let's do it!").
2. Suggest a donor look at commissioning a song or even a play. 3. If you're in theater, making a commitment to promote or direct the play, if the opportunity one day presents itself.
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