Rights are available for universities, schools, community theatres, festivals, workshops, staged readings, and independent productions. Licensing and permissions for every play are handled by Upstage Left Press, and every enquiry is answered by a person who has read the script.
There is no minimum budget and no minimum house size. A conservatoire studio and a five hundred seat civic theatre are both welcome, and the terms are written to match the scale of the production in front of you.
Write to Upstage Left Press with the play you have in mind and the shape of your production. A first reply usually comes back within a few days.
Order a reading copy for twenty five dollars, as a PDF or a hard copy. Educators considering a course adoption can ask for a review copy instead.
Rights are quoted for each production, based on venue, capacity, ticketing, the number of performances, and whether the work is fully staged.
A short written agreement names the play, the dates, the venue, and the fee. Payment follows on the payment page, and an invoice is issued if your finance office needs one.
Rehearse and open. Jeanmarie is glad to join a talkback or a rehearsal room by video, and asks only for the programme credit named in the agreement.
Questions about casting, doubling, cuts, or running time are welcome at any point, before or after the agreement is signed.
The more of this you can give in the first message, the sooner a firm quotation comes back. If you do not know an answer yet, say so and send the rest.
A quotation for the run, a note on any conditions particular to the play, and an offer of the script in whichever format suits your rehearsal room. Nothing is charged until the terms are agreed in writing.
When Churchyards Yawn and Other Plays can be bought by anyone, and reading it is encouraged. Staging any of the plays inside it is a separate permission, granted for each production, with its own dates and its own fee.
The same is true of a twenty five dollar reading copy. It puts the script in your hands so you can decide, and it carries no right to perform.
A first reply usually arrives within a few days, and a straightforward licence is often settled within two weeks of the first message. Leave longer if your season is already on sale, or if a finance office has to approve the agreement.
Ask first. Small cuts for a running time or a doubling plan are often agreed, and are written into the licence so everyone is working from the same text. Changes to the language, the setting, or the ending need Jeanmarie to say yes in writing before rehearsals begin.
An archival recording for your own files is normally fine. Streaming to an audience, sharing a recording with a class outside your institution, or posting extracts publicly are separate permissions, so name them in your enquiry and they can be quoted alongside the live run.
Yes. A Single Woman has played in fifty three countries, and the plays are licensed worldwide. Translation into another language is possible and is agreed case by case, with the translated script shared before it is performed.
Reading a play around a table as part of a course, with no audience and no tickets, is study rather than performance and needs no licence. The moment an audience is invited, even without charge, write and a short reading licence can be arranged quickly.
Often, yes. She joins talkbacks, rehearsal rooms and classes both in person and by video, and has done so for universities across the country. Say in your enquiry which you would like, and a separate note covers travel where a visit is in person.
There is no published rate card, because a student showcase for forty people and a four week civic run are not the same event. Fees are quoted for each production from the venue, the capacity, the ticketing, and the number of performances, and they are kept within reach of the company asking.
Every play in the catalogue is available to licence. Three to begin with, chosen because they travel well and suit very different companies.
Solo historical drama
Heretic: The Mary Dyer Story
1 performer. 80 minutes.
In a Boston jail cell on the day before her execution, the Quaker martyr Mary Dyer relives loss, motherhood, religious persecution, and the choices…
Toured 2011 to 2019 Read the play
Historical drama
Flight of the Dove
3 performers. 90 minutes.
Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the United States Congress, reflects on her life and her activism. Memory, public history, and a contemporary…
Read the playShakespeare’s dead are not finished with one another. In Purgatory, Hamlet, Ophelia, Gertrude, Claudius, Polonius, Laertes, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and the old king must climb…
In the collection Read the playCopies of the plays are available directly. Request the titles you would like and send twenty five dollars, and the script comes back as a PDF or a hard copy, your choice.
Licensing and permissions for every play are handled by Upstage Left Press. For a workshop, a residency, or a guest discussion, write to Jeanmarie directly.
A licence is not a gate, it is the moment a play stops being paper and becomes a room full of people.Upstage Left Press
A short letter when a play is finished, when a production opens, or when new classroom material becomes available. Nothing else.