Question about writing a play.
Question about writing a play.
BwayLeadman
Broadway Star Joined: 9/29/04
#0Question about writing a play.
Posted: 10/11/05 at 3:18pm
I want to write a play that is based on a true story. (Family members and friends)
Of course I am not going to use their personal information.
If I don't tell them that I am writing about them,
can they sue me or something?
Do I need their permission?
#1re: Question about writing a play.
Posted: 10/11/05 at 3:27pmask Ready 2 Defy Gravity. he wrote a whole musical...
#2re: Question about writing a play.
Posted: 10/11/05 at 3:40pmI doubt very seriously that they could or even would successfully sue you, unless you use their real names and libel them. Tennessee's mom didn't sue him for The Glass Menagerie...nor did the estate of Roy Cohn sue Kushner...
#3re: Question about writing a play.
Posted: 10/11/05 at 3:44pm
No, you don't need their permission, and you don't have to tell them what you're doing. Writers the world over base characters on people they know. Sometimes a characters is a combination of several real-life people; sometimes a character starts as a real-life person and then develops into something completely different.
If you're writing what will ultimately be thought of as fiction, you'll find that you have to change "real" events, people, and paces to make them better suit the medium, the story structure, etc. and the end result isn't going to be a mirror on the truth, anyway.
There are risks involved, to be sure: the people you're basing these characters on may see this play at some point, recognize themselves, and then demand answers. There is a balance between telling a story that needs to be told (and you should ask yourself if it NEEDS to be told) and being respectful of the people on whose lives the story is based.
Best of luck. Don't stifle your instincts.
"There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it." -Oscar Wilde
Updated On: 10/11/05 at 03:44 PM
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#4re: Question about writing a play.
Posted: 10/11/05 at 3:55pm
Neil Simon based almost all of his plays on family and people he knew.
Take a tip from the old tv show Dragnet:
"The names have been changed to protect the innocent".
...and your royalty checks.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#5re: Question about writing a play.
Posted: 10/11/05 at 3:57pmOr you could take the Fargo route and say it's a true story when it really isn't...
wexy
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/19/05
#6re: Question about writing a play.
Posted: 10/11/05 at 4:07pm
I've written short stories based on real life people.I've changed hair colors, occupations, hometowns and other stuff and combined them with traits of other people.
I know who it is but they would never be able to say it was 100% them.
'Take me out tonight where's there's music and there's people and they're young and alive.'
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#7re: Question about writing a play.
Posted: 10/11/05 at 4:26pmWhen Robert Harling wrote "Steel Magnolias", there were about 20 women that thought they were one of the characters in the play.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#8re: Question about writing a play.
Posted: 10/11/05 at 4:48pmSo even if you use real life people within a fictional context (i.e. Ethel Rosenberg and Roy Cohn in "Angels in America) you don't have to get any legal permission or anything like that?
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#9re: Question about writing a play.
Posted: 10/11/05 at 4:49pmI don't think so--so long as you make no inferences that's it's a true story...of course, it helps if the people are dead.
