In late December 2017, constituent congress of a new professional NGO, Dramatists Guild of Russia, took place in Moscow. Yuri Poliakov, head of Literaturnaya Gazeta editorial board, was elected the new NGO’s chairman, while a renowned Russian playwright Valentin Krasnogorov was elected first deputy chairman. In an interview to Invest Foresight Mr Krasnogorov told about the major reasons behind establishing the Guild and the common problems of the authors writing for theaters, including protection of their financial interests.
A lonely wolf will always fail
– As we know from the basic theory and history of literature course, stage play is one of the fundamental literary genres and, more broadly, one of the fundamental elements of culture. At the same time, it is not a secret that dramatists, i.e. people who have professional knowledge of what a dialogue is about, when engaging in their personal down-to-earth dialogue with theaters as the main application objects of their creative energies, paradoxically quite rarely find themselves in an advantageous position. What is your opinion of the problem?
– I agree that a dialogue between a theater and a playwriter is regretfully not an equal dialogue. A theater is a large institution backed by a broad audience, staff, budget, media, etc. while a dramatist is a one-man show by default. A dramatist does not direct any entity, rarely has any high profile awards and titles or is in a focus of the public and media attention, is never paid any government subsidies. In fact, a playwright does not exist, in the eyes of the Ministry of Culture. Each theater is strong by itself. Besides, all theaters are united in the Theatre Union of the Russian Federation, a powerful organization with numerous employees and huge budget. Stage directors have their own Guild. Therefore, if each dramatist defends his rights and status alone and all by oneself, most of them are bound to fail.
– Therefore, the time has come for a stage plays authors’ effective trade union, the Guild, to be established on its prospect members’ initiative. What do you and your colleagues see as the Guild’s top priority?
– To start with, we need to unite as many national dramatists as possible, regardless of their views on literature, theater or politics. Our consolidation is based on purely professional grounds and intended for protecting our common professional interests. That said, each playwriter is free to write whatever he pleases, limited by only his talents. Ideological believes and personal affections and antipathies should be fought over elsewhere. Dramatists may only succeed if most of them join forces.
– At the constituent congress, it was repeatedly noted that ‘dramatists’ status is as low as never before’. Your plays have been successfully staged both in Russia and abroad, and you are really familiar with the specifics of relationships between theaters and dramatists. Do you share the above view?
– I will attempt to explain the problem by asking and answering questions. So, is a playwriter involved in rehearsals in a theater? Hardly ever. A stage director, a literary director, a technical director, actors, designers, composer(s), musicians, they all can and even must be present at rehearsals and participate in creating a theatrical performance since its very onset. But the author, the dramatist, who knows the idea of the play and the portraitures of the characters better than anybody else and who can greatly contribute to improving the play and performance, is only allowed to see the play when it is fully ready and when no amendments to it are possible. There are no legal statutes which guarantee the right of a dramatist to attend rehearsals. A theater can simply deny the right of access.
Does a theater seek advice of a playwright on the choice of a stage director, designer, actors and the entire performance team? Never. Is a playwriter regularly contacted by a stage director while show is produced? Never. Is his opinion ever asked to ascertain the representation of the idea behind the play? Never. Is his text treated delicately and are his permissions asked if any amendments, cuts and additions to the text are intended? Never, in breach of the rules of law and ethics. Is a dramatis invited to attend the first run of a play? At times only. And even then, his presence can no longer serve the main purpose and the only goal of improving the play, since everything is set for the performance by then, and hence nobody is meaning or willing to introduce any changes on the eve of the premiere, more so after it.
Does a theater inform a dramatist of the premiere date at all? Not always. Does it adequately pay for his work? Rarely. Does he receive video recordings of his play, posters, critique? Hardly ever. Is there an efficient legal mechanism of a dramatist’s lawful rights protection? None. Do theaters in general fancy staging plays of present-day dramatists? They do not. To sum up, the final question is, is the above situation to advantage of the theaters, the dramatists, the audience and the national culture? It is not.
Crude product copyright
– It is not hard to see the consequences of such an unmotivated discrimination.
– But whose fault is the degraded status of dramatists? Is it the fault of theaters or authorities? No, that is the fault of dramatists themselves. One must be able to protect one’s rights, but that can only be done by joining forces. Hence the founding of the Guild will improve the status of the occupation.
Otherwise, crisis developments in theater which everyone admits, will only grow further. Over the recent years, theatre researchers and stage directors actively discuss the idea of a postdramatic theater. It is dismissively pointed out to dramatists that theater has the right to co-authorship, that creator of a theatrical performance is a stage director and not a playwriter, that a dramatist is to submit a text to a theater and everything else is none of his business, that dramatists are not aware of the theatrical specifics, that a text of a play is nothing but a crude product, etc.
The sacred book of the followers of the theory is Postdramatic Theatre, a well known book by German theatre researcher, historian and modern art theorist Hans-Thies Lehmann where he explained the essence of the new theater and the new processes. Still, commencement of all negative developments is rooted in liquidation of the concept and social status of dramatists.
Authors as Cinderellas
– Let’s discuss the revenues of the current playwriters. Where does the problem of their unprotected rights come from, depriving them of a possibility to make good living in a market economy, as is the case with scholars and reporters?
– Nowadays, a dramatist is the first in line when costs are cut and the last when money is paid. Funds may be spent on costumery, scenery, directors and even receptions after a premiere, but not on a dramatist’s reasonable fee. Even a negotiated fee is often paid with delay or not paid at all in a hope a dramatist will not go to court. By manipulating ticket sales data and reports to the Russian Authors’ Society, theaters can reduce fees even further. Dramatists’ work is not taken into account when their retirement benefits are calculated, even though they regularly pay all taxes.
– What about the legal aspect?
– Here, the situation is not ideal either, to say the least. Most of authors do not even know how they should make a proper agreement with a theater. It is more weird that plenty of theaters do not know how to properly draft a contract, or, if there is one, they do not bother to honor it. There are no sample standard contracts, whereas they are commonly drafted and used in European countries where they are binding for theaters.
Furthermore, theaters hardly ever send to authors detailed reports on the number of performances and the box-office. Piracy and unauthorized stage shows are commonplace. In the immediate future the Guild will urgently need services of qualified lawyers specializing in copyright law. It is a shame that in a country as vast as Russia copyright protection specialists are almost nonexistent.Court hearings on the subject are very few, too. Dramatists themselves should have better knowledge and understanding of the laws on copyrights. That is something the Guild could effectively help with.
At a fundamental level, dramatic changes to the legislation on and judicial practices in protecting author’s rights are required.
– How much of the Russian Authors’ Society’s potential remains unreleased?
– The Russian Authors’ Society refers to authors in its name, but in fact it has nothing to do with them. It mainly collects fees (and it is not always quite clear, who is the prime beneficiary). Dramatic art and dramatists are its minor interests. Promoting present-day plays is not among its tasks, financial situation of dramatists is none of its concern, while a creative component is totally nonexistent. The Russian Authors’ Society is now going through a crisis caused by corruption and inability to arrange its activities. Besides, it in fact compels both theaters and authors to make agreements through the Russian Authors’ Society only, even though that contravenes the law. The relationships with the Russian Authors’ Society must be rearranged in their entirety.
Setting up a copyright agency of its own may be one of the aims of our Guild, even though it is a most complicated task.
– Promoting contemporary drama is of prime importance for any playwriter. Is it something your Guild can take care of?
– First of all, it should be admitted that theaters put contemporary drama on stage rarely and unwillingly. Nevertheless, any forceful compulsion of contemporary drama on theaters is impermissible. It would be a shame if modern plays, no matter how good (and especially, how bad) they are, are imposed on theaters by orders of some authorities. For that, there are other means of stimulating theaters and promoting dramatic art.
New organization, more than virtual
– In my view, one of the solutions to the current situation is creating a library of plays. Another right thing to do is maintaining a website and accounts in social networks. Despite a seemingly easy technical solution to the task – given the present-day general access to social media – that is a hard task. We ought to draw attention of literary directors (whose role should be drastically elevated through the Guild), stage directors, actors, drama art schools, libraries (with their audiences and theater auditoriums), to the contemporary drama, and to establish good contacts with all of them. We should also have our professional contests, festivals, readings, sketch plays. We will need to have an advanced and dynamic public relations and advertizing team. Setting up a publishing department of our own is also possible.
In a broader context, the biased attitude of the theatrical world toward the modern drama is to be changed. Critics may play an invaluable part here. But that will also require expanding the pool of experts in drama and theater, and a de facto demonopolization of the current theater criticism.
– Establishment of the Guild and related costs as well as subsequent protection of the authors’ interests will require more than merely good will. In your view, what would be feasible to start with?
– First of all, the Guild must not withdraw from bringing up a new generation of dramatists. To do that, we have to arrange master classes, laboratories, extramural classes, seminars. It is best if it’s done jointly with theaters. The new generation playwriters should be brought up by dramatists themselves, not only by critics and academicians even though that is also important.
As for the organization, the Guild will certainly need some staff. For that, it will need substantial funding and the premises to operate at, small auditoriums (in Moscow and St Petersburg, at least) for meetings, readings, rehearsals, performances, shows, presentations. Without government support it is not possible, at least at the initial stage. We therefore will need to build up contacts with national, regional, local, and other cultural institutions, as well as with the Russian Authors’ Society, the Theatre Union of the Russian Federation and all potential sponsors. At the present stage these relationships are either controversial or nonexistent. That does not mean one has to get brownie points from authorities and things like that. Regardless the political situation, authorities are to be made aware of the importance of the renewal of the national dramatic art as a national scale goal.
Remember, the government supports dozens of thousands of schools, libraries, museums, projects, competitions and festivals. An ordinary theater gets yearly government subsidies of RUR 100 million ($1.7 million) while some of them get billions of rubles. It will therefore not be dishonorable for the government to find some vital subsidies for the Dramatists Guild as well. No doubt, financial support from private sponsors will also be essential, if we see entities and private individuals who realize the prime importance of drama art in shaping the morals of the nation. That would be a worthy investment. Businesses sometimes financially support theaters but never dramatists. It may to some degree be explained by the fact that national dramatists did not have an organization as such. Well, now they have one.
By Alexei Golyakov