Contracts

Few things in life are absolute, but at some point in your production, you will encounter a written contract that you have to sign.  And most likely you’ll encounter more than one.  What to except and how to deal with them is an important aspect of theater production.

Contracts can be a little confusing, but you shouldn’t be intimidated by them.  My good friend Nick (who is a lawyer) explained it to me like this:  “There’s no special legal jargon that makes a contract official.  A law firm doesn’t have to write it to make it official.  A contract is simply a written agreement between two parties.  However, it’s important for a contract to be written with very specific language to protect both parties from unforeseen events.”  The specific language part is important because exceptions can and will come up.

Take a contract with the theater for example.  The basic gist is that you’re going to give them some money, and in exchange they’ll let you use their space for the show.  Sounds simple, right?  But what if they don’t lock their doors and your wardrobe gets stolen?  What hours are you allowed to be in the theater?  Are other productions allowed access to the space at the same time as you?  What are you required to have in terms of insurance?  What are you allowed to do in terms of set construction?  There are a LOT of exceptions that can come up, and it’s important for specific language to be in the contract that covers anything that can possibly happen.  That’s the advantage of having a theatrical lawyer look at a contract.  It’s their job to know about these exceptions, and make sure language is included that will protect your interests.

But more importantly, only deal with people you trust.  You want to deal with people whose interests are in line with yours.  You will save yourself a lot of headache if you follow that simple rule.  If they trust you (and you trust them) it will never come to the point where you’re arguing over contractual semantics.  And if you’re producing off-off Broadway this becomes doubly important, because you probably don’t have the money to afford a good lawyer.