Producing a Live Performance: A Practitioner's Guide to Underlying Rights, Performer Agreements, Recording, and Venue Terms
By Casey Scott McKay ·
This guide takes a producer's counsel from an option to an opening night and beyond it, in the order the decisions actually arrive. It starts with the underlying rights, because a production that has not separated dramatic performance from grand rights has not cleared its music. It then works through the creative team agreements that determine what the company owns, the designer engagement that is the sector's most commonly mishandled document, and the authorship agreement that a devised process needs in its first week rather than at transfer. Later steps cover performer and union terms, the capture consent that must be taken at engagement, the venue and ticket layer, title and sponsorship, and the archive that becomes the company's asset. Each step ends with the document it produces.
IP and Technology > Copyright | Guide | Published 2 May 2025 - Updated 22 July 2025 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
Summary. This guide takes a producer's counsel from an option to an opening night and past it, in the order the decisions arrive. It starts with underlying rights, because a production that has not separated dramatic performance from grand rights has not cleared its music. It covers the creative team agreements that determine what the company owns, the designer engagement that is the sector's most mishandled document, and the authorship agreement a devised process needs in week one. Later steps cover performer and union terms, capture consent taken at engagement, the venue and ticket layer, title and sponsorship, and the archive that becomes the asset. Each step ends with a document.
Keywords: production rights clearance · grand rights negotiation · dramatic performance licence · director agreement · designer engagement · choreographer licence · devised work authorship · capture consent · cast recording · venue agreement · ticket terms · show title clearance · sponsorship obligations · production photography · archive and revival
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