FreePlays.org

How we share our plays

Getting and using

You may use works from this site, including performing them and charging money for your performances without paying royalties to anyone. You may use them in any way you wish - read them, mark them up, teach from them, rehearse with them, memorize them, and perform them. You may do all that without paying any money to FreePlays.org, to the original authors of the works, or to anyone else.

You may also modify these works, print them, make copies of them, send or give paper or intangible copies to anyone you want to. But if you do provide them to anyone, you must do so without charge.

Sounds pretty good, right? It's almost, but not quite, a complete license to do whatever you want with these works. There are just a few "catches" or limitations, and they exist only to promote the freedom of these works:

If you distribute the work in any version or format, you must distribute the work without charge. This limitation prevents anyone from taking these works, which they got for free, and selling them.
If you redistribute any of these works, you must include the copyright agreement along with the work. It's easy to find; it's at the bottom of every work and web page on the site. Just stick it on the end of your own work and your distribution will be OK by us. This lets anyone who gets your work know that you are not charging money for it.
It is common to change plays, especially plays for kids. You may add characters, simplify the language, remove offensive or scary elements, change parts to match the age of your performers, shorten the work, or add messages or jokes. You may do so, with our blessings, permission, and encouragement. You don't even need to tell us you did it. But if distribute your modified version then you must not charge for it (you must distribute it free), and you must include the same copyright agreement that was on the original you modified. Hey; you got the original work free - it's only fair that you freely share your modified version.

All the above requirements basically say "if you pass it on, changed or not, you must pass it on free and make it clear to anyone getting it that it's free".

These requirements distributing these works, modified or not, IN ANY FORM. This includes audio, video, or other recordings, or transmissions or sharing of performances.

Yes, that's right; if you make a video recording of your school's performance, you may not charge for copies of that recording. You must give them away freely, and you must somehow include the same copyright agreement (here are some ways), allowing free distribution and mentioning CreativeCommons.org, that is part of each of these works.

We are aware that this eliminates what could be a good source of fundraising for you. Sorry about that; after all, we want to promote the arts! But you still have some ways to raise money for your kids' drama group. You may:

Charge for performances of these works..
Charge for classes or workshops in which you use these works.
Distribute the recordings freely, but accompanied by a flyer requesting donations to your organization. As long as it really is possible to get a copy of the recording for free, and everyone getting the recording understands this, we don't mind.

Here are more details of how we license our works.

Giving

Original material

You are welcome to contribute completely new material! As long as it isn't under any other copyright, and you have the right to include the below copyright notice, then please do send it in to us!

How can you be sure you "have the right to include the below copyright notice"? The simplest way to be sure is knowing that you wrote the play yourself. In the case of a completely original work, this means that you didn't plagarize, and you don't base your play on a story written in the last 150 years. Kids' plays based on folk tales are easy too. Read, hear, or view one or several versions of the folk tale, then, write it as a script in your own words. Get kids to help, if you can and want to. The resulting work will be original.

Here are some other ways to generate scripts.

Modifications of works you got from FreePlays.org

Suppose you modify one of our works. We don't demand that you share it with anyone, or even tell us. But we would surely like to present your modified work to the rest of the world! Think about it. Do you think you're the only one that ever experienced the following?

The script calls for 5 characters, but you have a cast of 23.
The script uses language that's inappropriate for your players:

outdated slang
swearing
vocabulary unsuited to the age or background of your players

You have way more boys, girls, women, or men than the script calls for
The script calls for lots of action and you're putting on a Readers Theatre performance
The script is mostly good, but contains bits that you don't want or can't use. A play posted on this site, "King Solomon and the Baker", is an example. It contains a "punch line" referring to taxes. If you're producing a play in front of an audience of anti-tax/anti-government zealots, you may want to change the script.

Well, you are not the only one that ever found yourself in a situation like this. We suggest that you do two things:

Change the work (completely OK under the Creative Commons license we use), and
(optional step) Contribute your changed version to FreePlays.org..

Whatever situation you found yourself in, somebody else will eventually be in a similar situation. If you contribute your changed work, you can help them out!

Modification/adaptation of works by other authors

This is the most difficult way of coming up with a script. For most people, especially creative, artistic types, it is just not worth the hassle.

Suppose you read a story (or some other work) and love it. You love it so much you think the world should have it, in the form of a play. You are willing to spend the time turning the work into a script.

Stop. Don't waste one minute of your precious creative time. Don't write (re-write) a word until you have gotten the author's permission. You may not be able to do this (it's often very difficult or impossible). If you can't get the permission, then no matter how much you love the work, drop the idea of basing a play on it. Don't proceed adapting it because it'll just be a waste of your time, energy and creativity.

If you can get the author's permission, then good for you! And good for FreePlays.org and anyone in the world who loves drama. By all means write the play and send it to us. But be aware that this path, of adapting the work of another author, requires a very big first step; that of getting the author's permission. If you don't get it, and the author complains, we will need to remove your play from FreePlays.org. What a sad waste of time for you and for us. How sad also for people who may once have seen your play on our site, come back looking for it, and can't find it anymore. Avoid this.

Formatting

Here are formatting guidelines for submitting your work.

Go here to submit your work.

All works at freeplays.org are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. In short:

You are free to print, copy, read, use, modify, and perform these works without royalty.
If you distribute any of these works in any form (including recordings of performances), with or without modification, you must grant these same royalty-free rights.

For legal details, see Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License either here or here

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