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Miscellaneous

Q: Credit rights

We all know how important credits are in programmes and posters, but what are our rights as actors and backstage workers?

A: Theatre production credits may usefully be considered under four heads, namely moral rights, contractual rights, normal custom and practice, and finally prominence (in terms of size, positioning and location).

Broadly speaking, under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, creators of copyright works (which would include, for example, playwrights, composers, songwriters, and the creative team of directors, designers, choreographers and orchestrators, but not performers or backstage personnel) have a moral right to be identified as such (in reasonable form), whenever their work is published commercially or performed in public, provided such right is asserted in writing, either generally or in a specific instance. This statutory moral right is known as the 'right of paternity'. By new regulations which came into effect on 1 February 2006 performers also now have a statutory, non-assignable moral right to be identified as such in relation to qualifying performances, subject to certain exceptions and supplementary provisions.

A contractual right to accreditation obviously depends on the terms of the particular contract concerned, and where it appears at all, is sometimes in standard form, which may be dependent where appropriate on collective bargaining agreements between bodies such as Equity, BECTU, Musicians Union on the one hand and SOLT, TMA, ITC on the other, but which may also be the subject of hard negotiation between the individual contracting parties, especially where 'big names' and high profile productions are involved.

Where no moral or contractual right of accreditation exists - as in the case, for example, of most backstage personnel - the individuals concerned will be entirely dependent on the normal custom and practice of the theatre industry, which fortunately for them, gives some degree of comfort. So far as performers are concerned, even if they do not qualify for statutory accreditation, the publication of a cast list, either separately or in the theatre programme, is now regarded as as an automatic by-product of any theatrical production, and its absence would doubtless trigger considerable public protest. So far as backstage workers are concerned, the normal custom and practice nowadays, certainly in the case of professional productions, is to publish separate staff lists of people working for the producer and theatre manager respectively towards the back of the theatre programme. These staff lists sometimes extend even to quite junior people who have not been involved directly in the particular production, such as receptionists, catering managers and the like. One would expect permanent backstage staff, such as stage managers, carpenters and electricians, to be included on the theatre company's list. However, whether an individual whose name was left out deliberately would have any legal redress is a moot point. Possibly he could claim breach of an implied, if not express, term of his contract of employment that he would not be subject to discrimination by being singled out for omission, but the outcome of any such claim would be uncertain.

As to prominence, credits are, with a few exceptions, usually reserved for publication in material where full billing normally appears, such as posters, billboards and theatre programmes, and not normally in classified or other small advertisements. Authors, creative team members and principal performers - sometimes all performers if the cast is small - also often have their theatrical 'biogs' printed in the theatre programme, sometimes as a contractual right and sometimes just by courtesy of the producer. In high profile cases, there may be much contractual negotiation as to the relative size, style, positioning and placement of individual credits by reference to a comparison with other names of perceived lesser or greater or equal reputation, although it has become an increasingly common practice nowadays to give equal size and prominence to all members of a production's creative team.

First published 23rd August 2007