Playwright Releases Free Copies of Scripts Via Web Page

New Orleans-based playwright Max Sparber has taken the unusual step of releasing eight of his plays in PDF format, under a Creative Commons license, on his Web page.

(PRWEB) May 29, 2005 -- At a time when the film and music industry is taking extraordinary steps to discourage audiences from making and sharing digital copies of their products, playwright Max Sparber is taking exactly the opposite approach.

This New Orleans-based writer, whose plays have been performed throughout the country, has taken the unusual step of releasing eight of his scripts as PDFs on his Web page, http://maxsparber.blogspot.com/. The PDF, or Portable Document Format, allows for easy copying amd transmission of documents - readers require only a free PDF reader (which usually comes bundled with the software of new computers, but otherwise can be downloaded from the Adobe.com Web page).

Additionally, Sparber has released the scripts with Creative Commons license. This alternative to copyrighting allows authors to release their work with a greater permissiveness than traditional copyrighting allows. Sparber's scripts, for example, may be freely copied and traded, so long as no profit is made from the exchange. Additionally, one of his plays, "boyELROY," may be performed by anyone at any time, without any requirement that the author be paid or even notified.

Sparber's eight plays have, collectively, been performed 19 times around the country, including two Manhattan productions, and he has been lauded by such publications as the New Yorker and the Denver Post. (Each of his scripts online is augmented by past reviews of productions.) Additionally, Sparber worked as a theater critic for five years, three of them for Minneapolis' celebritated newsweekly, City Pages. He points out that he hasn't had much difficulty finding venues for his plays; he has enjoyed seven productions of his plays in the past two years alone. Yet he argues that by releasing his scripts in a free, easy transferable format, he will enjoy even more productions in the future.

"As I see it, I have everything to gain by giving the plays away," Sparber says. "Scripts are not literary exercises. They're designed to be performed, not read." He sees his Web page as a one-stop production resource for his scripts. Aside from offering copies of his scripts, the site offers additional support media, such as MP3s of songs from his plays.

"I suppose there is a risk that people might just take the scripts and perform them without paying me anything," Sparber says. "But, then, they would have to avoid publicizing the production, as it's easy enough to find out if someone if being duplicitous with a single Google search." More than anything, Sparber says, he just wants to make the process of finding and reading his scripts as simple as possible. He points to such examples as science fiction author Cory Doctorow, who releases his novels as free online documents before they go into publications, and points to an increase in eventual sales due to the increased publicity that accompanies his books. It might seem counterintuitive to give your writing away for nothing," Sparber says, but its really just a new business model, and one thats been shown to work. Eventually, the increased exposure leads to increased profits."

And with his play "boyELROY", which he is literally giving away to anybody who wishes to perform it? "It's a pretty experimental script," Sparber says. "I'm just interested in seeing what people can do with it. Im not looking to make any money on that one. Sometimes its nice to just give something away."

Sparber's plays include "Minstrel Show," a dramatization of the lynching of an African-American man in Omaha in 1919, and "Cruelties," which looks at the self-destruction of a popular novelist inspired by Truman Capote.

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