At least eight theaters from California to Massachusetts were being forced to cancel productions of “Mockingbird” that would have used a decades-old script by playwright Christopher Sergel. Rudin, whose “Mockingbird” now playing on Broadway uses a new script by Aaron Sorkin, invoked a contractual provision that prevents theaters around many cities from putting on the play while a version is playing on Broadway.
Rudin called several of the theaters — some of them tiny nonprofits with all-volunteer staffs — to apologize and to offer them the scripts to the new adaptation. Rudin said there would be no fee for use of the new script.
The offer was extended to any theater whose rights to stage the old version had been challenged by Rudin’s legal team. But the offer was too late for some of the theater companies, which had already rehearsed the older script, and were days away from beginning performances. At least one, the Kavinoky Theater in Buffalo, New York, had already torn down its set after receiving a threatening letter from Rudin’s lawyer.
Some of the theaters, though, said they would accept Rudin’s offer and stage the Sorkin version. “This is wonderful,” said Jill Brennan-Lincoln, chairwoman of the theater arts department at Azusa Pacific University outside Los Angeles, which had been planning to cancel its production. “APU is grateful and excited about the prospect of producing Sorkin’s version.”
Doug DeGirolamo, president of Hill Country Theater in Buda, Texas, said he had received a copy of the Sorkin script from Rudin’s office and was hoping to stage it. “For our small little theater to do a show that’s on Broadway right now would be a huge boon to us,” he said. But his theater’s production will have to be delayed, he said.
Rudin defended his actions in a brief statement, saying, “As stewards of the performance rights of Aaron Sorkin’s play, it is our responsibility to enforce the agreement we made with the Harper Lee estate and to make sure that we protect the extraordinary collaborators who made this production.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.