Why You Can Download All of My Plays for Free

All of them. Even the published ones. Maybe forever. Or at least as long as the internet exists.

My name is Daniel Prillaman. I write plays. I also put all of them on the internet. You can read them all right now.

I’m not kidding. Click Here.

I’m here to write plays and give hugs. And I’m feeling touch sensitive.

I realize that this might ruffle some feathers, because if you aren’t a playwright or theatrical artist, you might not know that playwrights do not normally do such things.

But as one (mayhap a stranger one) let me clarify upfront that I am in no way advocating for not paying them. Playwrights MUST be compensated for their work. Full stop. Nor am I here playing “holier-than-thou” because I do this. I’m not trying to convince anyone else to also do this. You do you. I’m just offering you, dear reader(s), my thoughts on why I do this and why it works for me, because I know it’s more atypical. And to repeat myself for the first time, playwrights MUST be compensated for their work.

What I’m less certain about is how we as an industry can best do that. There’s a lot of us in this game. And in a field where privileges of all kinds serve as barriers to becoming discovered and produced, in an industry that actively banks on proven names and plays (too oft by dead white men) to draw in audiences as opposed to unknown artists, how do I, schmuck Daniel Prillaman, armed with nothing beyond a website and an NPX account, get my work out there and noticed?

How do I make my plays the most accessible they can be?

Right now…this is my answer.

If the Only Way I Can Read Your Play Is to Buy It, It Will Take Me Longer to Read It

I don’t see a way around this point.

I do not live in New York (7 months once, years ago if that counts), but still I, too, leave any trip to the Drama Book Shop with huge holes in my bank account. Playwrights do earn royalties on their sold, licensed scripts. It’s a fantastic way to support living writers.

But we live in a time of previously unfathomed connection, with likely more alive playwrights than the rest of recorded history. There are SO MANY PLAYS in the world. And unless you come from financial privilege, buying them adds up quick. Your average artist (in school or out) does not have the money to buy all the plays that they want, let alone the amount needed to allow a playwright the ability to live full-time off of royalty checks. Billionaires could. But until the guillotines come out, we have to budget because, unlike them, we get in trouble if we don’t pay our taxes.

This is a sad artist. They are sad because their bath is water and not plays.

That means I have to be ultimately frugal about the plays I add to my physical library.

I have to believe that other artists, voracious readers or no, are the same. Now, of course, friends are much more likely to purchase copies of our works when they can, but strangers? Unless we’ve cracked into the mainstream, those numbers are smaller.

For all the things that can be said about the National New Play Network’s New Play Exchange, it has irrefutably done an outstanding job of providing a low-cost platform for access to thousands of new works and their authors. Subscriptions run $10 to $18 yearly (up to $25 yearly if you’re a theatrical organization). Some people think THAT’S too expensive. I guarantee they ain’t buying our plays either. 

NPX, for many, has brought out strong opinions from some (myself included), but I think most will agree or at least see the logic with this statement:

If you click on a play’s NPX page to read it, and can’t download it, or can only access a sample, or it’s just a link to the published script…

…do you read it?

Or does it immediately just go on a list? How many of the plays on your “to read” list are plays you have to buy? Many, if not most, playwrights are friendly and likely willing to share a perusal copy if asked, but that still adds another step to the process. It’s another opportunity for someone to not take the step towards your play and towards a different one on their list. It’s like website interfacing, the less clicks a user has to make to get to their goal, the better.

Wherever possible, eliminating financial costs or permission requests destroys a monumental barrier to accessibility. And if people can’t access your work, they can’t read it. If they can’t read it, they can’t produce it.

So Your Answer Is Unrestricted Access? What If Someone Steals Your Plays?

So yeah. This is the most obvious argument against such a thing.

Theft is real! 100%.

I also used to be wearier about it.

I’ve weened myself off that hesitance for several reasons, the first being the above thinking, and weighing that I’d rather take the risk of my work being stolen than significantly less accessible. The more flippant reason is the vibe of, “do I even care? Like, if someone steals my shit, surely that means I’ve made it and am doing something right?”

The biggest one, however, is that potential theft is unfortunately a part of the job. It’s one reason the Dramatists Guild exists in the first place, to protect playwrights’ work and their ownership of it. It’s unlikely you’ll ever have to deal with theft on a major level, but the answer is, no matter what restrictions you put in place, it still might happen to you. It depends on the play, it depends on the playwright, it depends on the person stealing. Sometimes it’s innocent. Sometimes it’s not. The variables are endless.

The only form of theft I accept.

There are so many playwrights. If we protect our work so hard that producers can’t find it AND read it, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot in an industry where a lot of us are already disadvantaged.

I’m not standing here waving a sign saying, “steal my work!” (at least not directly, more on that later) I’m just not letting fear of that happening make it harder to get to. And note that just because I’m providing free access to my plays doesn’t mean they’re not copyrighted. They are. People still have to pay royalties to do them. If they don’t…again, it’s what the DG is for.

Now, if somebody rips off my work? Only execution is copyrightable, right? Not ideas.

Again, yes. Such a course of events could technically happen. But any of us personally being a legit victim of plagiarism? It’s so much lower than our fears. Hell, we all rip each other off. Any good writer “steals” inspiration from their influences and then makes them their own. All of theatre is stolen from other theatre in some way. All stories!

Because…

O Captain! My Captain! We All Gonna Die

The point of telling stories, creating theatre, making art…is to share it. No?

Art does not exist without an audience.

The art we make is a direct result of the art that has affected us. We, in turn, want to do the same for others (unless you’re just here to make money, in which case, literally ANY other way is better). We make theatre specifically for audiences to be impacted by it. So it might be taken in by our fellow humans (and curious animals). Viewed. Experienced. It’s how we attempt to ask and face the questions we can’t answer, to say things unsayable. I won’t be so bold as to literally quote Dead Poets Society or Walt Whitman in this blog post (more), but YAWP!

Other than music, theatre is perhaps the oldest artform we have. At its heart, it is play. It is collaboration humans naturally gravitate to when our basic needs of food and shelter are met. And as long as we are alive, it will exist. The plays we write, by their very nature, are as our children, and we can only control so much of what happens to them after we let them out into the world. We cannot protect them forever. Because they will outlive us.

Other working epitaphs are: “Am I Dying?” and “Should’ve Ducked.”

For the love of God, TAKE MINE IN NOW WHILE I’M AROUND TO SEE THE IMPACT. I do not care what you do with my work once I’m dead. I literally cannot stop you. And I will be dead.

I obviously care a little. Alli, my wife partner, will get all rights and control of my work if I go before her (and if I never fill out a will, this blog post is legally binding). But what about when she goes? That’s her call, I guess, actually, but I hope my point is clear, because I’m banging the drum with a broken record: “the more you hide away the things you make, the less people will see them.”

That defeats the purpose. And before you ask, “Am I calling for the eradication of IP and copyright law?” NO.

Am I saying the Albee/Beckett/etc. Estates miss the spirit of it all when they shut down the productions they do? Yes. I am.

In the cosmic scheme, we’re here for a short while. The planet is dying and far too many of the people in charge are making it happen faster. Let’s make some shit while we’ve got the time, yeah?

I’m following in the footsteps of Chuck Mee and his (re)making project. As long as I have a say, my work will be free to read. However my plays might galvanize you is a good thing. If you want to stage them? Awesome. Reach out. If you want to use them as inspiration for your own art? Do it. If you have the gall to write fan-fiction? Please let me read it.

So, Like…You’re Serious?

YES!

I mean, if you wanna buy In the Slush from Ghost Light Publications, why would I say “don’t?” Click Here

But if you wanna read it, for free, right now, I won’t even make you go to the Plays page. Click Here

I think of publishing a play right now as the bonus. It’s a playwright’s vinyl. If you want to support me (and indie publishers!) the most direct way possible by buying a copy for your shelf? You have my utmost thanks and gratitude. But if you just wanna read it, go forth. I literally want you to.

And let me shout out my amazing publishers, too (he keeps saying publishers? does he have another announcement to make? they miiiiight. Soon), for working with me and being open to my pursuit of this wild course. Because you know who definitely wouldn’t let me do this if I somehow managed to snag a publication offer? Concord. That impending monopoly does nothing but give me more resolve.

That’s it. If you’ve made it this far. I commend you and I thank you for reading. Should you feel inclined to do any more? Go nuts. And if you’re near upstate NY this summer, hit me and Alli up at the Ren Faire.