The government in the theater

 So , I was asked to research about how the Theater industry, specially the musical theater industry and the government of America work together. At first, I must admit, I did not see any correlation. There does not seem to be any, and I hope it stays like that. We would not want the government to get too involved in something people enjoy so much, such as theater.

When you think about musical theater, so many renowned tunes come to  mind.  And so I thought, if there are copyrights for music that is not accompanied by theater, there must surely be copyrights for the scripts and the music for the plays. And this is how government gets involved in the Musial theater industry.

I did some research, and stumbled across a  licensing page, that gave licenses for people to choose any given play, and perform it, as to not violate the copyrights to the author, and his intended message. As a person who does not own the script  or the music, you must rent it, and there are various fees for that.  It is really all just to protect the creator of the art, so as to prevent people from changing it and blaming the artist, or just plain stealing it. It is basic control to prevent theft, public indecency and any other problem that might arise.

So what makes all of this possible? That's right! The US Copyright Act which is quite lengthy , I must say, and if you would like to give it  a read, its right there on Google.

Personally, I am not the kind that likes a lot of government involvement in much, specially the arts which I am so passionate about. You could say I am a conservative, who is very conservative and on the verge of libertarian. But I do understand that the government is appointed to bring justice and safety, and the copyright act does that. The rules set so that many brilliant and other not so brilliant artist may show their art to the public, and not be cheated out of it. So that there might not be theft of scrip rights and music copyrights. I sure hope there is not much more involvement apart from that, apart from maybe taxes.

When it comes to public indecency, I don't think the government should get involved at all unless it threatens the security of its citizens. If someone wants to show complete indecency on a play, then they should be free to do so. It is up to the people to decide weather they will go to it or not. And if the consumers do not think it is appropriate then they can bash them on public articles, tell people not to attend their plays, send the director letters telling him/her that they are doing something wrong. The people will take care of it. Much like if a woman decides to strip in a beach that is not nudist, and someone approaches her and tells her to please put some clothes on.  She most likely feel shame and do so, or everyone will ask her to leave if she does not. There are millions of ways people can get rid of what they do not like, with out the government interfering.

To sum up. Theater is amazing, specially musical theater, and it should be protected a long with its creators. Not too regulated, but enough to protect. Let's keep it that way!

Hello reader,

My name is Daniella Zolla, I am 18 and in my last semester of High School. I am very eager and excited to see what God has planned for my life after these 5 months are over, and my high school career has come to an end. I always was the kind of person who was very determined in what I wanted to do when I grew up. Apart from God and ministry, the arts is my life. All my life I've wanted to do two things musical theater , and music.

Life has a way of sneaking up at you and showing you who you are. While I am just beginning this self-discovery journey, I know who I am in Christ really that is all that matters. So many possibilities of a career are popping up , like music teacher, or worship leader, or I don't know. I guess I'll figure it out in college. So far so great!