Copyright law is complicated, but unless the author has been dead for at least 70 years you should expect to pay Performance Royalties

You must also have prior permission from the author or their agent, and you should not assume that because a Play has been published that it's therefore available for performance

And unless you're performing in a private home or a classroom, a Performance Royalty will be due whether or not the Play is performed in whole or in part, whether or not it's for charity, and whether or not the audience pays admission

Photocopying scripts without permission is also a breach of copyright

Details of how and where to apply for Performance Rights are invariably printed inside the Play

The cost of the Rights varies, but as a rough guide, for amateur rights you should expect to pay about £60.00 per performance and for professional rights about 10% gross box-office

Please note, we rarely stock more than 3 or 4 copies of each of our 20,000 titles so if you order a cast-size quantity of (say) 10 copies, delivery times can often be delayed by a week or more because we have to place a special order with the distributor

Delays can also occur because of copyright and licencing issues

In short, please give yourself plenty of time