Date: 20 Aug 96 18:13:19 +0500
From: puppetco-AT-cais.cais.com (Christopher Piper)
Subject: Re: Peter and Wendy


>On 20 Aug 96, puppetco-AT-cais.cais.com (Christopher Piper) wrote:

>>Here's what I know.  Sorry if it's sketchy.  The work was commissioned
>>for the Spaleto (sp) Festival, in Charleston.  Based on the Peter and Wendy 
>Book (to
>>get around Barry's restriction about performing the play Peter Pan with
>>puppets, I suppose).  

>Chris -- Barry imposed a specific restriction against performing Peter Pan
>with  puppets?  do you know anything about this?

>Mark Levenson
>The Levenson Company
>(503) 452-4046/voice
>(503) 245-1161/fax
>markl-AT-levenson.com

  *************************** Hearsay Alert! *****************************

I have heard from several sources, including my father and Allan
Stevens, that J. M. Barrie bequethed his play "Peter Pan" in perpetuity
to the Children's Hospital of London (or Kensington, or is it
"England"?), with the proviso that it not be performed by puppets.  This
because, "Of course puppets can fly!" or some such rationale that Barrie
used by way of protecting the magic of his play.

I do not know how a copyright could remain in effect for so long;
however, I have seen evidence in many sources that artists shy away from
citing the play as a source, while freely claiming that their work is
based on "Peter and Wendy" written much later (eight years, I think).  I
don't know how English copyright law works (I'm not so hot at American
copyright law, either), but I have heard horror stories about big law
suits in the recent past for unauthorized use of the play.

Again, I have not researched any of this, and it could be bogus or the
status changed at this point in time.  I believe it enough to have kept
Peter Pan out of our repertoire.

BTW:  The production of "Peter and Wendy" featured on CBS Sunday Morning
was indeed Mabou Mines', out of NY, directed by Lee Breuer, and received
a Henson Foundation Grant.  This according to the Winter, 1995 issue of
the Puppetry Journal.

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