Kick it

Sing it loud

"Happy birthday to you!
"Happy birthday to you!
"Happy birthday, dear [whoever you are]!"
"Happy birthday to yooooooooooou!"

I can do that now without fear of getting a hefty bill. In fact, all of you can. Ladies and gentlemen, our long national nightmare is over: the happy birthday song is no longer under copyright! No longer do our fictional universes have to pretend that people don't sing this song at every birthday-related event.

Sing it in your play or movie. Sing it repeatedly over the entire course of your play or movie. Make a play or movie that is nothing but the happy birthday song looping endless forever. Stare into the unending abyss that is the happy birthday song and know that it is staring right back into you. There's no charge now!

Welcome to the public domain, old friend.

For your benefit and theirs

In other news that may affect your theater's pocket-book, Kickstarter has reformed itself as a Public Benefit Corporation. So, they're a nonprofit corporation now? Well, no. Oh, so, they're a not-for-profit corporation now? Nope, because that's the same thing. Um, maybe they're a charity of some kind?

What is a Public Benefit Corporation? It's complicated, and it depends on what state you're in, but, in general, it's a private company chartered to perform some public benefit. Traditionally, PBCs have been government-chartered institutions that provide a public good that the private sector hasn't made available. Classic examples you may recognize include Amtrak, which performs the public good of providing passenger rail service; the Tennessee Valley Authority, which performs the public good of providing flood control and electricity to the South; and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which performs the public good of getting people the hell out of New Jersey.

But a few years ago, Delaware, that favorite state for companies to skirt taxes, hide profits and get friendly, jury-free trials, went ahead and reformed its laws around Public Benefit Corporations, making it easy for companies to simply declare themselves PBCs, rather than going to all the trouble of having a government decide that they do something useful. I guess Delaware wasn't happy having only 50% of all publicly-traded companies in the United States and 64% of the Fortune 500 companies incorporated there (which, by Delaware standards means "having a mailbox there").

What does this mean for Kickstarter? They are still a private corporation, majority-owned by its founders, and their operations will not change. (Don't worry. You can still fund Zach Braff's movies) The company says it will now donate 5% of profits to charities, maintain a strong privacy policy, help its users use more environmentally friendly shipping materials and no longer look for loopholes in paying their taxes.

So, I'm pleased to announce that, from this moment on, Kickstarter will no longer be a privately-owned for-profit crowd-funding platform making money hand over fist; it will now be a privately-owned for-profit crowd-funding platform making money hand over fist that cares. So, hooray, I think.

Business circles are all aflutter over Kickstarter's move; but you, the astute reader that you are, might recognize all of those changes that Kickstarter has made as things they could have done anyway as a regular for-profit enterprise. The magazine Nonprofit Quarterly is definitely not impressed:

"As we have written about benefit corporations in the past, much of the impetus is public relations and branding. By indicating that it will put a portion of profits toward projects that benefit the social good, Kickstarter is simply pledging to do what many corporations do as part of their corporate philanthropy and other good works—and like them, earn public appreciation and positive press for their corporate citizenship."

So, why is this a big deal to the theater world? Crowdfunding is becoming commonplace for theater projects, and Kickstarter alone claims over 5,000 funded theater projects. (We here at Minnesota Playlist went with indiegogo; but, hey, you make your own choices in life.)

But the folks at Fractured Atlas want to remind you that, no matter how socially conscious the company says it is Kickstarter is really geared toward commercial ventures and may not be the best choice for non-profits:

"Donating to a worthy organization is not the same as buying a watch, and it shouldn’t be treated the same. Kickstarter’s heavy emphasis on “rewards” encourages a highly transactional relationship with one’s “backers”. When you just want someone to buy your product and you never expect to see or hear from them again, then that’s perfectly fine. But charitable fundraising is about building relationships based on trust and mutual respect. Cultivating meaningful relationships takes time, and it almost never happens when you’re entirely focused on grabbing that first gift."

Granted, some of Fractured Atlas' numbers seem just as unreachable for the standard small theater company as any of the blockbuster numbers thrown up by Kickstarter, but their article is a good reminder that crowdfunding is not a solution to all your financial woes, and the mission of your funding platform may not necessarily align with yours, no matter how many loopholes they say they aren't using.

But if you're still excited about Kickstarter's big change, you can try it yourself at home. Minnesota enacted its own new Public Benefit Corporation law in January of this year.

This Shakespeare is not what you think

We all think we know the story: William Shakespeare came to London as the penniless son of a country merchant that lost his family's fortune. Only through his sheer genius and artistic ability was he able to lift himself up out poverty and obscurity and change the very course of the English language!

Nah! Forget all that. It turns out that Billy's family was probably stinking rich from his dad's sometimes-less-than-ethical business dealings. So, in reality, there's not much difference between Shakespeare and your standard trust fund Brooklyn artist.

And soon we'll find out if this rich kid poser was actually any good. We love to hold up Shakespeare's writing as elevated and poetic, but maybe it's just that the English language has evolved so much since Shakespeare's time that we just don't understand it. Oregon Shakespeare Festival is about to cure all that, with their recently-announced plan to commission a translation of all of Shakespeare's plays in to modern English. Now we'll finally find out if this guy was worth a damn.