By Laura Sanicola

The show must go on, except when it legally cannot. James Demetriades, FCRH ’15, learned this truth two hours before the opening night of Fordham Experimental Theater’s (FET) production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.

The Office of Student Leadership and Development (O.S.L.C.D.) informed Demetriades, the director of the production, that the rights company would not allow the production to be performed on Oct. 16, the night it was slated to open. F.E.T has postponed the production to Oct. 30 – Nov. 1, 2014.

“Rights were not secured at that point in time, but they have since been acquired,” said Shannon Driscoll, assistant director of O.S.L.C.D. “No group can proceed with a performance until the rights are received.”

According to Jeff Sharkey, president of Fordham Experimental Theater (F.E.T.), the director had not received the official scripts for the actors or scores for the musicians before Oct.15.

“The cast was using a read-only online script and the orchestra was transcribing music from Spotify to rehearse,” Sharkey said. “If they waited until the rights had officially been obtained and official materials were released, the cast and crew would not have enough time to rehearse.”

The day before the opening night, Musical Theater International (MTI) contacted O.S.L.C.D. inquiring how the cast was prepared to perform if they had just received the scripts. Sharkey relayed the truth — that the cast had been rehearsing without the official materials.

“We had done it in the past, but the rights had never taken this long to obtain,” Sharkey said. On Thursday, Oct. 21, Sharkey received word that the rights to the play were being revoked because the cast had been rehearsing without the official materials.

The problem arose after the rights to Rocky Horror Picture Show were denied to F.E.T. over the summer.

“Rocky Horror Picture Show was finally approved by O.S.L.C.D. in August,” said Sharkey, “but due to first class option, which prevents a play from being performed if someone else is producing the same play 50 miles from New York City, we are unable to obtain the rights from the company at that time. Another school was performing the play.”

Demetriades was given the option of choosing another play to direct in the fall. Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson was decided upon in mid-August, and Demetriades subsequently submitted his request.

“The delay in choosing the show caused the whole process to be delayed,” Sharkey said. “The contract had to be approved by Fordham, and the rights had to be obtained by MTI. There were also unforeseen problems.”

Sharkey referred to Fordham’s initial rejection of MTI’s contract for the rights to Bloody Bloody, which was based on a clause within the contract that required Fordham to involve its legal team. The contract had to be revised and resubmitted until agreed upon by both parties, which further delayed the process.

“Fordham has done plays with MTI before and had never encountered this clause before,” Demetriadis said. “Neither the university nor FET could have foreseen this issue.”

This is the second time that a Fordham production has encountered an issue with obtaining rights. In fall 2013, the Mimes and Mummers had intended to produce Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, but the rights were revoked two weeks before opening night. The theater group pulled together a new show within that time frame.

“Of the 16 shows I have worked on at Fordham, I have only encountered problems with Bloody Bloody and The Mousetrap,” said Demetriadis, who is also the executive vice president of Mimes and Mummers. “However, we are trying to make sure that this process is streamlined to prevent future incidents.”

Though Sharkey acknowledged that the situation was caused by several inevitable factors, he maintained that the cancellation disappointed to a wide array of people involved in the production.

“Who this situation affects the most are the actors, crew, musicians and James,” Sharkey said. “They put everything into this production, and to only have it taken away from them and put on hold two hours before opening night is very unfair, considering their hard work and talent.”

MaryKate Glenn, an actor in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, said the experience of learning the show was cancelled was surreal.

“The cast was taken into the theatre half an hour before we were supposed to open and told we can’t do the show,” Glenn said. “And for the first 15 minutes or so of the meeting it wasn’t entirely clear that we would get to perform at all, and that was just heartbreaking.”

“I told the actors the issue we had procuring the rights, but we had a script and we said we would continue to rehearse until we received the official script,” said Demetriades. “I assumed that we would have the script in a week or two, but I never anticipated that the process would take six weeks.”

“The show is stage ready, and it has been stage ready for almost a week” said Sharkey. “We appreciate the patience of the cast, crew and audience, and look forward to seeing everyone at our opening night on Oct. 30.”

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson runs Oct. 30th through Nov. 1 in the Blackbox Theater, located in the back of Collins Auditorium.

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Laura Sanicola is the Assistant News Editor for The Fordham Ram.