VTHEA demands kill fees

In an open letter to the theatres, the German playwrights association VTheA e. V., founded in October 2020 at the Grips-Theater in Berlin, demands kill fees for all shows that were cancelled this year due to the restrictions to control the coronavirus.

The restrictions imposed to control the coronavirus lead to loss of income for theatre writers whose income heavily relies on the royalties calculated from box office proceeds. This payment structure sets the freelance artists apart from other professional staff employed by the theatres whose existence, even in the case of cancelled shows, is garanteed much more reliably through state subsidy and short labour. Since the writers are nonetheless integral parts of the theatre production, they demand to be likewise respected by means of, for example, kill fees (i. e. partial royalties).

The open letter (in German) is also available here: vthea.de