A: The rights for most plays and musicals are held by play publishing houses on behalf of the authors, which means that you cannot produce a copyrighted play or musical without written permission. It is true that most plays and musicals written before 1920 are in the Public Domain, which means that they may be produced without payment of royalties. However, this refers only to the original script.  If you use a modern translation of a Moliere comedy, for example, the new version will be protected by copyright. Once you have decided on a copyrighted script for production, contact the publisher to begin negotiations.