Stolen Words: I was Plagiarized

To the editor: I don't know why this was declined due to grammar and spelling. I ran it through grammatik and spell check. Can you please be more specific? Feel free to email me at PRTTraveller@gmail.com. I think that this is an important article for other writers to read.

I have been writing for as long as I can remember. As soon I was able to properly hold a pencil and write cohesive sentences, I started creating stories. In third grade, I started a diary'"And got a new diary pretty much every year since. I also wrote my first play in third grade, "A Journey to Chocolate Land." The play was was for the enrichment program and much of it was adlibbed, but it was still my play and I was very proud of it. Mrs. Steiner, the teacher of the enrichment program at Brookhaven Elementary School, instilled a love for playwriting in me way back in 1984. I haven't stopped since.

You can imagine how proud I was when my first play was actually published by Baker's Plays in 2005. I had written a series of children's plays based on some of Aesop's Fables. "The Lion and the Mouse" arrived at my door on April 8, 2005-- The day before I got married. It was pretty awesome, because I dedicated the play to my fiance, who became my husband the day after the play arrived. I was thrilled. Two of my other plays, "The Lovesick Cat" and "The Woodsmen and the Fairy" were published and released within the next couple of years. I was on a roll.

In November 2010, Baker's Plays (now acquired by Samuel French) released another one of my plays, entitled "The Tortoise and The Hare." I'm sure everyone is familiar with the story, but mine is a little different. I modernized the story. I added cheerleader bunnies, a newscaster, a wise owl, a sneaky fox and a lot more. Plus, there is quite a bit of humor especially for the parents that the kids wouldn't get, just to make it entertaining for everyone. I like my play. Honestly, I think "The Tortoise and The Hare" is the best children's play that I've written to date.

Apparently, a lot of other people think so, too. The sales of single copies of "The Tortoise and The Hare" are actually doing quite well. You can find it all over the internet, which makes me so happy and proud. Furthermore, I received my first royalty check on July 28, 2011. It was just for $157.50, but it was absolutely thrilling to see that three separate productions of "The Tortoise and The Hare" were mounted around the United States. I felt so accomplished when I read that it was performed at St. Peter & Paul School in San Francisco, University of Wisconsin '" Barron and the Burt Wood School of Performing Arts in Massachusetts.

I started doing searches on the different schools to see if I could find photos, videos or reviews of "The Tortoise and The Hare." After all, someone else produced my play! I wanted to see the result and find out what other people thought of it. I sent emails to St. Peter & Paul as well as University of Wisconsin. Since it is the summer, though, I figured I wouldn't hear anything back right away. I couldn't find much info on those productions, except for the description that I wrote about "The Tortoise and The Hare."

Then, I started searching for the production done at the Burt Wood School of Performing arts and Alley Theatre in Massachusetts. There was a TON of information about my show online, especially in the form of press releases. Starting January 5, 2011 press releases saying that a woman named Peg Holzemer was going to direct my play, followed by the description that I wrote of "The Tortoise and The Hare." I did a search for Peg Holzemer on FaceBook and sent her a message and friend request. Since I couldn't get in touch with her immediately, I continued my research on her production of my show, since there was so much information on the internet about it. Press releases saying that she was directing my show were published as late as January 24, talking about the production starting its run on February 12.

Then my heart sank. I found one press release saying that Alley Theatre was producing an original adaptation of "The Tortoise and The Hare," written and directed by Peg Holzemer" rather than Candice Cain. What followed was the description of MY play, as written by me, but with the names of the two lead characters changed. (Instead of Flash the Hare and Theo the Tortoise, the names were changed to Harriet Hare and Timmy Tortoise.) The three paragraph description was copied from me word for word. Verbatim. I couldn't believe my eyes.

So, I started searching "The Tortoise and The Hare" with Peg Holzemer's name credited instead of mine. I couldn't believe the information that I found on the internet about her adaptation using MY description!! Even writing about this now, I am still horrified. The feeling of reading someone else getting credit for what you wrote is absolutely indescribable. It is painful. It is violating. She stole my words. If she wasn't the one that sent the press release, the the thief was whomever released the press release. They stole my work. I don't know if you have ever had your pocket picked, house robbed, identity stolen or anything like that, but that is exactly what it felt like. I felt like a victim, and there was nothing that I could do about it.

I did a little more research and contacted the theatre owner, Lorna Brunelle. Lorna is actually a published writer herself, with a book recently released entitled "Dirty Bombshell." She told me that they never received the scripts from Baker's Plays or Samuel French, and they ended up doing a different adaptation of "The Tortoise and The Hare." When I asked her why they used the description I wrote about my play to describe a play someone else wrote, she told me that I would have to ask Peg. Unfortunately, Peg still hadn't responded to my FaceBook message.

So, I got a little more aggressive. I went to Anywho.com and did a search on Peg Holzemer and the city in which I knew she lived, thanks to the press releases about her directing my show. BINGO! Her phone number popped up. I did what any self-respecting playwright who had their work stolen would have done: I called her. She answered the phone on the second ring, and I told her who I was and why I was calling. Believe it or not, I was very pleasant. She gave me the same story that Lorna gave me: The plays ordered never arrived, and Peg wrote her own adaptation of "The Tortoise and The Hare" the night before rehearsals were about to start. (Mind you, I had already spoken with a Samuel French representative who followed the paper trail and said that the first play was shipped on December 27 and the large order of scripts arrived on January 13.) Peg insisted that she wrote the show herself, even though there are several similar characters:

MY SHOW: Flash the Hare, Theodore the Tortoise, Sly the Fox, Edwina the Owl, Roxy the Raccoon, Barbara the Beaver, and several more.

PEG'S SHOW: Harriet Hare, Timmy Tortoise, Fred Fox, Olivia Owl, Rocky Raccoon, Barbara Badger, and several others.

I read the two "different" descriptions to her over the phone. The first was from South Coast Today, which had the true description that I wrote for my play. The second was from Silver City Bulletin, which had the description I wrote for my play with the name of her characters instead of mine. We went round and round for nearly 30 minutes, with Peg insisting that she wrote the play as an adaptation of a "Tortoise and Hare Show" she did makeup and costumes for in college. I finally explained to her, "Peg, what if someone took the description for 'The Terminator' and then showed a movie that they made up?" She was silent. I think I got my point across.

What boggled my mind was that she said, "I didn't think anyone wrote that description! We had no idea that it was copyrighted!" Really? Who wrote it? A computer? That is the lamest, most pathetic excuse I have ever heard. So, it is okay to steal something that is written and published (albeit in a catalog) because there is no credit to the person that wrote it? Considering that Peg is a theatre veteran and theatre teacher, one would imagine that she would know copyright laws.

Copyright laws are so strict when it comes to playwriting, and for good reason: If they weren't strict, people would steal them. Even an innocent act of plagiarizing can receive the minimum fine of $500, with the maximum fine being a whopping $100,000. Granted, my phone call was out of the blue and probably stunned poor Peg. I hope it did. If she thought, "no one will ever find out" when she (or whomever else) stole my work, I hope I scared her into never doing it again.

I'm not going to sue them, although I would unquestionably win any sort of civil suit brought against Peg and/or the theatre. I am a theatre lover. I don't want to put anyone out of business. However, I'm also an artist. I don't want anyone else getting credit for my work. And, truth be told, while I'm not suing anyone, I sincerely hope that Samuel French and/or Baker's Plays follows through, making Peg and/or the theatre face the minimum fine.