If copyright is framed as just one of the many tools used to facilitate production in the larger theatrical economy, it is also possible to envision copyright law’s development outside the prism of dramatist-centric expansion narratives. As scholars including Oren Bracha and Catherine Fisk have shown, author rhetoric lives throughout the decisions of courts in the second half of the nineteenth century.1 Developments in the law suggest a more fluid framework than one that prioritized the rights of author dramatists, however. There was broad space within the law to accommodate theatrical mediators and the industry structures they created.