Event

Contracts 101 for Playwrights

Join the LRR playwrights and special guest Dan Watkins for an insider's look at standard legal contracts and common pitfalls. This is an exciting opportunity specifically geared toward the playwright.

Working through a project's life-cycle, we'll walk through the various stages of contracts and agreements, including commissioning and/or acquisition of underlying rights, initial collaboration, not-for-profit production, commercial production, foreign roll-out and finally non-stage explorations. At the end of this session, you'll know when to (and when not to) sign contracts and with whom.

Dan Watkins is an entertainment lawyer with Levine, Plotkin & Menin LLP representing clients in theatre, film/tv, publishing and new media. The firm's theatre practice includes representation of the producers of this season's "Bullets Over Broadway," "Rocky," and "Mothers and Sons," as well as next season's "The Last Ship" and "An American in Paris." Prior to this position, Dan was a transactional associate with the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. He received his J.D. magna cum laude from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he was the managing editor of the Cardozo Law Review, and a B.A. in Musical Theatre from the University of Northern Colorado. Before law school, Dan worked for Aruba Productions, a general management and producing office focused on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and international projects.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat: A Playwright's Collective is a select group of New York based playwrights who gather in support of each other's work. LRR was founded in 2013 by Brandon Marianne Lee and Natalie Wilson. The current LRR lineup is Jen Browne, Tim Duncheon, Tim Errickson, Lauren Ferebee, Mila Golubov, Brandon Marianne Lee, Mariah MacCarthy, Isaac Rathbone, Natalie Wilson and Jeremy Wine.