Sean Cercone (CEO/President, Broadway Licensing) and David J. Moore (Acting President, Dramatists Play Service, Inc.) jointly announced today that their respective companies have entered into a landmark agreement under which Dramatists Play Service, Inc. (DPS) has been acquired by Broadway Licensing. DPS has been added to the Broadway Licensing slate of brands, with DPS continuing to serve plays and playwrights and Broadway Licensing becoming the new home for DPS’s slate of musicals. The first acquisition in this new venture is Keenan Scott II’s new work, "Thoughts of a Colored Man" – the first new play announced for the upcoming, post-shutdown Broadway season. The deal also sparks a range of innovative new initiatives to better serve the theatrical community and ensure the DPS banner remains a vital brand in the industry for years to come. Broadway Licensing has established a New Works fund in the amount of $2.5 million. The fund will be used to acquire rights, commission and develop new works that will impact the future of the American theatrical landscape. In addition, Broadway Licensing has created Stageworks Productions, an internal content development division designed to work with interested authors and underlying rights holders to create new copyrights of authors’ works with the goal of extending the life of copyrights and value of their brand. Finally, Broadway Licensing has agreed to form a three-person Advisory Committee to consult on nurturing and expanding opportunities for new writers and underlying rights holders. The inaugural committee members are Lynn Nottage, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Michael Korie. DPS was founded by the Dramatists Guild of America and a group of theatrical agents to spotlight playwrights by publishing affordable editions of their plays and handling the performance rights to these works. The former ownership structure of DPS included a consortium of literary agents united under a Trust and The Dramatists Guild Foundation. Press contact: DKC/O&M (212/695-7400)...