Course Section | Columbia Law School

Section Description Provided by Instructor

Enrollment is open to law students and to students from the MFA Program in Theater Management & Producing and the MA Program in Arts Administration. This seminar begins with an overview of the theatre industry in America and an analysis of the Intellectual Property framework of theater-related legal issues and then examines the various contracts and issues involved in creating a theatrical property, raising money for the production and bringing it to the stage (especially Broadway and Off-Broadway), and exploiting it during its run and thereafter (e.g., on film, on tour and internationally). Students review the background law and practice for contracts they deal with, draft contracts and memoranda, and with role playing and simulation will negotiate and revise various agreements that are considered.

Contentious issues, such as directors' intellectual property rights in their stage direction, and the line between commercial entities and not-for-profit theatre companies, are also explored.

Students will be graded on the basis of class attendance/participation, 3 mock negotiations, and 4 drafting assignments (legal memoranda and contracts).