deborah murad

COURSES TAUGHT:
DEVISED THEATRE

DEBORAH MURAD, ESQ. is an entertainment attorney serving as the Director of Business Affairs at the Dramatists Guild of America. In that capacity, she consults on business and legal affairs for a nationwide membership on topics ranging from copyright and trademark to negotiation and rights acquisition. Deborah manages Guild projects as they relate to Business Affairs services, education, and advocacy. In the context of her work, she regularly confers with 70 of the country’s most prominent playwrights regarding matters of timely interest to the dramatist community. She also works with the Guild’s regional representatives relevant to the Guild’s 8000+ members Nationwide. Deborah is Dramatists Guild representative at Guild Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guild and a contributor to Dramatist Magazine.

Deborah's work with the Devised Theater Committee at the Dramatists Guild (which included Doug Wright, Moises Kaufman, Paul Thureen, Hunter Bell, Gab Cody, and Kyoung Park) yielded four groundbreaking model contracts and Resource Manuel. Since the materials premiered, Deborah has spoken extensively on the topic of devised theater most recently at Columbia College in Chicago and the Drake Theater in Philadelphia. She was invited to participate in the Public Theater’s conversation entitled Devised Theatre: Caring, Producing, Presenting and was the keynote speaker at the DG International Devised Theater Conference in NYC. Deborah was also invited to speak on devised theater at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at the Writer's Guild of Great Britain. Separately, Deborah served on the sub-committee for festivals and contests where she worked to develop and continues to champion the DG Best Practices for Festivals and Contests.

In addition to her work at the Guild, Deborah is the Associate Executive Director of the Dramatists Guild Copyright Management DG(c)M, a company created to manage works left to the Dramatists Guild or its sister organizations. She works closely with all applicants and assists in the review, collection and organization of all legal documents to ensure proper management of works.

Deborah has appeared as a panelist and lecturer for several programs and institutions including the Segal Center for the Performing Arts, Woman's Theater Project, the American Association of Theater Educators (AATE), and the Dramatists Guild Institute's Musical Theater Intensive. She was featured at the Dramatists Guild National Conferences from 2012-2018 where she created and became well-known for her presentation, "Can I Do That," an engaging, hypothetical-based lecture series geared specifically toward creatives.