Araca Group and Dramatists Play Service Launch THE HOLLYWAY COLLECTION

Leading Broadway producing company The Araca Group (Urinetown, Wicked, Disgraced) today announced plans to launch a collection of Hollywood-inspired stage plays to be licensed to professional and amateur theaters around the world.

The Hollyway Collection will be published and licensed exclusively by leading play publisher Dramatists Play Service (DPS), with the first-look deal covering up to seven new plays within the first two years.

The collection becomes available for licensing in the fall of 2017, and will include the previously announced play adaptation of the iconic television series Family Ties, written by Daniel Goldstein, under license by CBS Consumer Products. The play recently debuted at The Human Race Theater in Dayton, Ohio, where it is currently running through June 25th, 2017. The adaptation picks up with the Keaton family 20 years after Alex Keaton leaves Ohio for New York City.

Additional titles in the collection will be announced later this year.

The Araca Group's Media & Entertainment division launched in 2015 and is tasked with adapting plays and musicals for stages beyond Broadway and West End, as well as developing musical projects for live broadcast, television, film, and digital.

"We are so excited to announce this collection, and to extend the storytelling of widely beloved titles and characters to theater audiences everywhere," said Michael Barra, President, Media & Entertainment at The Araca Group. "Partnering with DPS is a dream come true as they represent the absolute best in class in stage play publishing. We look forward to working closely with Peter, Robert, Craig, and the rest of their team to deliver the best adaptations to as wide an audience as possible."

"The Play Service looks forward to the opportunities that The Hollyway Collection will bring not only to our writers, many of whom we hope will work on adapting these great titles, but also to our customers, who are always looking for shows in their seasons which will help drive in new audiences, and keep their traditional audiences coming back for more. Hollyway is an ideal complement to the existing DPS catalogue," said Peter Hagan, President of Dramatists Play Service.

The Araca Group was founded in 1997 by partners Matthew Rego, Michael Rego and Hank Unger, and the company has since become a leading Broadway production and brand management company with over 250 dedicated employees and offices in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, London, and Sydney.

Araca's producing ventures have garnered Tony, Pulitzer, Grammy, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Drama League, Olivier and Obie Awards. Broadway producing credits include Wicked, Urinetown, Disgraced, The Wedding Singer, A View From The Bridge, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Lend Me a Tenor, Match, Rock of Ages, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, 'Night Mother, Skylight, A Raisin in the Sun, and Boeing-Boeing. Araca's Media & Entertainment division partners with marquee Media Companies and Consumer Brands to develop and manage branded entertainment portfolios of meticulously crafted adaptations, reboots, and brand integrations of some of the world's most iconic intellectual property, for live stages around the world. Besides Family Ties, Araca Media & Entertainment projects also includes a play adaptation of Clue, from the Hasbro game and Paramount film, which recently premiered at the Bucks County Playhouse and has just announced a national tour for the Fall of 2018.

Formed in 1936 by a number of prominent playwrights and theatre agents, Dramatists Play Service, Inc. (DPS) was created to foster national opportunities for playwrights by publishing affordable editions of their plays and handling the performance rights to these works. DPS has since grown to become one of the premier play-licensing and theatrical publishing agencies in the world. Offering an extensive list of titles that includes many of the most significant plays of the past century, DPS preserves the rich history of drama. Dramatists Play Service, Inc. works with thousands of theatres to ensure the future vitality of the theatre. It is committed to providing a home for established writers and to nurturing new playwrights of exceptional promise.