MCNEAL Now Available For Licensing From Dramatists Play Service

Dramatists Play Service has announced the addition of McNeal, the bold and thought-provoking new play by Pulitzer Prize-winner Ayad Akhtar, to its distinguished catalog. The play is now available for licensing worldwide.

Jacob McNeal is a famous writer who is always on the short list for the Nobel Prize in literature but hasn't won... yet. With a complicated past, a new novel, an important interview, an estranged son, and deteriorating health, can McNeal keep it all together to have the success that he's always dreamed of achieving? Could McNeal's obsession with Artificial Intelligence also be his downfall? Pulitzer Prize-winner Ayad Akhtar's new play is an extremely clever exploration of how we tell stories in an ever-evolving world.

"Ayad Akhtar's work is always fearless, always compelling, and McNeal is no exception," says Ted Chapin, Chief Executive Officer of BLG. "This is a play that challenges, provokes, and mesmerizes, and we are honored to bring it into the Dramatists Play Service catalog." Dan Markley, Chief Operating Officer, adds, "Akhtar's exploration of the intersection between literature and technology is both timely and profound. We look forward to seeing McNeal resonate with audiences across the theatrical landscape."

The Lincoln Center Theater production of McNeal premiered on Broadway in 2024, starring Academy Award winner, Robert Downy Jr., and directed by Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher. McNeal has been hailed as "a brilliant and transfixing new play" by The Atlantic. In 2013, Akhtar won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with his play, Disgraced-also represented by DPS.

Founded in 1936, DPS represents many of the most iconic works of the American theatre and beyond. The DPS catalog includes plays by legendary writers such as Arthur Miller, Lynn Nottage, Tom Stoppard, and John Leguizamo. Other Broadway titles represented within the DPS catalog include, Oh, Mary! by Cole Escola, John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower, Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, based on an original story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne.

For more information, visit dramatists.com.