Deborah Hartnett Appointed MTI's Director of Business & Legal Affairs

Music Theatre International (MTI), the world's leading dramatic performing rights agency, announced today that Deborah Hartnett has joined the company as its new Director of Business and Legal Affairs.

Ms. Hartnett brings to MTI her many years of legal experience in the entertainment industry, particularly in the area of theater. As counsel and co-head of the Entertainment Department at Paul Weiss, the New York law firm, she has represented authors and rightsholders such as Stephen Sondheim, Alfred Uhry, Jerry Herman the Cole Porter Trusts and DreamWorks Theatricals. Ms. Hartnett has also taught theatre law at Columbia University School of the Arts and is a trustee for the Theatre Development Fund (TDF). Prior to joining MTI, she was the General Management Consultant at Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC).

Ms. Hartnett has advised clients in the acquisition and licensing of intellectual property rights for use on stage, in print, films, games, theme parks, online and for merchandise. She also has significant experience in advising cultural and educational institutions such as TDF, MTC, Roundabout Theatre Company and The Public Theatre.

"We are delighted to welcome Deb to Music Theatre International," stated Drew Cohen, President of MTI. "Her extensive experience in addressing a wide variety of matters in the area of theater law as well as her impeccable reputation within the industry made her uniquely qualified for this role at MTI. I have worked with Deb on many projects and her creative approach and ability to recognize new and innovative avenues for maximizing the potential in authors' work made her the one person we wanted for this position. Happily, she felt the same way."

Ms. Hartnett said, "Having seen what the MTI team has done to maximize the audience for their musicals and having admired their proactive approach in pioneering the educational market, I am genuinely excited to join the MTI family and work to create new opportunities by which the shows and their authors will benefit. Within the secondary rights market, MTI is the leader and I look forward to helping build upon that tradition."

According to company Chairman and CEO, Freddie Gershon, "Deb's unique expertise provides MTI with additional depth at the executive level. We have carefully assembled a team whose strengths not only complement each other but ideally suit the needs of our authors and their representatives, as well as our customers. Deb is part of MTI's development of new areas of business that will amplify our authors income and produce new income streams for authors and rightsholders well into the future, across multiple generations, and will insure that MTI will meet all business, creative and technological challenges."

About Music Theatre International
Music Theatre International (www.mtishows.com) is the world's leading dramatic licensing agency, protecting the rights and legacies of composers, lyricists and book writers. MTI's core business is issuing licenses, scripts, musical materials and dynamic multimedia theatrical resources to schools as well as amateur and professional theatres across the globe. With over 300 classic and contemporary show titles from Broadway, Off-Broadway, and London's West End, MTI shows have been performed by 60,000 theatrical organizations in the US and in over 60 countries worldwide.

In addition to representing full-length musicals, MTI is particularly dedicated to the idea of theatre as education and has created special collections for younger performers. The Broadway Junior Collection® features 70-minute adaptations of major musicals designed for middle school children to perform; the KIDS Collection®, provides 30-minute musicals for performance by elementary school children; School Editions are musicals that have been annotated for performance by high school students; and the Theatre For Young Audiences Collection, 70-minute musicals designed for adults to perform for children.

For more information about MTI, please visit http://www.mtishows.com/, or call (212) 541-4684.

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