Tony Kushner, Aaron Sorkin, Lynn Nottage, Tom Stoppard, Wole Soyinka, Caryl Churchill, David Hare, Jez Butterworth, Richard Curtis, Tina Fey, Tanika Gupta, V (formerly Eve Ensler) and Inua Ellams are just some of the 60 leading playwrights who are donating annotated first and special editions of play texts and musical scripts to be auctioned in support of refugee artists in the UK for the Out of the Margins Auction organised by Good Chance Theatre, hosted by the Auction Collective, in collaboration with Christie’s.
As of 4th September, a further 10 leading names of stage and screen have confirmed they will be contributing to the auction, including Aaron Sorkin (West Wing), Lynn Nottage (Clyde's), Alexander Zeldin (Faith, Hope & Charity), Kate Mosse (The Taxidermist's Daughter), Mark Rylance (a private donor is donating a copy of Shakespeare's Antony & Cleopatra annotated by Mark Rylance in 1999 when he played Cleopatra), Bryony Lavery (Frozen) and Tony Kushner (title of play to be announced).
The 60 annotated texts being auctioned in aid of refugee artists include some of the world’s best loved theatrical productions: Leopoldstadt, Jerusalem, Prima Facie, The Vagina Monologues, The Doctor, Closer, The Empress, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Play What I Wrote, Wicked, Jerry Springer: The Opera, Mean Girls and Matilda the Musical. Each text has been annotated by hand, giving unique insight into the writer’s creative process, and reflections, memories, thoughts and feelings since, in a highly personal and intimate way.
During the run of the Auction from 15th September – 6th October, several of the participating playwrights will have new shows opening, including:
· Anupama Chandrasekhar’s The Father and the Assassin opens at the National Theatre on 8th September
· Roy Williams' Death of England: Closing Time opens at the National Theatre on 13th September
· Simon McBurney’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is back on international tour from October
· Tanika Gupta's The Empress transfers from the RSC to the Lyric Hammersmith on 4th October
· James Graham’s Dear England transfers to the West End from 9th October
· Lynn Nottage's Clyde's opens at the Donmar Warehouse on 13th October
· while Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman ends at the Duke of York Theatre on 9th September
· and Mean Girls starts its US tour this month, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Matilda: The Musical, Wicked and Six continue national and international runs.
The Out of the Margins auction represents the largest collection of annotated play texts and scripts in theatre history, providing an unprecedented record of the private thoughts and feelings of some of the world’s greatest living contemporary playwrights, covering some of the most significant moments in the last fifty years of theatre. Out of the Margins brings these texts together for the first time, providing a unique opportunity for members of the general public, theatre lovers, and collectors alike to bid for a piece of theatrical history.
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Out of the Margins is an online three-week timed auction hosted by The Auction Collective from 15th September - 6th October 2023. A free exhibition of selected texts will be on public display from 20th to 28th September 2023 at Christie's Auction House in St James’s, London.
Highlights from the Out of the Margins auction include:
· Alongside his annotated script of Love, Actually, Richard Curtis is including in his lot a new play he wrote last year called Mr and Mrs Smith, which has never before been read by anyone or seen in public.
· Dennis Kelly, writer of the book of Matilda: The Musical, is not only donating a signed copy of the 2021 script with a personal essay scribbled over seven pages, he's also donating the very first original script he wrote entirely by hand (across two notebooks), an astounding piece of theatre history. This is the first time the original longhand draft of the musical has ever have been seen in public.
· Jez Butterworth has attached props from the original run of Jerusalem into his annotated first edition from some of the best loved scenes, including amongst others a fake £10 note, fake cocaine, trivial pursuit cards, a lighter, and a vandalised sign. He has also included into his lot a drop cloth signed by the whole original Royal Court production team.
· A private collector has donated a rare and heavily annotated script that belonged to, and was used by, Mark Rylance when he played Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra in 1999. Extensively annotated in his own hand with 'live notes' for how he will play the role (“Rushes skipping onto the stage”), this is an incredible, rare opportunity to get a real behind-the-scenes insight into this leading figure's acting process.
● A heavily annotated rarely available boxed first edition (marked 1 of 5) of Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard, awarded Best New Play at the 2023 Tony Awards
● Nobel prize winner Wole Soyinka has annotated a first edition of his adaptation of The Bacchae of Euripides
● A fully annotated first edition of the Barber Shop Chronicles by Inua Ellams
● Jack Thorne has scribbled extensive notes throughout a first edition hardback of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
● V (formerly Eve Ensler) has annotated a rare edition of The Vagina Monologues that was printed only for the first ever V Day event in 1998
● Annotations of some of the best-loved musicals such as Wicked (Winnie Holzman), Mean Girls (Tina Fey), Six: The Musical (Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss) and Jerry Springer: The Opera (Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee).
The proceeds of the Out of the Margins charity auction will fund Good Chance Theatre's work supporting refugee artists in the UK. Since it was founded in the Calais Jungle refugee camp 8 years ago, Good Chance Theatre (which does not receive public subsidy) has provided 150 refugee artists with 1-2-1 support in the UK as well as providing over 750 artists from refugee and migrant backgrounds with paid employment and training. Good Chance Theatre runs several full-time programmes supporting migrants and refugees in the UK including the Good Chance Ensemble, a programme which tackles barriers to entry for refugee artists in theatre and art today through various projects including:
● Change the Word a creative writing and performance project which has so far involved thousands of people in Coventry, Sheffield, Barnsley and Bradford, giving people from refugee backgrounds and local settled communities the chance to meet, make new connections, learn new skills, discover their city afresh and create new written work to publication- and performance-level standard
● Stage Door and Back Stage Door providing opportunities for young people from refugee backgrounds to gain paid experience working in the theatre industry and smash the barriers the affect people from refugee backgrounds disproportionately
● One-to-one support inviting refugee artists to directly collaborate on new plays and artistic projects with Good Chance. For example, Good Chance met Majid Adin in the Calais Jungle refugee camp, when he came into the Good Chance Dome and began drawing again for the first time since leaving his country. Since then, after settling in the UK, he has animated Elton John’s Rocket Man video (seen by over 136 million people), has his first graphic novel coming out, and has joined the Board of Trustees of Good Chance. Majid is currently co-writing a new play, developed as part of the Ensemble, called The Conference of the Trees, which has been awarded a Writers Guild New Play Commission.
For more information on how to register to bid and take part in the Auction from 15th September, click
here.
