Tom Stoppard, Caryl Churchill, Richard Curtis, David Hare, Winnie Holzman, Jez Butterworth and James Graham are among 50 living playwrights who have donated rare first edition theatre and musical texts to raise money for refugee artists.
Good Chance Theatre, the team behind the critically acclaimed play The Jungle at the Young Vic, will hold an auction of rare first edition theatre and musical texts that have been personally annotated with the thoughts and feelings of the creators of each play & musical.
The 50 annotated texts being auctioned in aid of refugee artists include some of the world’s best loved theatrical productions such as Leopoldstadt, Jerusalem, Prima Facie, The Vagina Monologues, Wicked, Matilda the Musical, The Barbershop Chronicles, The Doctor, Closer, The Empress, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Jerry Springer: The Opera, Mean Girls, The Play What I Wrote, plus many many more.
The auction titled Out of the Margins will run from 15th September – 3rd October online, so anyone can take part anywhere in the world. Alongside the online auction a free exhibition showcasing a selection of the annotated first edition texts will run at Christie’s Auction house in London from 20 – 28 September.
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.
Highlights from the Out of the Margins auction will include:
● A heavily annotated rarely available boxed first edition of Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard, awarded Best New Play at the 2023 Tony Awards
● Nobel prize winner Wole Soyinka’s annotations of 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’s notes on a first edition hardback of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
● 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 Matilda the Musical (Dennis Kelly)
● V (formerly Eve Ensler)’s annotations of a rare edition of The Vagina Monologues that was printed only for the first ever V Day event in 1998
● Annotations of scripts of screenplays and films including Love, Actually by Richard Curtis and The Theory of Everything by Anthony McCarten.
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 250 refugee artists with 1-2-1 support in the UK as well as placing over 750 artists from refugee and migrant backgrounds in paid employment and training.
For more information on how to register to bid and take part in the Auction from 15th September, visit the link below
The Quotes
Yaël Farber (Miles Julie) said “It’s a privilege to be able to contribute in whatever way I can to the remarkable Out of the Margins Auction. There cannot be a more urgent cause to support right now, and what a dynamic way to be able to do so for all involved. This initiative deserves all the support it can get.“
Winnie Holzman (Wicked) said “We all know that theatre has the potential to transform lives. Good Chance makes it possible to witness these tranformations. That’s why I was eager to contribute to the Out of the Margins Auction— because Good Chance is a catalyst for positive change, and a beacon of hope.“
Richard Curtis (Love, Actually) said “I’m a huge admirer of the unbelievably important work that Good Chance do with refugees – so I’m very honoured to be part of the Auction. I’m going to be annotating two very different items – first a copy of the screenplay of Love Actually – which is full of things that didn’t make it into the final film and one or two things I wish HADN’T made it into the film. And then I’ve got a play I wrote last year, which only one person has ever read – I hope it might be an interesting read and I’ll try to mark my own work in a big red pen.“
Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) “I love that Good Chance started small – in a tent in Calais – and now, thanks to the work of incredible minds and collaborative storytelling, has become a butterfly that dances here, there and everywhere. I love that it still thinks of the small alongside the big, determined to embrace refugee storytellers and stories wherever they are found. Out of the Margins is a typically graceful fundraising effort, and I’m grateful to be part of it.“
Tom Stoppard (Leopoldstadt) said “Good Chance has been inspirational for years past, and this auction in aid of refugee artists will ripple outwards for years to come.“
Simon Stephens (The Curios Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) said “All artists are allies. We stand on one another’s shoulders to keep working. The idea that my old play about a deranged narcissistic rock and roll star might go to help artists who need help at a time when the world seems to be demonising refugees rather than reaching their hand out to them, well, it means a great deal.“
List of playwrights who have donated works
| Playwright | Play/musical/screenplay/lyrics |
| Stella Duffy | 15 Heroines |
| Sabrina Mahfouz | A History of Water in the Middle East |
| Joseph Charlton | Anna X |
| Inua Ellams | Barber Shop Chronicles |
| Maxine Peake | Beryl |
| Simon Stephens | Birdland |
| Joe Penhall | Blue / Orange |
| Shelley Silas | Calcutta Kosher |
| Patrick Marber | Closer |
| Roy Williams | Death of England |
| Duncan MacMillan | Every Brilliant Thing |
| Caryl Churchill | Fen |
| Hannah Khalil | Hakawatis |
| Jack Thorne | Harry Potter and the Cursed Child |
| Rebecca Lenkiewicz | Her Naked Skin |
| Stewart Lee | Jerry Springer The Opera |
| Jez Butterworth | Jerusalem |
| Mike Bartlett | King Charles III |
| Tom Stoppard | Leopoldstadt |
| Richard Curtis | Love, Actually |
| Dennis Kelly | Matilda the Musical |
| Tina Fey | Mean Girls: The Musical |
| Yaël Farber | Miss Julie |
| Suzie Miller | Prima Facie |
| Insook Chappell | P’yongyang |
| John Logan | Red |
| Nicola Wren | Replay |
| Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss | Six the Musical |
| David Hare | Skylight |
| Wole Soyinka | The Bacchae of Euripides |
| Robert Icke | The Doctor |
| Tanika Gupta | The Empress |
| Simon McBurney | The Encounter |
| Anupama Chandrasekhar | The Father and the Assassin |
| Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson | The Jungle |
| Matthew Spangler | The Kite Runner |
| Ben Power | The Lehman Trilogy |
| Tonderai Munyevu | The Moors |
| Martin McDonagh | The Pillowman |
| Sean Foley and Hamish McColl | The Play What I Wrote |
| Richard Eyre | The Snail House |
| Sebastian Barry | The Steward of Christendom |
| Anthony McCarten | The Theory of Everything |
| V (Formerly Eve Ensler) | The Vagina Monologues |
| James Graham | This House |
| Don Black | Unexpected Songs |
| Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz | Wicked |
