Now open at Christie’s, London, you can view a new exhibition of annotated and special edition playtexts and scripts from across theatre and film.
These will be on show before they are auctioned off for charity in aid of Good Chance, the Theatre of Hope, to support their work with refugee artists.
Out of the Margins is the largest collection of annotated texts in film, TV, and theatre history to ever go on sale.
Covering significant moments from the last fifty years, it provides a fascinating record of the private thoughts and feelings of some of the world’s greatest living contemporary writers.
Some of the texts annotated by hand include original film scripts for Love Actually, Mean Girls, The Theory of Everything, and The West Wing, plus West End plays and musicals Jerusalem, Prima Facie, The Vagina Monologues, Harry Potter, Wicked and SIX.
The online auction runs until 6 Oct, while the exhibition is available to view from 21-28 Sep.
Most of the playtexts and scripts are expected to fetch between £1,000 and £10,000, as they are unique artefacts, each representing a slice of theatre history.
55 items are listed in the auction, covering writers as diverse as David Hare, Tina Fey, James Graham, Don Black, Mike Bartlett, Tanika Gupta, Caryl Churchill, Duncan MacMillan, Hannah Khalil and Tony Kushner.
If you have ever wanted a peek into the rehearsal room or the mechanics of assembling a script or screenplay, Out of the Margins is the showcase for you.
The examples pictured above cover a wide variety of productions from the brightest of writers; all these are still living, so can easily share their insights verbally.
As a former archive cataloguer, I can confirm the excitement you can feel on holding an annotated copy once owned by someone long gone, so this will be an investment for the future.
If this is something for you, the auction is now open for bidding at https://theauctioncollective.com/auctions/out-of-the-margins/.
The exhibition is taking place at Christie’s, London in St James with details available at https://www.christies.com/events/out-of-the-margins-charity-auction-good-chance/about.