Invitation to a behanding

March 2, 2011 7:52 AM

Friend of mine is trying to locate the script for "A Behanding in Spokane" but it isn't published yet.

Anyone know if it's possible to find this somewhere online? (He's willing to pay for it, of course.)

Again, the play is "A Behanding in Spokane" by Martin McDonagh. Kind of a long shot but thought I'd toss it to the hivemind.

Any ideas, gladly appreciated.

Thanks!

posted by mammary16 to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

Best answer: Depending on the purpose to which he will use it, you have two options:

1) If he wants to perform it, he is able to order it through the Dramatists Play Service, which oversees productions of and rights to performances of its various plays. The script itself is not officially published yet, but they will Xerox the manuscript for you. But this is for production purposes only, and they charge $75 per performance you want to give.

2) If he just wants to read it, Amazon will carry it as soon as it is released (current estimates as to the publication date is....well, February 15. No word yet though; although since Dramatists Play Service has it, I've been told that tends to get the thing into publication pretty quickly.) Amazon lets you sign up for an "email me when this is available" service as well.

You're probably not going to find anything were the whole thing is an ebook online. Dramatists Play Service and other such services keep very tight control on access to things unless they're in the public domain -- because they're not just the publishing company, they also control the rights to whether or not you can mount a production, and they REALLY keep tight control of where and when different productions of a given play happen (they don't want to get into a situation where five different theater companies in the same town are all staging simultaneous productions of CATS or anything like that).

Good luck.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:35 AM on March 2, 2011

Best answer: Martin McDonagh's represented by The Rod Hall Agency. Depending on why your friend needs the script, it might be worth asking there.
posted by the latin mouse at 10:17 AM on March 2, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks - both really helpful.
posted by mammary16 at 2:58 AM on March 3, 2011