Pottermore to Publish eBook of The Stage Play Script Harry Potter and The Cursed Child Parts I & II
London, England — Pottermore, the global digital publisher of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, announced today that it will publish an original eBook edition of the official script book of the upcoming West End stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a new play by Jack Thorne written to be enjoyed live in the theatre, is based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany. The play will receive its world premiere in London’s West End at the Palace Theatre, July 30, 2016, and is the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage.
“Pottermore is proud to be a key part of the multi-platform effort that will allow the epic eighth Harry Potter story to be read and enjoyed by a wider, global audience,” said Susan L. Jurevics, Chief Executive Officer, Pottermore. “With the script eBook of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child helping to lead the way, 2016 will be one of our most exciting years yet. We have other innovative content initiatives coming soon that will also thrill and engage our vast global audience of Wizarding World fans as well as create new ones.”
Pottermore will publish the Special Rehearsal Edition of the script eBook of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child simultaneously and in collaboration with the print publishers. The print editions will be published in the United Kingdom by Little, Brown Book Group and in the United States and Canada by Scholastic. The eBook edition will be published on 00:01 July 31, 2016, priced at £9.99 and USD $14.99.
About the script book/play:
The eighth story. Nineteen years later.
It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes darkness comes from unexpected places.
The Special Rehearsal Edition of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child script eBook will comprise the version of the play script early in the production’s preview period, several weeks prior to the opening performances. The preview process allows the creative team time to rehearse changes or to explore specific scenes further, in front of a live audience, before the official opening performances on Saturday 30th July. As such the script is subject to change after the Special Rehearsal Edition is published, which is why this edition will only be available for a limited time, to be replaced by the Definitive Collector’s Edition at a later date. More details about the Definitive Collector’s Edition will be announced in due course.
Notes to Editors:
J.K. Rowling is the author of the bestselling Harry Potter series of seven books, published between 1997 and 2007, which have sold over 450 million copies worldwide, are distributed in more than 200 territories and translated into 79 languages, and have been turned into eight blockbuster films.
She has written three companion volumes in aid of charity: Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in aid of Comic Relief; and The Tales of Beedle the Bard in aid of her children’s charity Lumos.
In 2012, J.K. Rowling’s digital entertainment and e-commerce company Pottermore was launched, where fans can enjoy her new writing and immerse themselves deeper in the wizarding world.
Her first novel for adult readers, The Casual Vacancy, was published in September 2012 and adapted for TV by the BBC in 2015. Her crime novels, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, were published in 2013 (The Cuckoo’s Calling), 2014 (The Silkworm) and 2015 (Career of Evil), and are to be adapted for a major new television series for BBC One, produced by Brontë Film and Television.
J.K. Rowling’s 2008 Harvard commencement speech was published in 2015 as an illustrated book, Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination, and sold in aid of her charity Lumos and university–wide financial aid at Harvard.
In addition to J.K. Rowling’s collaboration on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II, an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, she is also making her screenwriting debut with the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a further extension of the wizarding world, due for release in November 2016.
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About Pottermore
Pottermore, the digital publishing, e-commerce, entertainment and news company from J.K. Rowling, is the global digital publisher of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. As the digital heart of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, pottermore.com is dedicated to unlocking the power of imagination. It offers news, features, and articles as well as new and previously unreleased writing by J.K. Rowling.
