Rachel Corrie Has Her Say as New York Premiere of Controversial Play Opens

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Megan Dodds reprises her role in the American premiere of the acclaimed — and controversial — historical solo play My Name Is Rachel Corrie, which opens Oct. 15, after previews from Oct. 5 at Off-Broadway's Minetta Lane Theatre.

Dodds played Rachel Corrie in the April 2005 Royal Court Theatre production, and reprised the role both at The Royal Court and at The Playhouse Theatre in London's West End in spring 2006.

The limited engagement will play 48 performances through Nov. 19.

The play, which is taken from the writings of the late American activist Rachel Corrie, is directed by actor Alan Rickman, who, with journalist Katharine Viner, edited Corrie's writings into this work for the stage.

The play became the subject of a heated debate this past spring when it was scheduled and then postponed at Off-Broadway's New York Theatre Workshop. Both NYTW and the Royal Court were thrust into a press-statement war immediately after the decision to delay the work; the London-based company and the play's creators accused the New York company of censorship while the New York troupe stated it merely sought to present the play in a climate suitable for the volatile work."

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/102642.html

[cali]

1. Glad to see

this play is finally getting a NY run.

[UndertheOcean]

2. Finally !

Great!

[oblivious]

3. Rachel Corrie The Play, At Last

Rachel Corrie The Play, At Last
...'We just wanted to show her as a kind of ordinary person,' Viner said, 'to show her flaws and her moodiness and her bossiness maybe, just to try and show her as a rounded human being, rather than a caricature. 'Lots of untruths have been written about her, and she has been demonized.'

Corrie's text supports this assertion. Far from containing anti-Israeli diatribes, she details the hardships of daily life for ordinary Palestinians, occasionally hitting on several profound truths.

'To some degree,' Corrie writes in what is one of the play's deeply touching moments, 'we are all kids curious about other kids. Egyptian kids shouting at strange women wandering into the path of tanks. Palestinian kids shot from the tanks when they peak out from behind walls to see what's going on. International kids standing in front of tanks with banners. Israeli kids in the tanks anonymously, occasionally shouting and also occasionally waving, many forced to be here, many just aggressive, shooting into the houses as we wander away.'
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=13111

My Name Is Rachel Corrie
...This is theater, not journalism, but in a play that makes a heroic martyr out of a single death -- one of thousands since the first intifada -- greater perspective is necessary. The brief lip service paid to the history of Jewish oppression and to the distinctions between Israeli policy and Jewish policy don't seem enough.

All of this makes the play more insightful as personal than political drama. It's hard to imagine anyone being untouched by this story of a girl full of hope and ideals being sucked into a world of horrors. But Rickman and Viner's elegant cut-and-paste job gives us only Corrie's voice when others are needed. It's telling that the most heartbreaking part of the piece is not Corrie's writing but an email from her father, expressing his pride and fear, and wishing he could stick his daughter's head in the sand.
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117931885.html?categoryid=1265&cs=1

Rachel Corrie: Myths and Facts – The play “My Name is Rachel Corrie” opens in New York City
October 15th, 2006

New York, NY, October 14th - With the long awaited opening of the play “My Name is Rachel Corrie” at the Minetta Lane Theater <1>, we’d like to dispel some common myths that have often crept into media coverage regarding Rachel’s death so we can focus instead on her life. We hope to avert factual errors and unnecessary controversy so the play can speak for itself. Towards that end, and with the cooperation of Rachel’s family, we have prepared this fact sheet along with clearly referenced sources.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/10/15/rachel-corrie-play/

[shergald]

4. Rachel Corrie was not the first nor the last to confront bulldozers

in the West Bank. Arik Ascherman, founder of Rabbis for Human Rights, and Jeff Halper, founder of Israeli Committee Against House Demolition, and members of their ogranizations, have been involved in human confrontations of Israeli bulldozers long before and after this incident. Descriptions of her death indicate that the plow of the dozer ran over her body, then ran it over once again when it backed up, without lifting the plow. Claims by the driver that he had not seen her were refuted by witnesses and a photographer, who caught the incident in stills.

[shergald]

5. PS:

At the time she was killed, Rachel Corrie was in the West Bank as a volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which has subsidiaries on several university campuses across the USA. ISM describes itself as follows:

"The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles. Founded by a small group of activists in August, 2001, ISM aims to support and strengthen the Palestinian popular resistance by providing the Palestinian people with two resources, international protection and a voice with which to nonviolently resist an overwhelming military occupation force."

[Tom Joad]

6. ISM's co-founder was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the AFSC

this year. That the venerated quaker peace action group nominated Ghassan Andoni was an honor. AFSC nominated with him Israeli Jeff Halper. http://www.afsc.org/israel-palestine/news/Ghassan-Andoni-Statement.html

ISM does not have groups on campuses, though certainly there is support for ISM on university campuses and off across the US. Volunteers are both young and old and in-between.
There are support groups throughout the US and the world.
More info here:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/

[shergald]

7. Thanks for adding this.