The Life of Rachel Corrie
Tuesday, Dec. 4
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario
7:30 P.M.
A glimpse of life inside Palestine , and solidarity between progressives in the West and Palestinians
Rachel Corrie was an American college graduate who joined the International Solidarity Movement. She engaged in non-violent resistance training and peace demonstrations in the Gaza strip in 2003, and participated in Palestinian solidarity activism.
On March 16, 2003, Rachel was involved in an action to prevent Israeli bulldozers from carrying out house demolitions. She was killed in this action.
This film, “Rachel: An American Conscience” by Yahya Barakat chronicles the events of that day, and Rachel’s activism leading up to it. It contains footage of the tragic events of March 16, as well as rare interviews with Rachel and her parents – about what drove her activism.
“Rachel was not an Israeli, nor she was a Palestinian, but she was a member of the International Solidarity Movement and a member of the international civil society…She opposed non-violently the violence that occupation does to the Palestinians.”
Yahya Barakat | Director, “Rachel: An American Conscience”
Tuesday, Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m.
McMaster University
Ewart Angus Centre [Health
Science Centre]
HS1A4
Hamilton, Ontario
Free Admission – Donations
Accepted
Parking for Health Sciences
Centre:
Surface parking on campus $5
Underground parking $12
Replaying Rachel's words
The writings of a young American woman who died in the Gaza Strip have been made into a controversial play. It begins a Montreal run next week
KATHRYN GREENAWAY, The Gazette
Mention the name Rachel Corrie and emotions flare.
On March 16, 2003, the 23-year-old student died. According to her supporters, she was trying to prevent the destruction of the home of Dr. Samir Nasrallah in Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said the bulldozer driver did not see her and that she was crushed by debris. Other witnesses said the bulldozer deliberately ran over Corrie.
Almost five years later, the details swirling around her death continue to be hotly disputed.
A play based on 184 pages of Corrie's writings is coming to the Monument National on Dec. 6. My Name Is Rachel Corrie was edited for the stage by actor/director Alan Rickman and Guardian Weekend editor Katharine Viner.
It debuted at London's Royal Court Theatre in 2005 to critical praise and no protest. The company had contacted the Corrie family soon after Corrie's death.
"I first read Rachel Corrie's emails in the Guardian a few days after she was killed," Rickman wrote in an email to The Gazette.
"The sense of waste was only compounded by the fact that I was reading them in the daily and disposable medium of newsprint. Her writing has a power and vibrancy that jumps right off the page. Rachel Corrie deserved a longer life. So did her words."
Corrie's parents, Cindy and Craig, attended the world premiere in London and loved it. "She had an extraordinary way of communicating what she saw," Cindy said. "She was like that from the time she was a very small child."
The London run was smooth, but controversy flared soon afterward.
The play was supposed to open at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2005 but was dropped from the roster at the last minute, and last year Toronto's CanStage theatre decided to drop it from its 2007-2008 season.
"I am only too aware of the pressures that any independent theatre company may come under, either financial or from its supporters or its board," Rickman wrote. "Strange that we live in times when the words of one very young woman cause people to slam doors rather than open them. Fear really does eat the soul."
Official word from the New York Theatre Workshop was that the subject matter was too sensitive for some of its patrons. Allegations were made at the time that the decision was made after pressure from members of the Jewish community. CanStage artistic producer Martin Bragg said in an interview with CBC that he changed his mind after seeing the play run in New York (off-Broadway) and deciding it didn't work that well onstage.
The cancellations prompted angry letters to the editor. Issues of freedom of speech and censorship were raised.
"Her writing is full of humanism and hope and a call to action," Vancouver actor Adrienne Wong said. "You can't read it and not do something, even small, like producing a play." Wong will portray Corrie at the Monument National, in what is a co-production of Teesri Duniya Theatre (Montreal) and Neworldtheatre (Vancouver).
The Corries will make the trip from their home in Olympia, Wash., and participate in a post-show discussion Dec. 9. "Ultimately, you want people to come to a (cultural) event with an open mind," Corrie's father Craig said. "Approached without any political leanings, the play is a personal story about a young woman who had a unique way of seeing life. And there is humour. Rachel could be very funny. It is not 90 minutes of hand-wringing at the state of the world."
The play has been produced on stages around the world, despite the controversy, and the couple have been encouraged by what they hear after performances.
"Good discussions have resulted," Craig said. "The overwhelming impression I get from people who have actually seen the play is that they don't see it as anti-Israel. It gives voice to a young person who is growing up and searching for meaning."
The writings included in the play come from Rachel's journals, some reaching back to her childhood, along with email exchanges with her family that took place during the 50 days she spent in the Middle East leading up to her death. "Certainly what she writes about is disturbing," Craig said. "But she wanted all people, not just the Israelis or the Palestinians, to feel what she felt. To feel responsible in some way for what was going on."
Because the play is a compilation of one person's writings, it does not offer an opposing view.
"She was just living her life whilst still figuring out on what terms," Rickman wrote. "She was no one else's mouthpiece. Her voice is passionately and unavoidably her own and therefore, of course, in terms of pure human rights, ours too."
For Wong, the actress who tells Corrie's story, "The play is not presented as anything other that one woman's experience." She said she looks forward to meeting the Corries in Montreal. "During heartbreaking moments in the play you remember that someone's daughter is dead."
In 2005, the Corries launched a lawsuit against the state of Israel and the Israeli military after their efforts to get satisfactory answers via the U.S. government about the circumstances surrounding the death of their daughter failed.
"We keep pushing, asking for more," Cindy said. "The bottom line is, there has been no accountability."
The book Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie (W.W. Norton), is set for release in March. The Corries continue to work on peace and human rights initiatives through The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice.
My Name Is Rachel Corrie will be at the Monument National, 1182 St. Laurent Blvd., Dec. 6 to 22. Tickets cost $20, or $18 for seniors and students, and are available at the box office. Call 514-871-2224. For more information, see www.teesriduniyathe
atre.com, www.neworldtheatre. com and www.rachelcorriefou
ndation.org.
Probing questions to be raised during the play's run The following discussions are booked to take place at the Monument National after performances of My Name is Rachel Corrie.
Dec. 8: Talking Peace and Justice: a panel with the Montreal Dialogue Group.
Dec. 9: Discussion with Craig and Cindy Corrie.
Dec. 15: Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli youth debate Corrie's actions.
Dec. 16: Prominent Jewish and Arab Montrealers discuss the roots of the Arab/Israeli conflict and how more deaths can be prevented.
Dec. 22: A panel of artists discusses how artists can present works dealing with delicate issues without being labelled unpatriotic or anti-Semitic.
An Afternoon with 
