My Name Is Rachel Corrie to Play Off-Broadway's Minetta Lane
By Andrew Gans
and Robert Simonson
22 Jun 2006
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Megan Dodds in the Royal Court production of My Name Is Rachel Corrie.
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| photo by Stephen Cummiskey | The acclaimed, and controversial, Royal Court Theatre production of My Name Is Rachel Corrie has finally found a New York home. It will begin performances at Off-Broadway's Minetta Lane Theatre Oct. 15. 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, will be directed by actor Alan Rickman, who, with journalist Katharine Viner, edited Corrie's writings.
The play opened in April 2005 at London's Royal Court Theatre and returned for an encore engagement in October 2005. It later played nine weeks at London's Playhouse Theatre in spring 2006. The play was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement.
The work 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 accusing the New York company of censorship while the New York troupe stating it merely sought to present the work in a climate suitable for the volatile work.
Several messages left in recent weeks by Playbill.com for Viner, who is an editor and reporter at London's Guardian newspaper, and for Rickman, who is best known as a film actor ("Die Hard"), were not returned.
In a prepared statement, editor-director Rickman said, "We were never going to paint Rachel as a golden saint or sentimentalize her, but we also needed to face the fact that she'd been demonized. We wanted to present a balanced portrait. The activist part of her life is absolutely matched by the imaginative part of her life. I've no doubt at all that had she lived there would have been novels and plays
pouring out of her."
My Name Is Rachel Corrie, according to press notes, "chronicles the human, social and political evolution in the life and controversial death of a young woman. The play traces the life of Rachel from her early days in Washington State through her experiences as an activist seeking to learn more about the community within Gaza." Corrie was a 23-year-old protester who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer.
The creative team for the production includes Hildegard Bechtler (set design), Johanna Town (lighting design) and Emma Laxton (sound and video design).
Dena Hammerstein and Pam Pariseau for James Hammerstein Productions are presenting the limited Off-Broadway engagement.
Tickets for the production are now on sale by calling (212) 307-4100 or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com.
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