My Name is Rachel Corrie, a play about the American activist killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in the Gaza Strip, has just opened in Montreal with Corrie’s parents in attendance.
The controversial play explores Corrie’s experiences in Gaza and has been lambasted by some as a naive, one-sided account of the Israeli-Palestinian divide. more…
By Natasha Greenblatt
Culture Writer
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Dave Pullmer / The McGill Daily |
American college student Rachel Corrie was 23 when she was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip, March 16, 2003. Some of her emails home, released by Corrie’s parents after her death and serialized in The Guardian newspaper, caught the attention of British actor Alan Rickman. After receiving a large package of previously unreleased journals, emails, and to-do lists from Corrie’s parents, Rickman and journalist Katharine Vinerthey edited them into a play. It opened to sold out houses in London before making the trip to New York. more…
Becoming Rachel
Brett Hooton and Stefan Christoff
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Montreal tackles the much-hyped biographical play about a martyred activist, My Name Is Rachel Corrie. More…
Team Video watching the action from the booth.
Today the set, lighting, video and sound were loaded into the Monument Nationale. As we head forward into the next step of the process, here are some photos taken by Stage Manager Bea Campbell of the rehearsal hall and our comrades…
Here is a response to the CBC Online News Article:
… If I had the resources, I’d make “Rachel Corrie - The Documentary” and show it on every street corner in every city of the world. It’s a truly heroic tale of a young idealistic woman who lost her one and only life trying to make the world a better place for others. It doesn’t matter if people object to her for political reasons - and people are more than welcome to state their case against her - politically. They’re alive, afterall, to do it. She’s dead. The problem isn’t that there is pressure to mute the telling of her story, the problem is that people who don’t have to are caving in to the pressure. More at Sooeys.com …
Tonight i watched a ‘Nature of Things’ episode on global warming and then right after there was a CBC special documentary about Paris Hilton (and i watched it). Both were disturbing (for different reasons) but made me think about how television gives a shared sense of reality.
Last year i read a book on Eduardo Galeano (by Daniel Fischlin and Martha Nandorfy) called “Through the Looking Glass.” Part political and literary biography, part cultural theory, Galeano addresses issues concerning the telling of history and the conjunctions between literature and human rights.
After boob-toobing it this evening, I picked this book off the shelf and as i skimmed through the pages, these passages leaped out at me:
“Myths, collective metaphors, collective acts of creation, offer answers to the challenges of nature and the mysteries of the human experience. Through myths, memory lives on, recognizes itself, and acts.”
“The best of the world lies in the many worlds the world contains, the different melodies of life, their pains and strains: the thousand and one ways of living and speaking, thinking and creating, eating, working, dancing, playing, loving, suffering and celebrating that we have discovered over so many thousands of years.”
“No computer can count the crimes that the pop culture business commits each day against the human rainbow and the human right to identity. But it’s devastating progress is mind-boggling. Time is emptied of history, and space no longer acknowledges the astonishing diversity of it’s parts. Through the mass media the owners of the world inform us all of our obligation to look at ourselves in a single mirror.”
“Utopianism is no longer an illusory dream of perfection but rather a recognition of the urgency of being in this moment, in this world- collectively, imperfectly, discrepantly, critically.”
“The chronicler and storyteller- multitude-person, tlamatini–obstinately writes to recuperate words, memories, and whispered dreams, returning them to their collective source as a gift of hope, a discrepant engagement, a marriage of heaven and earth.”
foods for thoughts,
Jasmine
Things are heating up. We’re in the middle of the third (and last) week of rehearsal. I’m off-book - mostly - having crammed the rest of the text into my head on the day off. Still building connections from the inside out. But it’s there, it’s there. Itai, the lighting designer, arrives tonight. Marcus, collaborating director, arrives tomorrow. Cande, video design, arrives Sunday.
I’m experiencing that strange sideways brain drift that happens after repeating someone else’s words again and again over the course of many days. It’s much like that moment when the spelling of a handwritten word is suddenly suspect. “Is that how ‘handwriting’ is spelled? Really?”
I fear I may be coming down with a cold, so I’ve bought some ColdFX and have a pot of Ginger Tonic simmering on the stove. Tonight I’ll do some script work, eat President’s Choice frozen Chinese Food (I couldn’t resist…) and go to bed early. Oh. Except then I’ll get up to let Itai in. Then I’ll go to bed.
Ginger Tonic
Place ginger and lemon in a medium saucepan. Add enough cold water for the lemon to float. Add a spoonful of sugar or honey.
Heat the tonic over medium until it comes to a boil, and simmer gently for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, cut open the lemon, strain out solids, and add sugar or honey to taste. Supposedly you can mix in some brandy, but I don’t.
KATHRYN GREENAWAY, The Gazette - November 28, 2007
“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.” More…
The Denver Post: November 18, 2007
Rachel Corrie’s parents have seen more than 30 performances of the one-woman play based on their daughter’s correspondence, by five different actors. “And I’ve never once gotten through it intact,” her father said. More…
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