Re “The Killing of Rachel Corrie”
[Editor’s Note: The one-woman play “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” opens a 4-Thursday night September run this evening at 8 at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon, 1419 Topanga Canyon Rd., about halfway through the canyon, between PCH and Ventura Boulevard. www.theatricum.com]
Debating the 8-year-old killing of Palestinian peace activist Rachel Corrie, an American girl, never is out of date in the Jewish community, says actor Alan Blumenfeld, a member of the board of the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum where the Corrie play debuts tonight.
“I have very, very dear friends,” said Mr. Blumenfeld, “who are frum (observant), a wonderful man, a judge. His children are lovely. His son said to me, ‘I want to go kill every Arab I can find.’
“I thought ‘Wow.’ I know his dad to be a compassionate man. But this issue is so explosive.”
Life in Israel is drastically different than it is for a Jew in America.
“I don’t live in a country surrounded by people who want to kill me,” he said in his rapid-fire manner.
“Having said all of that, my favorite quote about the play is:
“It is important to draw lessons from Rachel Corrie’s life and what that meant rather than draw lessons from her death and what that implies.
“I think, as is often the case, everyone gets caught up in the events surrounding the politics, the sturm und drang around the situation. They do not focus on the play as much as they should.
“It’s inevitable on some level.”
Mr. Blumenfeld said the public should see the play for two reasons:
“The play itself is the story of a young woman, idealistic, more than naïve, without a fully formed sense of the world, but still with a sense of what’s possible, how you can change the world.
“In other words, this is the story of a young person who decides not to pursue anything for herself but pursues something to make the world better.”
Mr. Blumenfeld, who lives with immense passion at all times, spoke of Ms. Corrie with the tenderness of a father toward his beloved daughter.
He mentioned a YouTube of a youthful Ms. Corrie that is making the rounds. “It’s a clip of her in the sixth grade, talking about feeding the world, literally,” he said.
“I think this is the same woman whose emails and letters we are reading in the play. She still had that very young, some would call it pollyana, some would say naïve — it’s an attitude to be celebrated.
“I teach theatre at Pomona College. This is my fifth year, and I love it,” says Mr. Blumenfeld, almost converting l-o-v-e into a three- or four-syllable expression. “Part of what I love is that they are young. They’re sooo young, 19, 20, 21 years old. Even their cynicism has to be a ploy or a posture, because I hope they haven’t been beaten so badly by life.
“That, I think, is where Rachel was in her life.”
(To be continued)
