[Editor: A two-part interview with actor Alan Blumenfeld will run Wednesday and Thursday.]
The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum inaugurates its second performance space this week with a controversial one-woman play that has become a flashpoint for opposing viewpoints about Israel’s presence in the Gaza Strip. The theatre is at 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., midway between PCH and Ventura Boulevard.
Beginning Thursday night at 8, Susan Angelo directs Samara Frame in My Name is Rachel Corrie, composed from the journals, letters and emails of a 23-year-old American peace activist who died on March 16, 2003, protesting the demolition of a Palestinian home in Gaza.
After Thursday, three performances are scheduled, Thursday, Sept. 8, Thursday, Sept. 15 and Thursday, Sept. 22 in the S. Mark Taper Foundation Pavilion at Theatricum Botanicum. A moderated audience talk-back will follow each performance. A volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, Rachel Corrie left her home and school in Olympia, WA, to work in the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With permission from the Corrie family, British actor/director Alan Rickman and award-winning journalist and Guardian of London editor Katherine Viner accessed Rachel’s diaries and emails, editing a huge volume of written material into a 70-minute one-woman show.
Passionate, sometimes irreverent and always intelligent, My Name is Rachel Corrie explores an extraordinary young woman’s singular experience in a region most of us know only from the news. Yet, while Rachel's narrative certainly deals with political issues, there are other parts of her story. The play portrays a gifted writer and artist, a rebellious, frightened daughter, a young girl with a larger than life personality who described herself as “scattered, deviant and too loud.”
The situation surrounding Rachel’s death was immediately controversial and polarizing. Was she a political pawn? Or was she simply someone who truly believed in helping other people?
Looking Past Disputed Portion
In her introduction, Ms. Viner writes, “We wanted to uncover the young woman behind the political symbol, beyond her death…We hoped to find out what made Rachel Corrie different from the stereotype of today's consumerist, depoliticized youth.”
Theatricum Botanicum is no stranger to controversy. The beginnings of the theater are traced to the early 1950s when Will Geer, a victim of the McCarthy era Hollywood blacklist(before he became known as the beloved Grandpa on television’s The Waltons, opened a theatre for blacklisted actors and folk singers on his property in Topanga. These were artists who weren't afraid to state their opinions at a time when it paid to be silent. They banded together to do what they did best: create theater.
Says artistic director Ellen Geer: “We want to present this complex and important work because it is uniquely connected to Theatricum's mission: To help understand the world we live in and to embrace our shared humanity.
“This is one girl's story. In reflecting her personality, experiences and beliefs, it's an anti-hate story, an anti-violence story, and the story of her idealism. She’s fighting for a better world for all children.
Her Motivation
“In her words: ‘Egyptian kids, Palestinian kids, international kids and Israeli kids.’”
Alan Blumenfeld, Theatricum board member and actor, said that “Rachel's is a story that needs to be told. It's often surprising and beautiful. Ultimately, it is not about taking sides, one view from inside a conflict that, everyone agrees, must end.”
When the play premiered six years ago at the Royal Court in London, , it played to sold-out houses and rave reviews. Despite this success, the New York Theatre Workshop put the planned U.S. premiere on hold in the face of public protests, including threats of violence. In the end, the play opened as a commercial production at the Minetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village in the fall of 2006, and since has seen productions throughout the U.S. and Canada.
The S. Mark Taper Foundation Pavilion is Theatricum Botanicum’s intimate performance space under the oaks. Used until now for readings, rehearsals, classes, and youth performances, My Name is Rachel Corrie marks the first full production in the space presented under the auspices of an Actors’ Equity Letter of Agreement.
Ms. Angelo previously has directed Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Theatricum Botanicum’s mainstage, as well as countless Shakespeare plays for its High School and Youth Academy, which she oversees as Theatricum’s Education Director. Tickets are $12.
www.theatricum.com or 310.455.3723.
