Long-awaited U.S. premiere of ‘My Name is Rachel Corrie’ set for Minetta Lane Theatre

“My Name is Rachel Corrie,” the award-winning play based on the writings of Rachel Corrie, is at long last coming to the United States. Initially set to open at the historic Making Theatre in New York on March 22 of this year, the play was “postponed indefinitely” on short notice by the New York Theatre Workshop amid political pressure over the one-woman piece’s humanistic content about the military occupation of Palestinian Territories. Shortly after the derailment at the Making Theatre, however, the the one-act performance found a home in New York at Off-Broadway’s Minetta Lane Theatre. The play opens October 5.
You can read more about “My Name is Rachel Corrie” and the controversy around it in the section on this site dedicated to the play.

About the Foundation

Rachel Corrie was killed in the Gaza Strip in Palestine on March 16, 2003, trying to prevent the demolition of the home of a Palestinian pharmacist, his wife, and three young children. The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice was recently established by members of Rachel’s family and community to continue the kind of work that she began and hoped to accomplish. For more information on Rachel Corrie, see this section.

The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice continues the work that Rachel Corrie began and hoped to accomplish, and carries out that work with her vision, spirit, and creative energy in mind. We conduct and support programs that foster connections between people, that build understanding, respect, and appreciation for differences, and that promote cooperation within and between local and global communities. For more information on the foundation, see this section.

Rachel’s Words

“My Name is Rachel Corrie” was scheduled to open at the New York Theatre Workshop on March 22nd. Amid political pressure, the play was “postponed indefinitely,” and The “Rachel’s Words” initiative was born. It was made up of a broad spectrum of groups and individuals who believed that Rachel’s words and her message of human rights and justice should be heard. “Rachel’s Words” was an event in March of 2006 to keep Rachel’s message form being censored. It has since become a movement. Read all about it here.

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about Rachel Corrie on this site

By Robert Simonson
05 Oct 2006

Megan Dodds will reprise her role in the American premiere of the acclaimed — and controversial — historical solo play My Name Is Rachel Corrie, which begins preview Oct. 5 at Off-Broadway’s Minetta Lane Theatre.

Dodds played Rachel Corrie in the April 2005 Royal Court Theatre production, and reprised the role both at The Royal Court and at The Playhouse Theatre in London’s West End in spring 2006.

The limited engagement will play 48 performances through Nov. 19. Opening is Oct. 15. (more…)

Megan Dodds, the actress currently protraying Rachel Corrie at the Minetta Lane Theatre (18 Minetta Lane, New York) has just been profiled on Broadway.com…

Megan Dodds
by Kathy Henderson

Currently: Playing the title role in the American premiere of My Name Is Rachel Corrie as a 23-year-old American protester who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza in 2003.
Age: 36. “I don’t mind revealing it—hopefully it doesn’t have anything to do with what’s communicated when I’m out there [onstage playing Rachel]. Who cares?”

Hometown: Sacramento, California

Guare Am I? Feeling “in limbo” after high school, Dodds enrolled in a nearby community college where she was cast as Bananas in John Guare’s The House of Blue Leaves. “The part was completely wrong—she’s Italian and 40 and I was about 20, but doing that play was it for me.” Next stop: Juilliard, where, as luck would have it, Dodds performed in a new Guare play and became friends with the playwright. “It all came full circle,” she says now. (more…)

Middle-school principal yanks play
By Yudy Pineiro
Miami Herald

It was supposed to be opening night for the eighth-grade drama magnet students of Southwood Middle.

But instead of performing the politically charged play My Name is Rachel Corrie on Friday night, the students were told to recite their choice of monologues.

School officials called off the play, saying the subject — about a young American activist who died in 2003 under the wheels of an Israeli bulldozer as she fought for Palestinian rights — was too mature for middle school-age children.

— Read the rest at the Miami Herald 

THEATER
by Jason Zinoman
New York Times

It’s fitting that “THE CLEAN HOUSE” and “MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE” start performances on Thursday, since each play, in very different ways, raises the same question: What took so long?

“My Name Is Rachel Corrie” is a solo drama based on e-mail messages and journal entries written by Ms. Corrie, an American demonstrator for Palestinian rights who was killed in Gaza by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003. The play has been at the center of one of the most furious controversies in the theater in years, even though few people in New York have seen it. The brouhaha began earlier this year after the New York Theater Workshop announced that it was delaying the play. Critics cried censorship, while representatives from the theater said it needed more time to “contextualize” the play. When “Rachel Corrie” begins performances at the Minetta Lane, we can finally see what the fuss is about. Previews begin Thursday; runs Oct. 15 to Nov. 19, 18 Minetta Lane, Greenwich Village, (212) 420-8000; $45 to $65.

— NY Times

Long-awaited U.S. premiere of ‘My Name is Rachel Corrie’ set for Minetta Lane Theatre

“My Name is Rachel Corrie,” the award-winning play based on the writings of Rachel Corrie, is at long last coming to the United States. Initially set to open at the historic Making Theatre in New York on March 22 of this year, the play was “postponed indefinitely” on short notice by the New York Theatre Workshop amid political pressure over the one-woman piece’s humanistic content about the military occupation of Palestinian Territories. Shortly after the derailment at the Making Theatre, however, the the one-act performance found a home in New York at Off-Broadway’s Minetta Lane Theatre. The play opens October 5.

You can read more about “My Name is Rachel Corrie” and the controversy around it in the section on this site dedicated to the play.

New York Times - June 22, 2006
by Campbell Robertson

After an Off Broadway production was derailed, resulting in a theatrical uproar, “My Name Is Rachel Corrie,” the solo show about an American demonstrator for Palestinian rights who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip, has found another New York theater.

Pam Pariseau and Dena Hammerstein, partners in James Hammerstein Productions, are bringing the play, critically acclaimed in London, to the Minetta Lane Theater in Greenwich Village. Previews are to begin on Oct. 5, with an opening scheduled for Oct. 15. The play is to run for 48 performances, closing on Nov. 19.

Read the entire article here.