At his blog, Vs. the Pomegranate, Joseph Shahadi has posted his interview with Ashley Marinaccio, Robert A.K. Gonyo and Casey Cleverly, the Co-Artistic and Literary Directors of Co-Op Theatre East who are putting on a production of My Name is Rachel Corrie in New York.
Snippet:
ASHLEY: I have been thinking about the loss of innocence… we have a young Rachel (age 12) and the older Rachel and we decided to split her in two to reveal a loss of innocence after experiencing life in a war zone.
I think a stage full of Rachels would be a great approach too. We had spoken (in the beginning) about having more than 1 older Rachel.
JOE: When the original production came to New York it was controversial. When I attended the theatre there were people standing outside, passing out fliers refuting the veracity of her testimony. I declined to take one so I am not sure what their individual points were, although I have read that the Israeli Army claims that the house that she was protecting with her body was above tunnels employed by terrorists.
ROBBY: We’re confident that there is no way Rachel would have knowingly protected a “network of terrorists” so to speak. It’s going to be disputed either way. What’s important to take from this is that this girl believes in a cause so strongly she makes the ultimate sacrifice.