Nov 8 & 9: My Name is Rachel Corrie returns to the Pacific Northwest! Performances in Olympia and Portland!

The one-woman play chronicles the life of American human rights defender Rachel Corrie who in 2003 traveled to the Middle East as part of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in non-violent support of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.  On March 16, 2003, Rachel was killed by an Israeli military, Caterpillar D9R bulldozer in the Gaza Strip as she tried to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian family’s home.
Crafted from Rachel Corrie’s writings by actor and director Alan Rickman and Guardian journalist Katharine Viner, My Name is Rachel Corrie premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in April 2005.  It has been translated into multiple languages and performed for hundreds of audiences on every continent except Antarctica, including in Arabic in Haifa and Nazareth and in Hebrew in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.  Cindy Corrie states, “The play is a gift through which Rachel’s message and words continue to reach people and to inspire.”

Performance in Olympia, WA: 

Date: Saturday, Nov. 8th Time: 7:00 PM

Location: Lecture Hall 1, The Evergreen State College, 2700 Evergreen Parkway NW, Olympia, WA.

Admission: Free. Open to all.

Hosted by: The Mideast Solidarity Project – Students for Justice in Palestine

Event Description: The visit to Rachel Corrie’s alma mater is part of actor Ashley Malloy’s three-month play tour to communities and colleges across the United States. The Evergreen performance will be followed by a “talkback” with the actress and, also, with Craig and Cindy Corrie, parents of Rachel Corrie.

 

——————————————————

Performance in Portland, OR:

Date: Sunday, Nov. 9th Time: 6:00 PM light refreshments. Performance 7:00 PM.

Location: Eliot Chapel, 1011 SW 12th Ave., First Unitarian Church, Portland, OR. Click here for directions and parking info.

Admission: Suggested donation$10. Funds raised in excess of expenses will be donated to the Freedom Theater in Jenin.

Cosponsored by: First Unitarian Church Peace Action Group, Jewish Voice for Peace – Portland, Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, Friends of Sabeel Portland Action Group, Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights, Lutherans for Justice in the Holy Land, KBOO Community Radio 90.7 FM, Tree of Life Educational Fund and others.

Event Description: Ashley Malloy takes her  production of My Name is Rachel Corrie to First Unitarian Church in Portland.  The play is preceded by a reception with light refreshments. There will be discussion following the performance with Cindy and Craig Corrie, the actress, the producer, and Portland based professor and international human rights attorney Gwynne Skinner, who on behalf of the Ronald A. Peterson Law Clinic at Seattle University School of Law, was a lead attorney for the Corrie’s U.S. lawsuit against Caterpillar Inc. in 2005-2009.

About the Actor: Ashley Malloy is a recent BFA graduate of Central Connecticut State University (CCSU).  She connected to Palestinian rights issues through her professor and director, Josh Perlstein’s work with The Freedom Theatre, a professional company in the Jenin Refugee Camp in the West Bank.  Self-described as “someone who believes in the power of creative resistance,” Malloy first produced and performed My Name is Rachel Corrie in 2013.  She continues to direct her performance effort in  support of The Freedom Theatre, where young people’s frustrations with long-term occupation are channeled into creative expression.

Statement From Actor Ashley Malloy:

In April 2013, I was sitting with two close friends from The Freedom Theatre, located in the Jenin Refugee Camp in the West Bank. They were calmly detailing the horrors of everyday life under occupation: senseless violence, child prisoners, hunger strikes, family members murdered and the hours lost waiting at checkpoints. Although ashamed of my ignorance and my over-zealousness in wanting to absorb all the information I could, I asked question after question.

“If they’ve identified overpopulation as a problem in the camp, why does it persist?”

“Families will have 7 children because 3 of them will die.”

I had never felt more betrayed by my government and the international media than in that moment. I knew that I had to do something to educate others like myself who had remained in the dark for too long about the truth of this apartheid. I knew that the best way to deliver the Palestinian narrative to an American audience was through performing My Name is Rachel Corrie. Within a couple months, I started the rehearsal process and have since performed the play at Central Connecticut State University, at the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation annual meeting in Washington D.C., in New Hampshire, Michigan, and Hartford, Connecticut. But the most meaningful performance was on March 16, 2014, (the 11^th anniversary of Rachel’s stand in Gaza) in her hometown of Olympia, Washington, where I was invited to perform by the Rachel Corrie Foundation. The warmth and graciousness of the diverse community made it obvious that Rachel Corrie would come from a place like this, where people are tenacious in their commitment to seeking justice for Palestinians, and always looking to learn how they can best serve the community at large through progressive action and education, but never without patience, persistence, and compassion.

To perform this play, and for an Olympia audience, was a tremendous honor for a young actor and activist who remains inspired by Rachel every single day – by her incredible insights not just about life, but about death, about the mysterious beyond that she dared to ponder even from such a young age. Her colonies of half filled coffee cups that littered her bedroom, and her wit and tendency to lose things, and her self doubt, and immense wonder and deep humanity redefine for an actor and an audience what it means to truly be awake and living. Rachel Corrie is still changing the world, nearly from every corner of it, with her words that demand we look at suffering, and hold ourselves accountable as people who have the power to either heal it or perpetuate it.

This fall I embark on a national tour of My Name is Rachel Corrie to colleges and organizations that support our struggle for peace and justice. I aim to cover the cost of present and future students’ education at The Freedom Theatre to promote an artistic, cultural intifada as a non-violent but direct response to the occupation. Since first performing the play, over $3,000 has been raised to support the education of Palestinians enrolled in creative programs at The Freedom Theatre, which aims to equip young people with the artistic tools necessary for changing their narrative to claim authorship over their lives.  To learn more about the tour or to book a performance in your state, contact Ashley Malloy at [email protected]