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Play About Demonstrator's Death Is Delayed [Rachel Corrie]
New York Times ^ | February 28, 2006 | JESSE McKINLEY

Posted on 02/28/2006 10:20:26 AM PST by West Coast Conservative

A potential Off Broadway production of "My Name Is Rachel Corrie," an acclaimed solo show about an American demonstrator killed by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to stop the destruction of a Palestinian home, has been postponed because of concerns about the show's political content.

The production, a hit at the Royal Court Theater in London last year, had been tentatively scheduled to start performances at the New York Theater Workshop in the East Village on March 22. But yesterday, James C. Nicola, the artistic director of the workshop, said he had decided to postpone the show after polling local Jewish religious and community leaders as to their feelings about the work.

"The uniform answer we got was that the fantasy that we could present the work of this writer simply as a work of art without appearing to take a position was just that, a fantasy," he said.

In particular, the recent electoral upset by Hamas, the militant Palestinian group, and the sickness of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, had made "this community very defensive and very edgy," Mr. Nicola said, "and that seemed reasonable to me."

The play, which received strong reviews in London, follows the story of Rachel Corrie, an idealistic American demonstrator and Palestinian-rights activist who was crushed to death in March 2003 in the Gaza Strip.

The play was written by the actor Alan Rickman, who directed the piece, and Katherine Viner, a journalist at The Guardian newspaper in London, who pieced together snippets of Ms. Corrie's journals and e-mail messages to create the script. And while the show had not been formally announced, Ms. Viner said yesterday that she and Mr. Rickman had already bought plane tickets to see the production at the workshop.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Israel; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons; US: New York; War on Terror
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To: West Coast Conservative
The production's working title was "Rachel Corrie: Dozer Lube," but "Killdozer" was suggested for the box office opening.

A sequel has been proposed, to be titled "Dozer II: Change the Oil."

61 posted on 02/28/2006 11:24:17 AM PST by IronJack
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To: Slings and Arrows

Ok, who has the Bart Simpson at the chaulkboard picture?


62 posted on 02/28/2006 11:28:13 AM PST by gate2wire
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To: West Coast Conservative

I dozed off halfway through the play. I'm sure Rickman is crushed by the delay. I expect he believes it will be a smashing success.


63 posted on 02/28/2006 11:28:48 AM PST by RogueIsland (.)
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To: gate2wire

64 posted on 02/28/2006 11:32:34 AM PST by Slings and Arrows ("Facts are a Zionist plot!" --MarkL)
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To: West Coast Conservative

"Instead, we'll be running a revival of the hit musical "Cartoons for Muhamed."


65 posted on 02/28/2006 11:32:40 AM PST by talleyman (Kerry & the Surrender-Donkey Treasoncrats - trashing the troops for 40 years.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

Thank you. You da man.


66 posted on 02/28/2006 11:33:29 AM PST by gate2wire
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To: Slings and Arrows

Would you mind if I copied that?


67 posted on 02/28/2006 11:37:22 AM PST by gate2wire
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To: West Coast Conservative
This play could easily be salvaged, and rendered accurate, and all without changing a word of the dialogue. (This would be an idea for some campus conservative or Jewish group, btw. Advertise the play all over campus and then perform as follows):

Keep the main actor spouting the same (doubtless) far-left, kumbaya nonsense as written. Just add some actors portraying Palestinians coming out of a trap door behind her, all carrying explosives, AK-47s, rocket launchers, etc. Near the climax of some impassioned paean to "peace," have the actor playing Corrie hear a sound behind her, turn around and nonchalantly replace a dropped suicide bomb belt on an overburdened Pali's load, and turn back to the audience continuing her plea for "peace" without missing a beat.

68 posted on 02/28/2006 11:38:32 AM PST by Stultis (I don't worry about the war turning into "Vietnam" in Iraq; I worry about it doing so in Congress.)
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To: Nachum

Alan Rickman's a typical, middle-class British socialist married to a Labour politician, I believe. The British middle classes truly dislike Americans and Jews.

I know Mr. Rickman was questioned as to why he didn't write a play called "My Name is Rachel Levy," an Israeli victim of a suicide bomber. Unfortunately, the article I read did not print his reply. Perhaps he didn't have one.


69 posted on 02/28/2006 11:50:04 AM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: jazusamo

Was living in Olympia some years back.Mid 80s.Was dating a student who attended Evergreen college at the time.I had a daughter about 11yrs old,and a son about 6 yrs old.She very much wanted us to attend an open house,so I figured it would be something different,so we went.WHOA!Girls kissing girls,guys doing the same.All the while my children were asking me questions I couldnt answer.Daddy why are they doing that stuff?I lasted 10 minutes and then we headed for the door.I learned all I needed to know about that college.So did my children!It took weeks to get those images out of my head!


70 posted on 02/28/2006 1:07:48 PM PST by xarmydog
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To: xarmydog
You should be glad you don't live there now. I live in So. Washington but read The Olympian daily on computer. Couple months back there was a letter to editor from an alum saying a degree from Evergreen State was a waste of time. It was comical because students started replying saying how wonderful the school is.

Last year, the city council passed a resolution declaring Olympia a nuclear free zone. The city benefits financially from the Navy and the Army because of base facilities but they don't care, what moonbats on the council.
71 posted on 02/28/2006 1:22:25 PM PST by jazusamo (:Gregory was riled while Hume smiled:)
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To: West Coast Conservative

Looks like the Rachel Corrie story has been BULLDOZED for a while.


72 posted on 02/28/2006 1:24:54 PM PST by commish (Freedom Tastes Sweetest to Those Who Have Fought to Preserve It)
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To: jazusamo
Liberal Arts will surely get you a long way now days![sarc]I know when I was stationed there,the business's got a LOT of my money.The military should leave there,and you would hear the politicians howl.It would bankrupt their city.We referred to them as 'Greeners'.The police treated the Military as second class citizens,and a source of revenue with liberal handing out of tickets.Every time you received a ticket for an infraction,a copy would be on the commanders desk almost as fast as you could get back to the barracks.Their way of getting their money.No sense contesting because Commander wanted it to go away pronto.Spiked rent for Military etc.And,one of their favorites,he crossed the line.Got to know the back streets fairly well!
73 posted on 02/28/2006 1:42:11 PM PST by xarmydog
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To: Alouette; West Coast Conservative

We're all going to hell for the comments on this thread ;-D

Rachel Corrie ended her life for nothing. Zero, zip, nada. This play is designed to stir the pot.


74 posted on 02/28/2006 1:44:01 PM PST by TheSpottedOwl (Support the fence....grow a Victory Garden!)
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To: xarmydog
I guess I must be a little dense today, should have figured you were Army up there by your FR name. I'm sure you are much more familiar with them up there than I am.

My wife and myself were both in, I was just USAR, wife was a nurse for 6 yrs. Our son was in 3rd Inf Div for 4 yrs. Was in Gulf War and got out shortly after but is still in Air NG and full time fed emp at Portland airport, 142nd fighter wing. When he was in the Army NG, they used to go to Ft. Lewis for annual training, he didn't have much good to say about the surrounding are.
75 posted on 02/28/2006 2:01:07 PM PST by jazusamo (:Gregory was riled while Hume smiled:)
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To: jazusamo; xarmydog; Fair Go

"Last year, the city council passed a resolution declaring Olympia a nuclear free zone. The city benefits financially from the Navy and the Army because of base facilities but they don't care, what moonbats on the council."

LOL That sounds more like New Zealand and Melbourne or Tasmania in Australia than the United States. In Australia these policies are called "politics of the warm inner glow" and not surprisingly it is the hardleft from the left wing of the Australian Labor Party or the Green Party which support it. And if I'm correct outside parts of Melbourne and the whole Tasmania, almost no one supports them.

Regretfully, such policies have bipartisan support here in New Zealand. This is why New Zealand often makes even the New York Slimes read like moderate conservative publications.


76 posted on 02/28/2006 2:15:51 PM PST by NZerFromHK (Leftism is like honey mixed with arsenic: initially it tastes good, but that will end up killing you)
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To: NZerFromHK
"politics of the warm inner glow"

LOL...I've heard it referred to as a lot of different things but never that. Most of my references can't be written on FR. Sadly, the lefties have a majority here in Washington but we try to keep them honest, many times unsuccessfully.

Sounds like you're kind of in the same position in New Zealand. It's hard to believe any place could make the Slimes look like a moderate conservative paper but I'll take your word for it since you're there.

I'm new to FR but am getting addicted, only had a computer about 3 years. Still illiterate with it. My kids finally convinced me to get it and I have to admit it's opened a new world. Feel free to Freep me if you ever care to.
77 posted on 02/28/2006 2:35:51 PM PST by jazusamo (:Gregory was riled while Hume smiled:)
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To: West Coast Conservative; miss marmelstein; Sabramerican
"Rachel Thaler, aged 16, was blown up at a pizzeria in an Israeli shopping mall. She died after an 11-day struggle for life following a suicide bomb attack on a crowd of teenagers on 16 February 2002.

Even though Thaler was a British citizen, born in London, where her grandparents still live, her death has never been mentioned in a British newspaper.

Rachel Corrie, on the other hand, an American radical who died in 2003 while acting as a human shield during an Israeli anti-terror operation in Gaza, has been widely featured in the British press. According to the Guardian website, she has been written about or referred to on 57 separate occasions in the Guardian alone, including three articles the Saturday before last.

The cult of Rachel Corrie doesn't stop there. Last week the play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, reopened at the larger downstairs auditorium at the Royal Court Theatre (a venue which the New York Times recently described as 'the most important theatre in Europe'). It previously played to sold-out audiences at the upstairs theatre when it opened in April. (It is very rare to revive a play so quickly.)

On 1 November the 'Cantata concert for Rachel Corrie' - co-sponsored by the Arts Council - has its world premiere at the Hackney Empire.

But Rachel Thaler, unlike Rachel Corrie, was Jewish. And unlike Corrie, Jewish victims of Middle East violence have not become a cause célèbre in Britain. This lack of response is all the more disturbing at a time when an increasing number of British Jews feel that there has been a sharp rise in anti-Semitism.

Thaler is by no means the only Jewish Rachel whose violent death has been entirely ignored by the British media. Other victims of the Intifada include Rachel Levy (aged 17, blown up in a grocery store), Rachel Levi (19, shot while waiting for the bus), Rachel Gavish (killed with her husband, son and father while at home celebrating a Passover meal), Rachel Charhi (blown up while sitting in a Tel Aviv cafe, leaving three young children), Rachel Shabo (murdered with her three sons aged 5, 13 and 16 while at home) and Rachel Kol, 53, who worked at a Jerusalem hospital and was killed with her husband in a Palestinian terrorist attack in July a few days after the London bombs.

Corrie's death was undoubtedly tragic but, unlike the death of these other Rachels, it was almost certainly an accident. She was killed when she was hit by an Israeli army bulldozer she was trying to stop from demolishing a structure suspected of concealing tunnels used for smuggling weapons."

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=19961

78 posted on 02/28/2006 2:43:09 PM PST by dervish ("And what are we becoming? The civilization of melted butter?")
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To: West Coast Conservative

The reviews said this performance was kind of flat .....


79 posted on 02/28/2006 2:44:18 PM PST by festus (The constitution may be flawed but its a whole lot better than what we have now.)
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To: gate2wire

Please, with my compliments.


80 posted on 02/28/2006 2:46:34 PM PST by Slings and Arrows ("Facts are a Zionist plot!" --MarkL)
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