[Peace-discuss] "My Name is Rachel Corrie" -- reactions?

[David Green]

It was a wonderful performance, followed by a relatively tepid and anti-climactic series of comments. Only Fred Jaher (not Gottheil, although they might as well be the same person) attended as a supporter of Israel. He calmly claimed that Palestinian body counts cannot be trusted and that they read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion anyway. He said that the total of 1400 Palestinian dead was testament to Israel's accurate bombing, otherwise the total would have been 14000. He also claimed that Israelis aren't angels, but it's just like any other country. They love to say crap like that while they're claiming that Hamas fired 8000 rockets and not mention the occupation, siege, violations of ceasefire, etc.

Both Bob Naiman and I stressed that Rachel should not be judged as ignorant or naive, which seemed to have evolved into the conventional wisdom. I stressed that the contextual facts are important to evaluating the play--anything can be twisted in theater or films--but also that Rachel had excellent political instincts in being able to distinguish perpetrators from victims.

I don't expect that any other supporters of Israel will attend on Thursday.




________________________________
From: Jenifer Cartwright <jencart13 at yahoo.com>
To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net; Stuart Levy <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu>
Sent: Sun, October 18, 2009 1:03:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] "My Name is Rachel Corrie" -- reactions?


Stuart and Other AWARE Friends,
Saw the play on the 15th, as did friends who heard about it from me. I stayed for the talk back, they didn't -- husband isn't all that well, so ('waaaay below) is what I wrote to the wife. She and I have discussed AWARE and some of the members we both know -- she'd gotten on Peace-discuss w/ my rec, but some of the postings made her drop off immediately thereafter... I'd sent her the Peace-discuss stuff about Rachel Corrie, incldg article by Bob Naiman, which is why I mentioned him in my note to her -- she'd also recognised his name from Huff Post, etc. (She also knows that Bob's one of the reasons I and others stay in AWARE and on Peace-discuss.)

I want also to add that both David Greene and Fred Gotheil were in attendance. Both spoke w/ great restraint and respect, and I appreciated the contributions from both. The moderators tried to keep things focussed on the theatrical aspects of the piece and off the political/social stuff, and they succeeded more than I personally would have liked, but it did keep things mellow... and discussing the play and Rachel both as portrayed and as a character in the play has value and merit as well. 

It's a wonderful play, a wonderful production, and an incredible performance by Lindsay Markel as Rachel. SEE IT, SEE IT, SEE IT!!!

Small college-age group (5?) outside before the play handed out flyers -- I took one, asked in a friendly voice if they'd seen the play and if it was good -- the fellow seemed surprised at the question and said, uh no, he hadn't seen it ... Another AWARE member waved them off and kept walking... The flyer was pix of Rachel Corrie and other Rachels (Israelis) of similar ages also killed in the conflicts. All very sad, sad, sad... and WHY it doesn't occur to EVERYONE that armed conflict isn't the answer is beyond me... Okay, I know the answer to that one -- after all, it's how the US got its country...
 --Jenifer  

On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 1:18 PM, Jenifer Cartwright <jencart7 at yahoo.com> wrote:

Glad you came last nite, Mary. Bob Naiman was in the audience and spoke twice. The discussion stayed mellow and on-topic. One loudmouth lefty got off a syllable of objection and got no further, thanks to moderators and the audience itself.
>See you Monday.
> --Jenifer 
>
>--- On Sun, 10/18/09, Stuart Levy <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>

>From: Stuart Levy <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu>
>Subject: [Peace-discuss] "My Name is Rachel Corrie" -- reactions?
>To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net
>Date: Sunday, October 18, 2009, 11:57 AM
>
>
>I haven't been able to see My Name is Rachel Corrie yet,
>but Karen and I hope to this Thursday, Oct 22nd, when they'll
>have another discussion time after the play.
>
>Hope a lot of you have seen it -- or will go if you haven't
>(there's a showing tonight, and others on Wed through Sat;
>it closes Sat 10/24; to reserve tickets, call 384-4000).
>
>I'd love to hear people's reactions -- about the play itself,
>or about how last Thursday's talkback went, or other meta-reactions.
>Am surprised to hear so little on this list about it, after the initial
>get-the-word-out flurry.
>
>For example, I've heard that Rick Orr is being personally harrassed by
>at least some people, arguing presumably that the Station Theatre shouldn't
>be showing this play.  
>
>   Stuart
>_______________________________________________
>Peace-discuss mailing list
>Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
> 



      
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