On March 16, 2003, a 23-year-old American was killed in Gaza by an Israeli Army bulldozer as she was trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home. Rachel Corrie was her name, and this play is her story.
On March 2 and 3, Harbor Light Stage brings “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” to Kittery and Portsmouth as part of its winter Bold Face Play Reading Series. Featuring New York actress Rosebud Baker, readings will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, March 9, at the Kittery Art Association, 8 Coleman Ave., and on Tuesday, March 10, at the Portsmouth Pearl, 45 Pearl Street. Reservations are recommended, and seats must be claimed by 7:15 p.m.
“Theatre can’t change the world,” according to The Guardian’s review. “But what it can do, when it’s as good as this, is to send us out enriched by other people’s passionate concern.” The piece premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre in 2005, with an award-winning, sold-out run, and has since been staged around the world, including a performance last year in Haifa, Israel.
This extraordinary and controversial story of the growth of a human conscience is a one-woman show, created by actor Alan Rickman (“Harry Potter,” “Sweeney Todd”) and journalist Katharine Viner from Corrie’s personal diaries, letters, and emails. “My Name is Rachel Corrie” paints a portrait of a messy but articulate, Salvador Dali-loving chainsmoker with a passion for Pat Benatar who leaves her Olympia, Washington, home to work as an activist in the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Her life followed one simple belief: “Even a person of privilege doesn’t sit idly by and watch.”
The Bold Face Play Reading series will bring two more runs to the Seacoast this winter: the Pulitzer-prize winning comedy “Third” by Wendy Wasserstein, March 23-24; and “The Mystery Plays” by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, April 13-14.
May will then usher in Harbor Light Stage’s second Maine Stage series. Tickets go on sale March 1 for “Creek Man: The Unbelievable True Story of the Accordion-Playing Merman,” by, about and starring local legend Gary Sredzienski.
For more information, including reservations or directions, call (207) 439-5769, email harborlight@bitstream.net, or visit www.harborlightstage.org.