Madison-Rafah Journal

Friday, October 3 from 12 noon - 2 pm
Saturday, October 4 at 7:30 pm
Anderson Auditorium, Predolin Humanities Center
Edgewood College

We are pleased to announce that Edgewood College will host two performances of the play My Name is Rachel Corrie in October.

My Name is Rachel Corrie was created from the writings of Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist who was killed in Gaza in 2003. Brittany Jordt, who performed before standing-room only audiences in Madison last spring, will again play the role of Rachel.

These are expected to be the production's final Madison performances. Both performances will be free and open to the public.

Edgewood sponsors: Human Issues Program; College Ministries; Religious Studies Department; and Theater Department. Made possible by the Edgewood School of Integrative Studies with generous support from the Bob and Carroll Heideman Crossing Educational Boundaries Fund. Other sponsors: Middle East Studies Program, UW-Madison; and the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project.

For more info, contact rafahsistercity (at) yahoo.com, or call 608-233-7004.

Who was Rachel Corrie?
Rachel Corrie was born on April 10, 1979 in Olympia, Washington. As a child, Rachel Corrie was an avid diarist and a dreamer who wanted to create a just and peaceful world. As a young adult she put her idealism into action and moved to the Gaza Strip to work with Palestinians in nonviolent actions to end Israeli human rights abuses, especially home demolitions. Rachel documented her feelings and experiences in e-mail messages to her family. In her father’s words, she became "our eyes and ears" in Palestine. On March 16, 2003, Rachel was attempting to prevent the demolition of a Rafah pharmacist's home when she was crushed to death by two Israeli soldiers driving a Caterpiller D-9 armored bulldozer.

The Play
My Name is Rachel Corrie, by actor Alan Rickman and journalist Katharine Viner, was created almost entirely from Rachel’s diaries and e-mails. In April 2005 it opened to sold-out audiences in London. After its first American performance was "unscheduled" due to outside pressure, the play had a successful off-Broadway run and it has since been performed widely in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere. The Edgewood performance features UW-Madison theater student Brittany Jordt, who performed as Rachel in Madison earlier this year and again this summer in Door County.

For more background on the play and play reviews, click here.