‘My Name Is Rachel Corrie’ Headlines W.Va. Theater Festival
By Jane Horwitz
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Three of the four plays at next month’s Contemporary American Theater Festival have volatile political edges. Even the fourth — a comedy about a middle-class family’s meltdown — argues that the “pursuit of happiness” is less a right than a destructive obsession. The 17th repertory festival ( www.catf.org) runs July 6-29 in Shepherdstown, W.Va.
Topping the list is “My Name Is Rachel Corrie,” about the young American activist who was killed in 2003 in a pro-Palestinian protest in Gaza. One CATF board member and donor resigned and some regular subscribers canceled after Artistic Director Ed Herendeen chose the play, objecting to its critical portrayal of Israel. CATF Associate Producing Director Peggy McKowen wrote in an e-mail to Backstage that subscriptions are “holding steady” compared with the previous two years. “Rachel Corrie” also provoked controversy last fall when the New York Theatre Workshop announced and then canceled plans to stage the solo piece, compiled by British actor Alan Rickman and journalist Katharine Viner from Corrie’s journal entries and e-mails.
Anne Marie Nest, who starred in “Mr. Marmalade” at Shepherdstown last summer, will star. Nest says her link to Corrie is less political than emotional. “Just understanding where she’s coming from . . . wanting to fight for the underdog and wanting the world to be a more peaceful place and wishing that we were all better to one another than we are . . . all of those parts I immediately connected to,” Nest says. She sees “a young woman who was passionate, but also scared and questioning and insecure and knew she didn’t know everything. . . . Rachel’s politics aren’t as black-and-white as some people have painted them to be.”
