Panel Discussion this Friday

This has been making the rounds since last week, but here is the open invitation (with minor edits), from the Barnard College Theatre Department. An interesting panel, with Gregory Mosher, playwrights Christoper Shinn and Kelly Stuart, the Observer's John Heilpern, and beloved eminence grise of theatre historians, Marvin Carlson.

Reservations not required. If you want to come, just show up.

"Rachel Corrie' and the Theatre of Public Opinion"
Friday, April 7 at noon
Minor Latham Playhouse, Barnard campus
(119th St. & Broadway)

While trying to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip, the American college student Rachel Corrie observed:

“You just can't imagine it unless you see it, and even then you arealways well aware that your experience is not at all the reality: what with the difficulties the Israeli Army would face if they shot an unarmed U.S. citizen, and with the fact that I have money to buy water when the army destroys wells, and, of course, the factthat I have the option of leaving.”

This paragraph appeared in the last email Corrie sent before she was killed by an Israeli Army bulldozer on March 16, 2003. A little over two years later, though, her voice was heard again, this time in thetheatre. Drawn to Corrie's story, the actor Alan Rickman and journalist Katharine Viner adapted Corrie's lively, impassioned letters and emails for the stage. Their play, “My Name Is RachelCorrie," has had two sold-out runs in the past year in London, produced by the Royal Court Theatre.

But the play's journey to New York has been anything but smooth. "My Name Is Rachel Corrie" was slated to open on March 22 at the highly respected New York Theatre Workshop, home of "Rent." Then NYTW Artistic Director Jim Nicola decided to postpone the opening indefinitely. Defending his decision, Nicola cited conversations with "Jewish friends" and "colleagues of colleagues" as well as a “very defensive and very edgy" mood among New York theatre audiences, due in part to Ariel Sharon's illnessand Hamas's victory in the recent Palestinian national elections. Nicola sought extra time to arrange for post-show discussions that would "contextualize the work so Rachel Corrie's powerful voicecould best be heard above the din of others shouting for their ownpurposes."

Almost immediately, NYTW's decision sparked an international controversy. Caryl Churchill, Tony Kushner, and Vanessa Redgrave were among many in the global theatre community who reacted by harshing criticizing Nicola and crying censorship in publicationsaround the world.

So far, the controversy has generated less light than heat. Yet the questions the "Rachel Corrie" postponement raises--about funding forthe arts, the role of marketing and donor relations to programming,the question of political theater, and Middle East issues on the American stage--are crucial. The backlash against NYTW also merits closer scrutiny: are the causes of this rancor more complex thanthey appear at first glance?

Perhaps this is a good moment, then, for the New York academic and theatre communities to come together to examine the dynamics at work in not-for-profit theatre that sparked the "Rachel Corrie"controversy and its aftermath.

In an effort to explore the wider issues, we are organizing a panel discussion at Barnard College, Columbia University entitled: 'RachelCorrie' and the State of the Art.” The panel will take place onFriday, April 7 at noon in the Minor Latham Playhouse, 119 andBroadway on the Barnard campus.

Participants include:
--EDWARD EINHORN, Artistic Director, Untitled Theater Company #61, New York
--JOHN HEILPERN, theatre critic for the "New York Observer," Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Columbia School of the Arts
--GREGORY MOSHER, theatre director and Director, Columbia UniversityArts Initiative

--CHRISTOPHER SHINN, playwright
--ALISA SOLOMON, journalist, theatre critic, and Professor at the Columbia School of Journalism
--KELLY STUART, playwright, and Columbia University Professor in Playwrighting

Hey, what's this about "the controversy has generated less light than heat"? Should Playgoer take offense? Well I'll be there anyway. And I hope such "enlightenment" will be supplied by some good new reporting from the panelists. No one wants a rehash less than I do.