My Name Is Rachel Corrie

British play

My Name Is Rachel Corrie is a play based on the diaries and emails of activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli soldier when she was aged 23. It was jointly edited by journalist Katharine Viner and actor Alan Rickman, who also directed it. Rachel Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003) was an American Evergreen State College student and member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who traveled to the Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada. She was killed in the Gaza Strip by a Caterpillar D9R armored bulldozer operated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while protecting the family home of local pharmacist Samir Nasrallah from demolition by the IDF.

Alan Rickman first staged My Name is Rachel Corrie in April 2005 at the Royal Court Theatre, London, and the play went on to win the Theatregoers' Choice Awards for Best Director and Best New Play, as well as Best Solo Performance for actress Megan Dodds. The play was scheduled to be transferred to the New York Theatre Workshop in March 2006. However, the New York theatre decided that, because of its political content, the play was to be "postponed indefinitely", after the artistic director polled numerous Jewish groups to get their reaction to the play. Rickman and Viner denounced the decision and withdrew the show. Rickman said: "I can only guess at the pressures of funding an independent theatre company in New York, but calling this production "postponed" does not disguise the fact that it has been cancelled. This is censorship born out of fear, and the New York Theatre Workshop, the Royal Court, New York audiences – all of us are the losers." The play ran as a commercial production at the Minetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village in the fall of 2006.