The Big Game wasn’t the only event that had certain Bay Area residents riled up during Thanksgiving break.
That same weekend, the Stanford Theatre Activist Mobilization Project (STAMP) performed the San Francisco Bay Area premiere of “My Name Is Rachel Corrie,” a staged reading based on the diaries and e-mails of Rachel Corrie, an American college student killed while working for social justice and peace in the Gaza Strip six years ago.
This controversial one-woman show starred Amanda Gelender ’10 as Rachel Corrie. As a young Jewish-American activist, Gelender had an incredibly personal connection with the life of her character.
“In 2007, I started writing op-eds about the Israeli occupation,” Gelender said. “I received negative and positive responses from around the world. One of the people that contacted me was Rachel Corrie’s father, who said that I spoke with the spirit of Rachel.”
Because of this exchange, Gelender was inspired to read the play, which, in turn, inspired her.
“I read the play and fell in love with it,” Gelender said, “because of its originality, soul, message and potential to bring people together.”
For two years, she sought the rights to the play, but each request was denied. Yet she refused to give up the fight.
“As a Jewish American, I feel a heightened culpability for the human rights abuses occurring by Israel,” Gelender said. “Chiefly because Israel is the only Jewish state and secondly because the Israeli military is so heavily funded by the United States. This is why I felt particularly compelled to bring ‘My Name Is Rachel Corrie’ to Stanford. There aren’t enough projects on campus that speak to the Palestinian experience in an occupied land and this play eloquently portrays an aspect of that struggle through an American lens.”
But not everyone on the Stanford campus shared Gelender’s passion for the play. There were protesters at each performance, picketing outside the theater and handing out leaflets. At first, Gelender was worried.
“I believe that the protesters had a right to picket and hand out leaflets,” Gelender said. “But I was extremely concerned that the protesters were going to vocally or physically interrupt the performances. Most of the protestors had also reserved tickets to the show and as the only performer, I was concerned for my safety.”
Fortunately, the protesters were as respectful of Gelender’s message as she was of theirs.
“There were no disruptions to the performance and many of the protesters stayed to participate in the post-show discussion,” Gelender said. “The Drama Department strongly supported the play even through difficult protesting, and all of our crew stayed on board as well, which really speaks to the tenacity of the people involved with the project. I think the protesting may have strengthened our sense of purpose and our team’s mission to stage an incredible performance.”
Some performers in Gelender’s situation might have regretted bringing such a controversial play to campus. But she says it was absolutely worth it to show “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” to the Stanford community.
“The performances raised awareness for much-needed justice and peace initiatives in the Middle East,” Gelender said. “Additionally, the play has been censored across the country, and our performances were successful demonstrations of artistic free speech.”
STAMP’s next major performance will be a play about body image on Stanford’s campus. The group is currently collecting anonymous monologues from students about their struggles with body image and will create a monologue and scene series from those submissions. They are patterning with the Peer Health Educator program to stage the show, and will be performing it in dorms and in a theatre space in late February during National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. If you haven’t yet seen a STAMP show, make sure to stay tuned for more information about this performance.