My Name is Rachel Corrie at Minetta Lane Theatre

James Hammerstein Productions present the American premiere of London's Royal Court Theatre production of My Name is Rachel Corrie, a new play taken from the writings of American activist Rachel Corrie, edited by Katharine Viner and Alan Rickman.

The play will open Off-Broadway at The Minetta Lane Theatre on 15 Oct 2006, following previews from 5 Oct and run through to 19 Nov 2006, for 48 performances only. Casting to be announced.

My Name is Rachel Corrie is compiled from writings left behind in the diaries, letters and e-mails of American activist Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old protester who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza, the play chronicles the human, social and political evolution in the life and controversial death of a young woman. The play traces the life of Rachel from her early days in Washington State through her experiences as an activist seeking to learn more about the community within Gaza .

The bare facts about Rachel Corrie: that she was a 23-year-old American who went to aid Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and in March 2003 was killed by an Israeli bulldozer, are well known. In the play we learn, through Rachel's own words, of the passion that led this young woman from comfortable middle-class America, to Palestine, and to her death, when she was crushed by an Israli bulldozer she hoped to stop from demolishing a Palestinian home by lying in its path.

Alan Rickman says, "We were never going to paint Rachel as a golden saint or sentimentalize her, but we also needed to face the fact that she'd been demonized. We wanted to present a balanced portrait. The activist part of her life is absolutely matched by the imaginative part of her life. I've no doubt at all that had she lived there would have been novels and plays pouring out of her."

Set and costume design is by Kate Aronsson-Brown, with lighting by Amy Harper and sound by Steve Fontaine.

My Name is Rachel Corrie was originally produced at London's Royal Court Theatre, where it opened in April 2005 and returned for an encore engagement in October 2005. In Spring 2006, it played for nine weeks at the Playhouse Theatre in London's West End.

The Daily Telegraph said of the play, "[It's] a powerful and thought-provoking piece of theatre. Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner offer a fully rounded picture of this passionate, idealistic young woman." The Guardian called it, "A deeply moving personal testimonial, a stunning account of one woman's passionate response to a particular situation."

The American premiere of My Name is Rachel Corrie, which was initially scheduled to take place earlier this year at the New York Theatre Workshop, caused a bitter controversy when the play was controversially pulled by the NYTW weeks before opening.

New York Theatre Workshop's artistic director James Nicola in replies to accusations of censorship posted a statement on NYTW's website about the cancellation, only for a more blistering reply from London's Royal Court accusing Nicola of 'many factual inaccuracies' in his account of why the show was cancelled.

Rachel's Corries father said of the controversy, "No one should have to take a poll to do this play; it is a work of art."

Relations are still strained between NYTW, the Royal Court and the shows creators - Rickman and Viner, but hopefully with My Name is Rachel Corrie finally receiving the stageing in New York that the authors of the play intended, this controversy will now come to an end.