The Corrie Calls Begin

I fielded my first Rachel Corrie call today.

Rachel Corrie was a student at Olympia’s Evergreen State College that was killed by an Israeli bulldozer while protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes in Gaza. Her journal entries and emails home have been adapted into a play called My Name is Rachel Corrie, which the Seattle Rep is producing in the spring.

Other productions of this play have already sparked protests from the Jewish community, and the same is expected here, especially in light of the recent shooting at the Jewish Federation’s offices in downtown Seattle.

The call that turned out to be what is likely the first of many Rachel Corrie calls started out innocently enough. The man on the phone asked where we were located. Potentially odd, as we have no shows currently running, but it didn’t raise any red flags. I told him we were located on the northwest corner of the Seattle Center.

“Is that part of the Pacific Science Center, then?”

“No, we’re are on the opposite end of the campus from the Pacific Science Center.”

“But, you are still a part of… what do you call it?”

“The Seattle Center, yes.”

“So, you are a public organization, run by the city.”

“No, we lease the building from the Center.”

“So, you’re an independent organization operating on public land?”

“Well, leasing from…”

“But, you are an independent corporation?”

“I’m not sure I am the right person to give you a detailed and definitive answer.”

At this point, the red flags began to appear. The questioning was just too pointed.

“Can you tell me how you can justify using public land to promote this Rachel Corrie play, which is going to generate a lot of hatred for the Jews?”

“Uhhh… I think there is probably someone better equipped to answer that than the weekend receptionist.”

What is going to kill me about fielding these calls is the fact I can’t really engage these knuckleheads. This man, for example, I wanted to educate on how appallingly little artistic input is actually solicited from the monkeycage staff. I wanted to wonder aloud whether he had actually read the play. I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself. But, I couldn’t. There are some unfair limitations placed on us monkeycagers.

“Who should I call, then? The mayor’s office?”

“I’m not sure that the mayor’s office would have much to offer, sir.”

“Aren’t you using city property to produce this Rachel Corrie thing?”

Apparently, what he is hoping for is that the mayor’s office or Seattle Center will pull the longstanding lease from Seattle’s largest producing theater because of our spring play selection. Nobody that calls and harasses an innocent monkeycager is looking for reasoned debate. And his desire to suppress a play that is based on first person accounts of a historic event made me hate him just a little more.

“Sure, maybe you should call the mayor’s office.”

And, here’s the thing. I’m entirely conflicted on the Israel-Palestine issue. There is plenty of blame to go around.

And, further, I see little reason to consider Rachel Corrie a folk hero. She was a privileged white girl that spent her entire life in Olympia, WA and got herself killed by getting involved with someone else’s fight. I have a love/hate relationship with idealism.

But, I absolutely think the play should be produced.

Then I wondered why. I’m suspicious of issue plays for the same reason I am suspicious of protest poetry – so much of it sucks on an artistic level (though, when done well, I believe they are powerful agents of social change). And, much as I suspicionated about my Corrie caller, I haven’t actually read the play. Maybe I had no right to get internally uppity because in fact Rachel has a two-page monologue starting on page twelve that ends with “Death to Satan’s bastards! Death to the murderous Jews!”

So, now I’ve guilted myself into reading this stupid play, and if it sucks as much throughout as it does in the first few pages I plan to start protesting along with the angry Jews.

Anybody got the mayor’s number handy?