Brave Milwaukee production helps Americans understand horror in Gaza

Photos by Jake Badovski

In Vanguard Productions new show, Maya Danks gives “a virtually seamless performance” as a young American activist who died in Gaza, says Milwaukee Journal Sentinel theatre critic Jim Higgins. 

My Name is Rachel Corrie wraps up with final performances this weekend at Calvary Presbyterian Church, 935 W. Wisconsin Ave. For tickets, visit vanguardmke.com.

When American activist Rachel Corrie, 23, went to Gaza in 2003, she was “a young woman brimming with idealism, anger at injustice and a determination to make a difference, however small,” reported The Guardian.         

What she saw shocked her, as emails to her family in Olympia, Washington, revealed. “No amount of reading, attendance at conferences, documentary viewing and word of mouth could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here. You just cannot imagine it unless you see it,” she wrote on Feb. 7, 2003. 

In an email to her mother a few weeks later, she stated: “I’m witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide and I’m really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature. This has to stop. I think it’s a good idea for all of us to drop everything and devote our lives to making it stop … Disbelief and horror is what I feel.”

She died March 16, 2003, run over by an Israeli armored bulldozer. She stood before it “to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home in Rafah refugee camp … Scores of homes had already been crushed; Corrie was one of eight American and British volunteers acting as human shields for local families,” The Guardian reported.

Today, in the midst of Israel’s almost year-long bombing of Gaza, a young Milwaukee theatre company, in its first full season, Vanguard Productions, stages what Milwaukee Journal Sentinel theatre critic Jim Higgins calls “the most provocative play on Milwaukee’s fall theater schedule,” My Name is Rachel Corrie.

The one-actor play, starring Maya Danks, takes its audience through Corrie’s life. It is filled with humor and hope from Corrie’s journals and emails. The play helps those with no ties to the Palestinians understand why a young American woman at the start of her adult life risked everything for them.

Saturday night’s talkback will feature two Jewish Voice for Peace speakers addressing misconceptions about a divide between the Jewish and Muslim communities. 

After Sunday’s performance, Bryan Atinsky of the Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America, who had family members killed by the Israeli Defense Forces, will speak about his personal experience.

Why produce such a controversial play?

At a talkback after Monday night’s performance, Vanguard Productions co-founder and artistic director Josh Pohja explained why they chose My Name is Rachel Corrie for the 2024-25 season. One reason is because “we want to challenge ourselves,” he said. “I like to do things outside the box as a director, things I don’t know enough about myself, so I can do the research and learn more about myself and my community.”

Vanguard’s mission includes doing culturally relevant work, he continued. Its mission statement calls theatre “a force for public good.”

“We needed to do a play about Gaza, about the Middle East,” Pohja continued. He read “a bunch of plays and stories but it ended up coming down to how could I access the story,” he said. In My Name is Rachel Corrie, the audience tags along with an American girl from Olympia, Washington, following her as she grows up and learns about the world, through her death brought by standing up for a cause she believed in. 

Pohja thought of Milwaukee actor Maya Danks to play Rachel. 

“I had heard about this play over the years,” Danks told the audience. “A couple of red flags popped up in the back of my head about how it dealt with this topic from the non-Jewish, non-Palestinian perspective. Is it a white savior play or about an angel martyr? Things like that damage the actual message of a play like this. 

“I read the script and it was not that. I loved Rachel’s writing. I felt drawn to her. Her writing helps me to understand her.

“I talked with JP (Pohja) and George (Lorimer, Vanguard Productions co-founder and executive producer) about how to approach this. George was passionate about all the community partnerships and activist partnerships we could bring to post-show panels so that people could take inspiration and knowledge they see in art and apply it to our real world.

Pohja thought of another collaborator. “I just want to say, there is no way I could have directed this on my own,” he said. “I was missing a limb.

“We were talking with Mohammad (ElBsat) about being the dramaturg (an advisor on the production), but he expressed interest in doing more … Mohammad became assistant director and brought a tremendous amount of staging, sound design and other skills.” 

Mohammad also has a valuable perspective, Pohja added.

ElBsat explained, “I’m from Lebanon so I’ve been subjected to the kind of terrorism, though not to the same degree, as is happening in Gaza today.” In 1996 and 2006, Lebanon experienced bombing by Israel’s IDF. 

“I’m really grateful to George and JP for putting on this play about a topic everyone else is quiet about. Our freedom of speech really stops, our democracy stops, when we criticize Israel,” he said. “To have them put on this play and say, ‘Whatever happens, happens,’ takes courage.”

Corrie’s parents attend opening weekend

Cindy and Craig Corrie, Rachel’s parents and founders of The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice, attended the Vanguard’s production last weekend. In an interview Thursday with the Wisconsin Muslim Journal, Cindy noted Milwaukee’s show comes at a difficult time, on the heels of the killing Sept. 6 of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish American activist who was shot by an Israeli soldier in the West Bank. “We have been very connected to what was happening,” said Cindy. The Corrie’s issued a statement condemning “the heinous act that killed her.” 

“It was one of the reasons we decided to make the journey to Milwaukee,” she said. 

The Corries have seen “at least 100 productions” of this play about their daughter’s life, Craig said. “It’s always emotional for us and this production was no exception. We needed this, hearing Rachel’s words wash over us.” 

“We’ve seen it in different languages and cultures through the years and each production is unique,” said Cindy. “It shows us just how creative theatre is.” She commented on Vanguard’s use of “kite-like” streamers across the ceiling that fall to the ground as Rachel dies and the creative use of journals in rows across the stage throughout the play.

She also noted Dank’s “extraordinary delivery of an amazing number of words. It felt like every word mattered to her and each one resonates in this difficult time with the ongoing trauma in Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon.”

Maya Danks is a Milwaukee-based actor, director and playwright.

“I was able to focus on her words in a way I haven’t in a while,” Cindy added. “I struggle with sadness of how relevant they are today, although 21 years have passed since Rachel was killed in Gaza.”

The play is based almost entirely on Rachel’s words from her journals, letters and emails, from fifth grade on. “We know Rachel’s words were important, almost sacred, to her. Her words have transformed our family’s understanding of the situation in Gaza and it’s only gotten worse,” Craig said.

“Although the play is known to be about Gaza, reviewers would call it a ‘coming of age story.’ I think it is really a history of her inner dialogue, of her finding her values and learning how to live up to those values.” He noted that, if Rachel had lived, she would not have shown them her journals. 

“I was grateful to (journalist) Katherine Viner and (British actor) Alan Rickman who made her writing into a play that is funny by bringing us Rachel’s humor,” he added.

Said Cindy: “I’m so appreciative of this new theatre company in Milwaukee. They did an extraordinary job with limited resources. We’re hopeful the community will support them.”

Vanguard Productions tackles big issues

Vanguard Productions started two years ago after co-founder Lorimer finished an apprenticeship with Milwaukee Repertory Theater. “I wanted to produce a show that was a dream show of mine,” he told Wisconsin Muslim Journal in an interview Monday. Lorimer had saved up “a decent amount of money,” so he pitched it to Pohja. The show, All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, tells the true story of an overnight ceasefire between Germans and Allies in World War I. 

“I expected maybe I’d break even or lose a little money on it but I would get to do my passion project,” he said. “And then we sold out the run.

“We ended up having a bit of seed money and so we thought, ‘What else can we do here?’ We decided to continue producing shows at Vanguard, focusing on plays new to Milwaukee that are socially relevant.” 

Producing My Name is Rachel Corrie fits that mission, Lorimer added. “We were producing an anti-war play last year and started rehearsals in November, a month after Oct. 7 and the ongoing genocide that followed. As months dragged on and the destruction of Gaza continued, funded by our tax dollars as American citizens, we knew we really wanted to speak to this issue. 

“We found ourselves in a unique position because we are such a small theatre company. Our budget is a fraction of the other professional theatres in town, who have been silent about Palestine for the last 11 months, so we were able to put up a show like this without fear of alienating donors and other potential risks. 

“We as artists are often called to speak truth to power and to bring voice to the voiceless. It felt incredibly frustrating that there was no outlet for this play. We ended up being able to create it throughout our own show.”

Cindy and Craig Corrie (right), Rachel Corrie’s parents, participated in a talkback on opening weekend.

On a personal note 

​ In his director’s note, Pohja considers how the play forces its audiences to wrestle with hard questions: “How far are we willing to go for justice? What does it mean to witness suffering? And how can we remain human in the face of dehumanization? 

“This play isn’t easy. It forces us to confront the human cost of conflict. Today, in 2024, the violence Rachel stood against is still a reality, as seen in the recent death of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi. The horrors in Gaza and the West Bank are not over.

“The United Nations has documented thousands of violations by the Israeli army, and Israel remains on the UN’s ‘List of Shame’ for abuses against children in war. These are facts. Critiquing the policies of a government is not an attack on its people or my faith. Too often, the misuse of antisemitism silences necessary criticism of power and injustice … As long as these stories remain untold, the struggle for justice continues.”