We’ve got loads of fascinating video from the workshop productions of Apollo. Sneek a peek in this video trailer created by the incomparable Patrick Weisenhampel.

{photo: David McCadden (Ray Ford) welcomes the space program to Huntsville Alabama (and later becomes a NASA scientist and the first African American to integrate the University of Alabama at Huntsville) in Apollo, premiering January 16th here at PCS.}

I had a chance to watch the first run through of Apollo on Wednesday afternoon, and I have to admit that I was kind of blown away.   I saw the first two parts of the piece in Los Angeles a few years ago and looooooved it.  But I think in that incarnation I was ‘wowed’ but not particularly affected emotionally.

{photo:Nancy Keystone in the rehearsal studio.}

In this new incarnation (which premieres the entire three part cycle), Nancy Keystone (pictured above) - the writer and director - has streamlined the story, and drawn out deeper, more potent connections between the intersections between the three parts in a truly astounding way.

{The cast of Apollo rehearse the “impossible problem of cotton” sequence.}

Images of reaching into the air repeat throughout the piece, at first seeming to reference the American aspiration for space flight, but later evoking images of the aspiration for freedom through the Civil Rights movement.

{photo: “the impossible problem of cotton” segment during the workshop production of Part 3 [Liberation] at San Diego Rep. Photo by Sibyl Wickersheimer.}

The visuals of the piece are breathtaking, and how the actors manage to keep the logistical demands in their brains and bodies is beyond me.

{photo: Apollo ensemble member Andy Hirsch on a rehearsal break.}

The performances themselves really affected me.  Andy plays Eli Rosenbaum in part two, who as a very young attorney with the Justice Department, began a lifelong search for Nazi war criminals hiding in the United States.  A line he repeats, “What do people do?  And what do we do with people?” stayed in my head for days afterward.

{photo: Apollo ensemble member Lorne Green.}

In part three, Lorne plays Dred Scott, whose name I knew but whose story I was not aware of.   Nancy has done a beautiful job of weaving through connections from the history of America’s relationship with slavery, to our aspirations to reach beyond the earth.  Lorne provides a beautiful, grounded presence in an act that is pretty overwhelming.  The accumulation of emotional resonances really built for me into a wholly original, very powerful event.  Cannot wait for you to see this one!

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This morning we’re going to have our first run-through of the entire show in the PCS rehearsal hall. We’ve been rehearsing Apollo here at the Armory since December 16th, and we’re all just as happy and excited to be here as the PCS family is to have us! I’ve met lots of cool people here who have continuously said how they can’t wait to see our three acts of space race loveliness.

I’ve been a member of the Apollo ensemble since 2006, when Nancy Keystone began work-shopping part 3 of Apollo in Los Angeles. Several of my other cast-mates have been with the project for even longer when workshops for part 1 and 2 began six or so years ago. Because Apollo isn’t your average play. There are many sections of movement or text that were developed collaboratively with the group, that needed all that time to blossom and grow. We use a lot of props and we read and discuss a gi-normous amount of research that not only is relevant to our individual character work, but to the world of the play. (In fact, I believe there is a short handy-dandy study guide that may accompany your playbill when you come see an Apollo performance!)

12 days til ‘lift off’…did you get your ticket yet?

-Angie B.

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