But recently I was interviewed by the smArts and Culture blog about the process, and it occurred to me that her article does a pretty good job of articulating what worked, what didn’t, and what we might do again.

Here’s an excerpt:

Portland Center Stage held an experiment with twitter last month.

They invited “30 or so of [their] closest twitter friends” plus anyone else who cared to join them, to live-tweet the world premiere performance of the play Apollo. You can read the resulting twitter stream on their blog, or use #apollo on Twitter Search.

According to Trisha Pancio, PR and publications manager for PCS, the goals were two-fold: one goal was to embrace the use of social media, rather than fight it – people were already tweeting and texting in the theater. “…we wanted to see what it was like to release that restriction, and let them have a real conversation with each other (and the world) during the performance.”

Publicity was the second goal. It was almost by definition an experiment in publicity – twitter is about sharing your thoughts with the world at large. “We wanted the experience, not to replicate the experience of seeing the show, but tease the experience… leave people wanting more,” said Trisha in an email to me.

For half the stretch of the production, #apollo was in the top five for twitter traffic on a specific topic, and the story was picked up by national arts blogs, as well as local media.

” … we ended up being astonished at the sheer volume of twitter correspondence each participant produced,” said Trisha. “We expected the occasional ‘wow,’ or ‘how’d they do that?’ or ‘I’m bored,’ but what we got was a near minute-by-minute, multi-perspective breakdown of the show, complete with people googling and explaining references that were unclear to fellow tweeters, and connecting the work on stage to current events in all kinds of interesting ways.”

Read the rest of the article.

Da Vinci: The Genius is now open at OMSI.

Bring your Apollo or How to Disappear ticket stub to OMSI’s Ticket Desk and receive $3 off admission to the event.

Da Vinci: The Genius brings to life da Vinci’s amazing contributions to the worlds of art and science. See on display oversized reproductions of his most famous art and full-scale displays of his machine inventions including a glider, parachute, helicopter, tank, and more. Discover 25 startling revelations about the Mona Lisa in the Secrets of Mona Lisa gallery. Visit www.omsi.edu for more info.

On Wednesday February 4 only, Ten01 and Portland Center Stage are partnering up to give you a special evening out.

Using the code word “moon,” tickets for that evening’s performance of Apollo are only $10, online or by phone. And treat yourself to a cocktail first at Ten01, use the code word “moon” again, and they’ll throw in their delicious award-winning truffle fries for FREE!

Don’t miss out; code word “moon,” Wednesday, at Ten01 and PCS. Order your tickets to the 2/4  play anytime; enjoy your cocktail and FREE truffle fries at Ten01 before the show that night! Named Best Restaurant of 2008 by Portland Food and Drink.

Loooooots of email responses to Apollo coming in.  And they are all over the map.  One woman wrote:

‘Still absorbing it all.  I did talk about it to my manicurist today and my husband and I discussed it at length.  I likely will recommend it to people who have the stamina to sit through a long play.  I’m trying to get my mind around the interweaving of the goods and evils of this project.  I had no idea and I feel more informed than I did before.  We marvelled at the 3000 boxes on the stage and wondered where you store them before and after.”

Matt wrote:

‘I saw Apollo last evening with my partner, Michael.  We probably talked and debated for two full hours after it was over.  And that is the sign of a successful theater experience.”

{photo by Owen Carey. The Apollo ensemble reach for the stars.}

From Leonard:  “What a day, the inauguration of President Obama, to see this ‘tour de force.’  As one who lived through the civil rights movement (I am 66), it was an amazing presentation of the coincidences of place.  As a Jew, I was also pleased to see the Nazi connection of the rocket leadership of NASA.  These are historic events that need to be told, particularly when our education system is so weak in their  teaching of history.  It is a shame that so few people attend live theater, yet it needs to be out there.

The acting was superb.  In the end, because of what has transpired this past year, I know that we really have come a long way as a nation.  Apollo magnifies just how far we have come and it makes the time line so clear.”

And from Leslie:

“Wow!  This play is fabulous and timely and provocative and the message came through all the senses.  Great work.  I hope you are really proud of this world premiere.”

{photo: African American NASA scientist David McCadden watches Kennedy give his landmark speech about race relations just before he becomes the first African-American to be admitted to the University of Alabama at Huntsville.}

More Posts about Apollo || Get the Details about the Show || Buy Tickets

To start with Act one click here.

To go to Act two click here.

Got thoughts? Share them in the comments below or over on Alison Hallett’s live blog attempt here.

THE END.

carmenhill: #apollo just met @technopeasant after the show at deschutes brewery.

msalt: #Apollo (not os) Why yes I do, honey.

msalt: #Apollo os: Do you think Twitter lends itself to snark?

carmenhill: #apollo wow. long but worth it. “take this soul dust and begin again.” timely with MLK Day & Obama!

LDSFollow: ReTwitter: @ AGoodHusband: It’s over. Fair to middlin’ for me #apollo: AGoodHusband: It’s over. Fair.. http://tinyurl.com/8xmxxa (expand)

msalt: #apollo os: I’m truly glad I saw the show and had the opp to tweet along with, definitely a diff experience, all around. congrats!

0rb: wow, third act was even harder to twitter than the 2nd. #apollo

tpancio: Retweet@pfs08 A very long – very deeply felt play – very intelligent play #apollo

msalt: #Apollo os: i liked the conv w/ rev & NASA, but the “commitment” to reach the moon, forgive me, wasn’t as powerful as the rights movement

patjanowski: #Apollo and so, tweeting, I pretty much missed the impact of the last moment of the show. Hmmmm….

msalt: The moon rocket blasted off, and the Blacks are dancing! I got over! And so did the play. #Apollo

pcsghost: #apollo i’m exhausted

clairewillett: #apollo You know what’s hard? applauding without dropping your laptop.

AGoodHusband: It’s over. Fair to middlin’ for me #apollo

clairewillett: #apollo So, that happened.

pcsghost: #apollo the end

msalt: #Apollo os: this is the first time all night I checked the time, and only because it’s clearly the end….

patjanowski: #Apollo the random repetitive movements make me think of improv exercises

pcsghost: #apollo was this the dance in the beginning?

clairewillett: #apollo the questions about, what is the value of a space program when there are way more pressing domestic needs for that money, are valid.

msalt: OMG This speech between the NASA head and Rev. Ralph Abernethy is so stilted, what does it add? #Apollo

msalt: “rocket headdress is compensation for poor sack skills” I’ll look out for that #Apollo

AGoodHusband: I keep thinking of how much better this would be if it were simpler. PCS has $$, but this is…I don’t know…too much #apollo

pcsghost: #apollo we are not astronauts but we are people

msalt: #Apollo 3 astronauts die, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy shot. Like German workers who died in the mountain factory?

pcsghost: #apollo sad projection montage

clairewillett: #apollo “Assassins”? “Something Just Broke”? Anyone? Anyone?

clairewillett: #apollo yeah. the impact of the space program on the ordinary citizen – the sense of possibility and progress echoing the rest of society.

pcsghost: #apollo they’re doing my favorite effect on the floor again

tpancio: @msalt maybe outer space is a lousy kisser. Maybe rocket headdress is compensation for poor sack skills…#apollo

msalt: #Apollo OK, I stand corrected. There was one white woman in the freedom riderrs group.

clairewillett: #apollo “if we can’t sit at the table, let’s knock the f***ing legs off!” says the civil rights lawyer. that’s a really good line.

cynseattle: #apollo von Braun always doing govt bidding: Nazis say use slave labor, US says desegregate NASA. Obey, and build your rockets.

msalt: #Apollo I’m missing the hope that the space program created in the US. THAT’s the obvious parallel to the civil rights movement.

clairewillett: #apollo we’re really far from the hitler stuff, aren’t we? it feels like a different play. many years ago.

msalt: #Apollo os: how come no one ever tries to kiss the rocket lady? the dances are so cold. yeah, I know, it’s outer space, & a big headdress

tpancio: @cynseattle eerie to see the visuals in head like a dream feels closer to the truth of Nancy’s intent, eh? #apollo

msalt: Rocket lady dances with black scientist. #Apollo Go Fever!

AGoodHusband: “try defying gravity” Did someone see Kristin Chyenowith onstage somewhere? #apollo

pcsghost: #apollo shiny rocket lady

cynseattle: @tpancio #apollo exactly! you said it so much more entertainingly…I just thought I was “seeing visuals”

msalt: #Apollo os: again, the US cd do what Germany cd not, thanks to moral success of civil rights movement? And Wallace is punished?

tpancio: reading #apollo after seeing the show is kinda like watching pop up video. The video runs in my head only with your pop up thought bubbles

0rb: oh more thrust talk #apollo

pcsghost: #apollo we’re back to thrust talk

pcsghost: #apollo so von braun was not racist toward african americans, but used nazi death camp labor?

cynseattle: @pcsghost #apollo reading this after seeing show last night…so cool, I’m getting the stunning visuals in my head again.

0rb: nice 2 steps forward, 1 back dance. little obvious but cool looking-sounding #apollo

pcsghost: #apollo ooh the pen is back and we’re talking about space again

patjanowski: #apollo beautiful ashes to cement moment marred by heavy-handed two steps forward one step back

msalt: #Apollo bunch of actors stepping — 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Ha, that’s very … logical.

pcsghost: #apollo three steps forward one step back!

clairewillett: #apollo two steps forward, one step back.

clairewillett: #apollo “take the ashes of your nation and create the cement to build again.” EESH. that’s a little clunky, no?

msalt: #Apollo os: ashes like moon dust…

msalt: #Apollo Baby shoes are back, pouring ashes out

msalt: It’s a bad dream now, slow-mo sirens and bag popping and whips. Riots? The lady “hanging” was cool mime. #Apollo

pcsghost: #apollo popping the bags is creepy

AGoodHusband: Peter Brooke: In order for a piece of theatre to teach, it must first be entertaining. #apollo

clairewillett: #apollo okay, this is just mayhem.

patjanowski: #Apollo walk out of that hot field son, and tell us what the weather’s like on the moon

clairewillett: #apollo “you can’t win without the south!” would i feel differently about this play if i wasn’t like 3 days from obama’s inauguration?

pcsghost: #apollo it’s my profile pic

msalt: #Apollo os: finally, someone who loves the moon…

dalylab: #Apollo Blacks oppose gay marriage on religious grounds and have stated that gays haven’t ‘made their case’

AGoodHusband: I fail to see why I am watching a re-enactment of a well documented piece of US history. #apollo

clairewillett: #apollo “did you imagine in a million years that the federal government would be escorting you to your first day of school?”

dalylab: #Apollo RFK also won blacks the right to marry whites. White people people opposed it on religious grounds.

pcsghost: #apollo she’s on skates!!!!

tpancio: @pfs08 … #apollo my dear tweeter…or we lose the thread…

theaimeeg: If I wore a hoopskirt, I’d wear roller skates underneath and just glide around all the time. #apollo

msalt: Lady Fontaine is doing that supposed to be creepy gliding-without-walking thing from horror movies #Apollo

carmenhill: #apollo Did you know you can turn cotton into rocket fuel?

msalt: #Apollo oops I mean laughs

0rb: good bobby kennedy voice #apollo

AGoodHusband: Moral issue to segregate, to de-segregate. who was right? Moral issue to torture, to not torture – who will be right? #apollo #tcot

msalt: #Apollo The laugs are very welcome but far too far apart

msalt: #Apollo Narrator in lab coat with red bow tie — “Mr. George Wallace” “This is the Attorney General Robert kennedy”

pcsghost: #apollo eew george wallace

clairewillett: #apollo “we’ve picked enough cotton. now is the time.”

msalt: #Apollo It’s bad to be obvious and confusing at the same time. “They’re so afraid of losing what little they have that….

msalt: #Apollo So it’s the Jews in Alabama who were mean to the Blacks? The owners of Woolworth? I’m lost, despite the sermonizing

carmenhill: #apollo battery about to splash down… in 3, 2, 1…

pcsghost: #apollo pie makes you fiesty

clairewillett: @pcsghost #apollo well, OBVIOUSLY pie.

carmenhill: #apollo Freedom Pie 1963 Dred Scott, von Braun, rocket testing, prison, soul twisting.

msalt: #Apollo os: the son of the pie lady, reading the same German book that Dred Scott had read from earlier…

msalt: #Apollo The 2 pie ladies are confusing. Are they friends? Talking to each other? Just parallel?

clairewillett: #apollo so, people from different backgrounds can come together as long as they have a common enemy?

AGoodHusband: I’m really wanting some apple pie right now. Like, really. #apollo

pcsghost: #apollo mmm pie. can we go out for dessert after teh show?

msalt: #Apollo os: oh duh, right, they’re in the same town…

msalt: #Apollo os: the march for civil rights, like the march for lunar landing…except more passionate, here

carmenhill: #apollo racism is incompatible with the great ideals our country is dedicated to. Is that Frank Sinatra again?

patjanowski: #Apollo does my feeling that the lunch counter movement piece goes on too long make me like the guy who said “enough already” aboutNazi info

msalt: #Apollo I love the phrase “kith and kin”

carmenhill: #apollo The set, lighting, etc. are phenomenal…really help tell the story.

carmenhill: #apollo Do you have some questions for your country? Do the ends justify any means?

pcsghost: #apollo junior high bullies used to hit kids like that in the cafeteria

msalt: #Apollo os: ok, new territory traversed? like, walking on the moon? was lunar landing a US karmic reward for seeking social justice?

clairewillett: #apollo so much REPEATING in this show. same things done/ said over and over. I get it as a metaphor but it’s partly why this is so LONG.

pcsghost: #apollo tears welling

pcsghost: #apollo chills

dalylab: #Apollo Personally difficult to watch this segment knowing blacks are against full civil rights of gays as demonstrated by calif measure 8.

msalt: The waitress and bus lady at Woolworths are from the Benny Hill show #Apollo

msalt: #Apollo os: not really finding the connection beyond the simultaneity of events, civil rights movement & space race

msalt: Apparently there weren’t any white freedom riders #Apollo

clairewillett: #apollo thank god i was born here. i would NOT pass this citizenship test.

msalt: How much breath is there in 100 years? #Apollo

msalt: Nonviolent turning of other cheek = lunar orbit rendezvous? That’s a bit of a stretch. #Apollo

msalt: #Apollo os: nice, the anti-violence training, are you able to withstand the blows? = the weightlessness gesture of reaching the moon

clairewillett: #apollo “are you able to accept the blows without retaliating?”

AGoodHusband: going to space = protesting slavery = competing with Russia? #apollo

pcsghost: #apollo america will be unable to escape it;s cancer at home

msalt: Daring astronauts = daring freedom riders #Apollo

pcsghost: #apollo astronaut training alongside non-violent civil disobrdience training

0rb: funky noose dance .. coulda (shoulda?) been cheesy…but wasn’t. #apollo

clairewillett: @AGoodHusband #apollo yeah. we’re trying to do too many things.

AGoodHusband: Kudos to PCS for creating a daring world premier, but it needed to be an hour less material. #apollo

msalt: #Apollo os: gotta hand it to this cast, this show has a lot of choreography they’re doing quite well

0rb: now the paper bags are well-lit #apollo

clairewillett: #apollo “WE (pow!) THE PEOPLE! (pow!) OF THE UNITED STATES! (pow!)” Cool.

pcsghost: #apollo boxing for citizenship

msalt: #Apollo Wait – NOW black and white are united by Sputnik — I though fighting Soviets wasn’t justification before

clairewillett: #apollo Cory was right. i feel like angels in america does this style in a much cleaner way . . . tony kushner sort of invented this.

msalt: the self-tied rope dance freeze positions were cool and creepy #Apollo wait – their Sputnik reaction’s from Waiting for Guffman

pcsghost: #apollo woah. hogtided people

carmenhill: #apollo Bondage with a smile on your face. Alabama!

msalt: #Apollo os: yup creepy rope dance but i did like the ‘feats of strength’ iron-bending bit ~ wherever they go scientists can’t get a break

pcsghost: #apollo would you like to swing on a star?

patjanowski: #Apollo saw the nooses coming a mile away
half a minute ago · Reply · View Tweet

pcsghost: #apollo the actress in the brown dress has awesome pageant smile

clairewillett: #apollo i kinda see the tie-in, if hunstville alabama really was both the home of dred scott and the place where the nazi scientists lived.

pcsghost: #apollo rope ballet

pcsghost: #apollo is he miss huntsville?

alisonhallett: #apollo Liveblog FAIL. But I would love to hear how this went for others—drop by Blogtown. no character limit. Click here to share your thoughts.

pcsghost: #apollo i’ve never actually heard these laws before, just photos and ideas of drinking fountains and busses

clairewillett: #apollo i will say this – this show is impeccably choreographed.

msalt: #Apollo os: 1 more good thing about this tweeting, lines are being written down that I’ve missed for typing,hey, it’s the sound of typing!

AGoodHusband: It’s like we’re being subjected to that oral report from an over enthusiastic high schooler #apollo

clairewillett: #apollo i like how the projections loudly announce what the theme of the next segment will be. RACIAL SEGREGATION LAWS. Got it.

pcsghost: #apollo girls jump rope in the fifties and the sixties, too

msalt: #Apollo os: two guys at the table paralleling the two scientists at the table earlier…

clairewillett: #apollo “you’re a fork in my road. maybe i’m a fork in your road too.”

msalt: #Apollo Am”erica ain’t a schizophrenic land fuh nuhtin” That was subtle…

carmenhill: #apollo Tying together Blacks’ experience in America with Jews’ experience in Germany.

AGoodHusband: Could playwright not have cut down? Could he not have made some of these points in a more succinct way? Didn’t the director try? #apollo

clairewillett: #apollo i’m catholic so ideologically i’m not on board with the Sacrament-of-Communion-equals-empty-bag, but i see where they’re going.

patjanowski: #Apollo ropes on walls scaring me too–

msalt: With integration, bags are rscrunched, not clinically neat, organized and tidy. Unlike this play, unfortuantely. #Apollo

luvbot: @pcsghost <3! #apollo i love these costumes. the suits are cut nicely and the color palette seems warmer

msalt: #Apollo os: communion, hot air, blowing smoke, whole lot of nothing being served up

clairewillett: #apollo sometimes these movement pieces go on a LEETLE too long. am i right or am i right?

patjanowski: #Apollo Breath ballet–white man got no rhythm

AGoodHusband: #apollo “nothing but hot air”? How many cliches is this play gonna employ?

pcsghost: #apollo spiritual. typing skills going downhill

tknopeasnt: #Apollo Communion?

pcsghost: #apollo brown bag ballet to pritual. nice

carmenhill: #apollo How much breath is there in 100 years?

msalt: #Apollo I like that guitar a lot but it’s more Creedence than blues. Singing – Emmy lou Harris? early Fleetwood Mac?

pcsghost: #apollo who is this guy?

clairewillett: #apollo yes, nice man in suit. news flash. christians can be racist.

patjanowski: #Apollo NASA engineer, descendant of slaves, born 1936, same year as my dad, also rocket scientist, worked on Saturn 5 rockets

msalt: #Apollo os: i’m growing fonder of the reaching bit, but the ropes on the wall are making me nervous

clairewillett: #apollo oooh, cool shadow stuff.

pcsghost: #apollo yy the pens of power

msalt: #Apollo os: look at all those pens!

pcsghost: #apollo the legacy of slavery. no comemmorative stamp for this legacy

0rb: also? jules verne! #apollo

msalt: #Apollo “bits and pieces stay on the stage” Hey! I do that at my house!

pcsghost: #apollo and we’re solving a new impossible problem

carmenhill: #apollo Solving the impossible problem…or, “It’s time to try defying gravity…”

0rb: holy crap dred scott-gun cotton-civil war-emancipation proclamation-lincoln assassination whoa! #apollo

patjanowski: #Apollo I’m kind of liking how bits and pieces from previous scenes stay on the stage (paper airplanes , cotton bolls)

clairewillett: #apollo oh good. you guys saw it too.

clairewillett: #apollo did i just hallucinate a Klansman?

carmenhill: #apollo The work does not end with the abolition of slavery but only begins. It all connects; you’ll have to take my word for it for now.

msalt: #Apollo the irony of the French man celebrating abolition, ah, Jules Verne! ok, nevermind…

clairewillett: #apollo i’m getting a throughline of citizenship, what makes someone an american, what defines a nation. yay! i understand a theme!

pcsghost: #apollo you’re free now get into the armed forces and fight for the counry NOW

pfs08: Abe Lincoln walks a tightrope – the United States of Cotton is divided #Apollo

patjanowski: #Apollo yeah, see, Lincoln walking a tightrope? Too pat.

tknopeasnt: #Apollo This play is like what you’d dream after watching the history channel all night.

msalt: #Apollo Dred Scott decision was the gun cotton explosive that ignited the Civil War? ummmmmmm

pcsghost: #apollo lincoln walk the tightrope

clairewillett: #apollo kinda like the visual of lincoln on the tightrope.

pcsghost: #apollo fore projected on cotton

msalt: #Apollo Dialectical gun cotton speech too long, not quite sensical, has probably unintended effect of making Dred Scott look ignorant

clairewillett: #apollo i want that dress.

pcsghost: #apollo this is in the trailer

pcsghost: #apollo united states of cotton

clairewillett: #apollo “the united states of my lord.” interesting . . . .”the united states of cotton” . . .

tknopeasnt: #Apollo Dred Scott is a refreshing change of pace. I was growing weary of the LONG Nazi interrogation scene.

carmenhill: #apollo Yeah, that was “gun cotton.” Easily detonated.

pcsghost: #apollo too plain to be misunderstood

msalt: #Apollo os: Up, up, up to the… supreme court…

pcsghost: #apollo science of gun cotton vs, inferiority of negros

clairewillett: #apollo dred scott telling his own story while making gun cotton is my fave part so far. i’m totally on board with act three.

msalt: V in V2 was for vengenance. Eli as son of State dept.guy who fought visa, gets revenge decades later. he’s V2 #Apollo

carmenhill: #apollo Dred Scott. Cumulus cotton. Effed up interpretation of what it means to be a citizen.

0rb: ok the sets are terrific! #apollo

anotherpdxblog: #Apollo Second act much better than the first. Didn’t enjoy the gimmicky Hitler/Sinatra stuff though.

pcsghost: #apollo gun cotton? is that real?

msalt: Wall of cotton– I knew the Alabama Black servant thing was going to tie together. Slaves — forced labor in the mountain. Geddit? #Apollo

patjanowski: #Apollo oooh, a cotton scrim! That’s why we were getting random cotton snow earlier…

carmenhill: #apollo Act 3…Pledge of Allegiance drill team, backed by cottage cheese ceiling…I mean moon surface.

theaimeeg: again with the stunning visuals! POW! #apollo

clairewillett: #apollo DUDE. another rad backdrop. is that a wall of styrofoam? marry me, genius set designer.

pcsghost: #apollo the cotton is bumpy like the surface of teh moon!!!!!!!!!

msalt: #Apollo os: it’s everybody! pledging! half the cast is back on the stage!

AGoodHusband: wikipedia entry on v2 rocket http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V2_rocket #apollo

ladyfriend: #apollo Odd that the balconey of live-bloggers, twitterers, & myriad new media should allow 1 nay-sayer who hushes fellow critics. serio …

clairewillett: #apollo the twitterers have sort of formed our own posse.

dalylab: #Apollo would these tweets make me want to see Apollo?

theaimeeg: I have to say I am truly enjoying the wine. #apollo

msalt: #Apollo os: have to say, i’m truly enjoying our tweet company…

clairewillett: #apollo aaaaaannndddd, we’re back!

msalt: #Apollo os: good structure, mostly narrative dialogue in act 2, oh, time for wine!

ladyfriend: #apollo Anne Frank’s diary invoked. Seemed tired. I want something new & unexpected. The scenes are heavy & staged well…

ladyfriend: #apollo Love the symbolism of stacked files, repentant agents & generals. It being a new play, I don’t feel I’m learning anything.

Beginning of Act Three (start here and work up)