This is the compiling of act three of our Twitter friendly performance of Apollo. We’ve got about 20 folks in the balcony live tweeting the event on Twitter.com. I’m collecting their responses and posting them here. To view them in chron order, start at the bottom and work your way up.
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)















