As the Globe deepens its commitment to making theatre matter to more people, their work expands in service to the public good. The Globe today announced that its signature arts engagement program, Globe for All, will tour Laurel Ollstein‘s They Promised Her the Moon to four community venues this spring, following its West Coast premiere at the Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Directed by Giovanna Sardelli and starring the original acting company, They Promised Her the Moon will tour from May 16 through May 19. There will be free public performances at Sweetwater High School and Oceanside Public Library, along with closed, invitation-only performances at Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility and Father Joe’s Villages.
In 1960 the famed Mercury Seven trained at NASA to become the first American astronauts. But they weren’t alone. Thirteen women also underwent the same rigorous psychological and physical testing. The first woman to be tested, Jerrie Cobb, even out-performed her male counterparts. But while Alan Shepard and John Glenn went on to become household names, Ms. Cobb never got that chance. In vividly theatrical terms, the West Coast premiere of They Promised Her the Moontells the unknown true story of this exceptional and unjustly overlooked woman-skilled aviator, world-record-holding pilot, successful business executive-and the powerful forces that kept her from reaching orbit.
The cast includes Matthew Boston as Dr. Randy Lovelace and Others (Off Broadway’s Education and The Edge of Our Bodies), Mary Beth Fisher as Jackie Cochran (Broadway’s The Night of the Iguana and Frank’s Home), Morgan Hallett as Jerrie Cobb (the Globe’s Time and the Conways, Broadway’s The Present, Translations, and Long Day’s Journey Into Night), Lanna Joffrey as Helena Cobb and Others (the Globe’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Profane and Measure for Measure Off Broadway, extensive U.K. credits), Michael Pemberton as Harvey Cobb and Others (Broadway’s The Farnsworth Invention, I’m Not Rappaport, Mamma Mia!, and Hedda Gabler), and Peter Rini as Jack Ford and Others (Broadway’s Proposals and A View From the Bridge, “Orange Is the New Black,” “The Blacklist”).
The creative team includes Jo Winiarski (Scenic Design; The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey at the Globe and Off Broadway, Love, Loss, and What I Wore), Denitsa Bliznakova (Costume Design; 10th Globe show plus The Last Match and The Royale, Carmen at LA Opera, All Is Calm at San Diego Opera), Cat Tate Starmer (Lighting Design; The Winning Side Off Broadway), Jane Shaw (Sound Design; the Globe’s The Wanderers, Off Broadway’s Actually, I Was Most Alive with You, and Men on Boats), David Huber(Dialect and Vocal Coach; 34 Globe productions), Caparelliotis Casting (Casting), and Jess Slocum (Production Stage Manager).
The Globe for All touring program, the Globe’s cornerstone arts engagement initiative, was launched in 2014 by Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and has since brought free professional theatre twice a year to over 9,000 diverse, multigenerational people in communities throughout San Diego, offering workshops, community meals, and post-show conversations. The They Promised Her the Moon spring Globe for All Tour performances will take place at Sweetwater High School on Saturday, May 18 and at the Oceanside Public Library in their Civic Center Community Rooms on Sunday, May 19. Tour performances are by invitation onlyfrom the community partner organizations. In addition, the Globe for All Tour will be performed for members of the following organizations (not open to audiences outside the organization; advance clearance needed for media coverage): Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility on Thursday, May 16 and Father Joe’s Villages on Friday, May 17.
“The space program we learn about in this exciting play is different from the one we know, which is mostly male,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. Playwright Laurel Ollstein reminds us of another, fuller story that demands to be told. There were many more astronauts-in-training than the Mercury Seven we all remember, and it’s both exhilarating and heartbreaking to know that it could have been a woman who took the first steps at Tranquility Base had the playing field been level and society more equitable. I am excited to tour the production to venues around the county after its Globe run, where I know that Jerrie Cobb’s amazing tale will inspire audiences even as it moves and delights them. Last year’s Powers New Voices Festival thrilled to this revelatory work, and I look forward to sharing the unjustly neglected story of Jerrie Cobb and her extraordinary life with all of San Diego.”