The Old Globe, due to demand for tickets, extended the West Coast premiere of Laurel Ollstein’s They Promised Her the Moon through May 12, 2019. Sneak preview photos of the production.

On June 16, 1963, Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space. The United States screened a group of female pilots in 1959 and 1960 for possible astronaut training but later decided to restrict astronaut qualification to men.

Story in the San Diego Union Tribune today with rehearsal photos by Howard Lipin. In Old Globe’s ‘They Promised Her the Moon,’ women’s dreams of traveling into space wind up lost in the stars

“Top theater picks in San Diego From “Cats” to …people in space.” Recommended play Laurel Ollstein’s They Promised Her the Moon.

Great shots of the theatre and banner by Lanna Joffrey and a photograph of the cast and creative team.

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.

“Laurel was very smart to focus on just one woman, more than a movement….It’s a really important, inspiring story,” Sardelli says. “It’s a universal story, for any human being who’s just a little bit ahead of their time.”