posted 01-20-2009 01:49 PM               

If the brilliant collage artists Robert Rauschenberg had created a play, this is what it might look like. One of the most adventurous productions ever offered on a PCS stage, Apollo is an epic, multimedia examination of post WWII America which explores the birth of the U.S. space program, its employment of former-Nazi rocket scientists, and their surprising intersection with the Civil Rights Movement. Using the U.S. mission to the moon as a symbol of our country's greatness, Apollo probes deep into the question: what did we sacrifice to become the America we are today? And was it worth it? Through a kaleidoscopic array of theatrical methods (movement, text, video projection, music), Keystone reveals the costs and ambiguities of human aspiration and progress.

posted 01-20-2009 01:52 PM               

Later this year, America will have what seems cause for celebration with the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which put man on the surface of the moon. No doubt TV specials will showcase the heroism of the astronauts and the technological wizardry that it took to take them on a journey that has been dreamed about for centuries.

Playwright Nancy Keystone's epic "Apollo," which opened Friday at Portland Center Stage, explores the darker side of the moon missions, in particular the U.S. space program's use of Nazi rocket scientists, and the difficult historic context of the mission's success against the tableaux of 1960s social upheaval.