by Laurel Ollstein
- Performance Date: Saturday, May 3, 2014
- They Promised Her the Moon received its world premiere Off-Broadway at the St. Clement's Theater, produced by the Miranda Theater Company in March 2017. Dir. Valentina Fratti.
NASA 1960: Thirteen accomplished women pilots pass the grueling NASA tests for astronauts, and when LIFE magazine gets ahold of the story a few of the women shine as minor celebrities heading for space. Yet the macho culture of the NASA program resists. Vice President Lyndon Johnson even scribbles a memo, "Let's stop this now!" It would be twenty more years before Sally Ride blasts off in Challenger 3. They Promised Her the Moon tells the true story of Jerri Cobb, one of these women who—for a short, thrilling time—thought that she would be the first female astronaut in space.
Award-winning actor and playwright Laurel Ollstein received the Faith Broome Playwright-in-Residence award at the University of Oklahoma, which commissioned and produced an earlier version of They Promised Her the Moon.
TACIT's production was directed by Brenda Varda, founding member and Artistic Director of Wordspace, a studio for writing classes, workshops, and events in Los Angeles.