Interview: James Wallert Makes Space Onstage for THE WINNING SIDE at Epic Theatre Ensemble

Up next at Epic Theatre Ensemble is the world premiere of The Winning Side, a new play by James Wallert. Based on the true story of Wernher von Braun, Chief Rocket Engineer for the Third Reich and one of the fathers of the United States space program, The Winning Side explores the hidden history behind America's 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.

As the preeminent face and voice of space exploration on television during the 1950's and 60's, von Braun was one of the most famous men in the world. But because of his complicated legacy, he's largely been left out of the history books. With The Winning Side, Wallert creates an accessible theatrical experience for audiences of all ages that re-examines this forgotten figure of the space race, and asks challenging questions about our contemporary views of science, technology, politics, and ethics.

Below, Wallert tells us all about how the play is the result of a fascinating family vacation, followed by years of rigorous research.

What inspired you to write this in the first place?

I first heard about Wernher von Braun on a family vacation that I took down to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They've got all of this amazing stuff there, including one of the Saturn V rockets, which is just enormous. It's a huge piece of machinery. Then there is this tiny little plaque under it that mentions Wernher von Braun, who is one of the chief engineers of the Saturn V and also the chief rocket engineer for the Third Reich in Nazi Germany. Then they had an astronaut talk later that afternoon and he sort of awkwardly mentioned him again. So that peeked my curiosity and I started looking into it.

And I understand that you ended up with a fellowship at the Smithsonian?

So I read some books and the preeminent biographer of Wernher von Braun is a man named Michael Neufeld. He's the senior curator at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC. I reached out to him because I read his book and I had a few questions about his story and a romantic relationship he references that Wernher von Braun had in Paris. Michael sort of discovered it through a piece of correspondence that had been hidden until 2010. So I reached out via email to ask those questions, then he wrote back and suggested we chat on the phone. We talked for about 90 minutes and he was kind enough to sponsor me for a fellowship at the Air and Space Museum. I got to go to DC for a week, they got me a desk in the Space History department, and he opened up his research to me. It was an incredible week. As a pop-science nerd, it was unreal to be there in the morning before it opened.

That's incredible that they were so open to sharing that knowledge with you!

Yeah, just having access to all of that research... then there would be these incredible moments when Michael would say, "Let's go have lunch!" and we'd go to the commissary with these amazing space historians. Every time we would chat with these people who had such amazing insight into this particular period. They also had really provocative questions for me! Why did I want to create a play about this man? That was all incredibly influential on my thinking on the play.

Was that at all daunting?

You know, I was a little bit nervous in going down there that they might think that I wasn't being rigorous or that I wouldn't be taking the material seriously. I felt completely welcomed. Those conversations were so helpful to the play.

And now here you are, three years later...

Yes, after the research I generated the first draft of the play and we've been developing it with my company, Epic Theatre Ensemble, for the last three years.

Does it feel good to finally get it out into the world?

You know, this is my first play. It's all new to me. I've ben working as an actor and producer and director here in the city for 20 years, but this is all new! It's very exciting to be on this side of the experience. The play has lived inside of my head for a good, long while. It's very gratifying to see it start to come together.

And we have such an amazing cast. Sullivan Jones is playing Wernher von Braun for us. He's tremendous. He brings such precision to the work... and incredible heart, sense of humor and imagination. Sullivan is new to our company, but the other three cast members I have experiences with that go beyond a decade. Melissa Friedman is one of the co-founders and my my co-Artistic Director and Epic. We've known each other for 20 years. Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. has been a company member since 2004. Devin Haqq, who plays about 22 different characters, has been working with us for the better part of ten years.

And I understand that you have quite a line-up of post-show discussion guests?

Epic's mission is to create works that inspires dialogue. We have a post-show conversation after everything that we do. So we have a really great line-up of guests for this one: Mike Neufeld from the Smithsonian is coming to town. That will be really special. And a number of different space historians... and other historians who have more of an emphasis on the Presidency. He had very strong connections to three different US presidents during his career. We've got physicists, science journalists... it's very exciting. We're hoping that this production is going to spark some really important and difficult questions.

Opening night is about a week from today. What are you most looking forward to in the month ahead?

I'm really excited to see how young people respond to the piece. Like I said, our development has happened over the past three years, and a lot of that has been connected to our education programs with NYC public schools. We rehearsed a good bit of the play in classrooms with the students serving as sort of assistant directors. Ron [Russell], our director, has been really incredible in working with the students. He'll bring in a scene that isn't working and say to them: "We're having challenges. We're gonna present this and we wanna hear your thoughts." It's been really terrific hearing their responses.

And all of those students will be coming as a part of student matinees. So they'll get to see the scene that they worked on. And they'll either be thrilled or will take issue that we didn't take their suggestion! [Laughs]

I'm very excited for these post-show conversations too. In my experience working with playwrights, I think it's most useful to a writer to hear a conversation about the questions and ideas inside a play. That's going to be very exciting for me.

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The Winning Side, begins previews today, October 3, 2018 and officially opens on Monday, October 8, 2018 at The Acorn Theatre of Theatre Row (410 West 42nd St.), a program Building for the Arts NY, Inc. It will play a limited run through Sunday, October 28, 2018.

The Winning Side stars Sullivan Jones ("The Looming Tower") as Wernher von Braun, Melissa Friedman (Hannah and Martin) as Margot, Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. (Einstein's Gift) as Major Taggert and Devin E. Haqq (Macbeth: Born with Teeth) in multiple roles. It will be directed by Ron Russell (Epic co-founder and executive director)

The creative team includes: Chika Shimizu (set/projections designer), Cat Tate Starmer (lighting designer), Betsy Rugg-Hinds (costume designer) and Ron Russell (sound designer).

Tickets are $20 for all preview performances (October 3-7), $35 for the first week (October 10-14) and $45 thereafter. Tickets can be purchased at http://www.epictheatreensemble.org/the-winning-side/.