The Rocket Men at Angels Theatre Company

Six women step into the roles of the former Nazis who sent us to the moon to share with us a story about the team that formed the backbone of NASA in the most unlikely of places...North Alabama. Told through the point of view of Heinz- Hermann Koelle, a lesser-known young German rocketeer, who joined this “Operation Paperclip” team several years later, the play explores the dynamic relationship of Wernher von Braun and Koelle as these two have set their sights on space exploration and colonization beyond the moon. Still, as the play counts down to the launch of Apollo 11, Koelle is befriended by a Jewish engineer who is hell-bent on exposing the truth: the Germans’ technology is based on the V-2 rockets built by slave labor more tied to Koelle’s world than he can imagine. A startling new play about the intersection of scientific exploration and moral responsibility, The Rocket Men asks what it means “to be an American”.

This unique production is part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere happening across the country with The Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis, IN), Synchronicity Theatre (Atlanta, GA), and Angels Theatre Company, with a West Coast Premiere as well with Oregon Contemporary Theatre.