By Lauren Ollstein
Directed by Susan Speidel

In 1961, the first American woman to test for space flight stepped into an isolation tank for a record-breaking nine hours, outlasting all of the men in NASA’s emerging Mercury 7 program. Jerrie Cobb continued to score higher than every male pilot, on every test she was given, but was never allowed to go into orbit and fulfill her dream of flying to the moon. Her pursuit of space flight was met with opposition at every step of the way, from powerful social and political forces to personal and family obstacles that conspired to keep a skilled and record-holding pilot grounded. 

With vivid theatricality, Laurel Ollstein’s They Promised Her the Moon, shares this unknown true story – from Cobb’s earliest memories of learning to fly as a child in Oklahoma, to her testimony at a Congressional hearing about the under-the-radar, all-female Mercury 13 program. Through immersive storytelling, the play presents a stunning look at issues that still work to keep women grounded, and how one early group of space pioneers persisted so that American female astronauts could escape Earth’s gravity two decades later.