A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE
Rocket City, Alabam'
Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 3w, 6m
Book, Lyrics, and Music by Mark Saltzman
"Through Rocket City we are provoked into assessing our own beliefs and any ambiguities in our moral principles—the play also confronts its audiences with challenges to issues of race relations, gender politics, religious tolerance, mili…
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Cast Size
3w, 6m -
Duration
105 Minutes -
Subgenre
Biography, Period, Docudrama/History, Romantic Comedy -
Target Audience
Appropriate for All Audiences
Details
Summary
Rocket City, Alabam', a play with songs, captures a formerly suppressed, true-life episode in the history of the American South, presenting a story of secrets, colorful Southern characters, and several famous songs of the region -- blues, spirituals and gospel. At the dawn of the Cold War, the early 1950's, a young, brash, Army major, Hamilton Pike, quietly brings notorious Nazi rocket scientist and former Hitler employee Wernher Von Braun to Huntsville, Alabama, a cotton town selected to become America's "Rocket City." But Huntsville has a Jewish community over a century old and emotions ignite when Amy Lubin, the Jewish fiancee of local war hero Jed Kessler learns of Von Braun's Nazi past. With sensitivity and humor, Rocket City, Alabam' presents the moral dilemmas of idealism vs. practicality, of revenge vs. forgiveness, all this accompanied by classic Southern songs, including "Down By the Riverside," "Alabama Bound," "This Little Light of Mine" and many more. Rocket City, Alabam' was developed at Alabama Shakespeare Festival in its Southern Writers Project.
History
Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 2008
Cast Attributes
Keywords
Performing Groups
- Time Period 1950s
- Setting
Huntsville, Alabama, early 1950's
- Features Period Costumes
- Additional Features Local Celebrity Cameo, Play with Music
- Duration 105 Minutes
- Cautions
- No Special Cautions
Media
"Through Rocket City we are provoked into assessing our own beliefs and any ambiguities in our moral principles—the play also confronts its audiences with challenges to issues of race relations, gender politics, religious tolerance, military authority and the divide between North and South that remain with us today." - Michael P. Howley, Montgomery Advertiser
Licensing & Materials
- Minimum Fee: £55 per performance plus VAT when applicable.