NEW 2023 PLAY COMMISSION. "The Rocket Men" is a unique theatrical experience that carries us through time in a blink of an eye to present the story of the German "Rocket Men" who used their scientific skills to flee Nazi Germany and settle in the most unlikely of places...North Alabama. These men form the backbone of NASA’s rocketry program. The play explores the dynamic relationship of Wernher von Braun and Heinz-Hermann Koelle, a lesser-known young German rocketeer, who joined the "Operation Paperclip" team several years later. 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, we experience the haunting cost of their scientific advancements - their technology is based on the V-2 rockets built by slave labor. Played by six female-identifying women, “The Rocket Men” shines a modern, unflinching light on this story, as NASA prepares to fly to the moon once more asking who gets to be remembered in the history books, and why?