Craters,
Or The Making of the Making
of the Moon Landing

Premiered at Corkscrew Festival

Written by Elise Wien, Directed & Developed by Deby Xiadani

Synopsis: Meet the film team responsible for staging the Apollo 11 moon landing. Or at least, partially responsible. Craters is an exercise in fact-finding, (re)enactment, and the power of simulation.

Director’s Note:
I had worked with Elise Wien for over a year on this play as her first director of it in 2017 at Dartmouth College. Now, we were performing it in New York City at The Paradise Theater Factory with a hired cast of professional actors.

Wien captures how performance (even if we don’t know it’s performance) can unify a group, a state, a country, and how artists are vital but seemingly disposable in our society. Craters reveals the frailness of human relationships and the resilience of human survival when this group is stuck perpetually in a film lot for the rest of their lives.

As our film crew angrily watches Neil Armstrong, we first believe this group to be anti-American, anti-moon landing, but as we get to know them we realize they are angry because they had been hired - then fired - by NASA to fake the moon landing!

I am proud of our cast who was steadfast and creative. The paper mâché heads were designed by Julie Solomon and they elevated our staged reading. A tremendous amount of emotion can be translated with simple gesture and by the end, the crowd gave us a standing ovation. This project reminded me the power of staged readings.

Featuring:
SYLVIA - Ruby Hurlock
JEAN - Elyse Steingold
LORRAINE - Angela Bilkic
THEO - Robert Leverett
BOBBY/NED - Cristina Henriquez
NEIL/RICH - John Racioppo
STAGE DIRECTIONS - Alicia Thomas

Props by Julie Solomon
Photos by Charles Gleberman

Corkscrew Festival, 2018
Paradise Theater Factory
New York City, NY