Go Noah Go! Education Pack littleangeltheatre.com | 020 7226 1787 John Wright, the founder of Little Angel Theatre, was born in South Africa in 1906. He travelled to England in 1935 and worked as an assistant stage manager for the Ballet Rambert while studying at the Central School of Art and Design. During this time he saw a puppet performance by Podrecca’s Piccoli and became hooked. John made his very first puppet in 1938. In 1961 John and his troupe found a derelict temperance hall in Islington and transformed it into a theatre, designed for the presentation of marionette shows. It opened on Saturday 24th November 1961. This was to be the first purpose built puppet theatre the country had seen for many years and the only one with a permanent long string marionette bridge constructed backstage. The bridge was designed for puppeteers to stand on while they manipulate long stringed puppets who perform on the stage below leaving the audience unable to see the puppeteers. The original bridge is used to this day. The theatre has a traditional ‘proscenium arch’ and seats 100 audience members. John Wright died in 1991 but the work of the theatre continued apace with family, friends and supporters working tirelessly to continue in his footsteps to make sure John’s legacy would delight generations to come. How did Little Angel Theatre start? Angel Theatre start? How did Little “Over the next 30 years, the Little Angel team created and performed over 30 full-scale shows” A Great Flood is coming and Mr and Mrs Noah have been set the most impossible task: to take two of each animal and build them a home! A magical ark that is built on stage, over 50 carved animals and a host of songs to sing along with make this production one of Little Angel Theatre’s most successful and impressive shows. John Agard’s stunning Caribbean adaptation of this timeless story, combines puppetry, masks, stories and songs. Our production is based on the story of Noah and his Ark. Noah's Ark is the vessel by which God spares Noah, his family, and a remnant of all the world's animals from a world-engulfing flood. According to the Bible (in Genesis), God gave Noah instructions for building the ark. Seven days before the deluge, God told Noah to enter the ark with his household and the animals. The story goes on to describe the ark being afloat for 150 days and then coming to rest on the Mountains of Ararat and the subsequent receding of the waters. The story is repeated, with variations, in the Torah and Quran, where the ark appears as Safina Nūḥ ("Noah's boat"). The Genesis flood narrative is similar to numerous otherflood myths from a variety of cultures. The earliest known written flood myth is the Sumerian flood myth found in the Epic of Ziusudra. Our version is set in the Caribbean. About Go Noah Go! About Go Noah Go Noah Go was written by John Agard and is based on his book of the same name. which was published in 1990. Playwright, poet, short-story and children’s writer John Agard was born on 21 June 1949 in British Guiana (now Guyana). He worked for the Guyana Sunday Chronicle newspaper as sub-editor and fea- ture writer before moving to England in 1977., where he became a touring lec- turer for the Commonwealth Institute, travelling to schools throughout the UK to promote a better understanding of Caribbean culture. Before he left Guyana he published his first book of poems Shoot me with Flow- ers, which came out in 1974. His first book to be published in the UK was Letters for Lettie and other stories in 1979 and from then on he was writing at least one new anthology of poems every year. In 1993 he was appointed Writer in Residence at the South Bank Centre, Lon- don, and became Poet in Residence at the BBC. John has travelled extensively throughout the world performing his poetry. He has won a total of 8 awards for his works, including the Paul Hamlyn Award for poetry in 1997 and the Queens Gold Medal for Poetry in 2012. John lives with his partner, the poet and author Grace Nichols, with whom he has co-written several books. Things To Do! Can you find Guyana on a world map or a globe? Research some information about daily life in Guyana, what is different/the same compared to your daily life? Can you work out how old John Agard is today? Find out more about Grace Nichols and her writing. Which books have they written together? Read a John Agard poem out loud to an audience. Add expression and move- ments to help bring the po- em to life. Writer Profile: John Agard Go Noah Go! Was illustrated by Judy Brown. Research other books illustrated by her. Read a John Agard poem and then draw some illustra- tions to go with it. John performing his poetry Although there are many flood stories and myths from around the world and in different religions the version of the story that most people are familiar with comes from the Christian faith. The story can be found in the Old Testament. It is in the book of genesis (6:1—9:17). Christians believe that the story teaches them to respect the world that God has created and each other. They believe that the flood God sent was to punish people for their bad behaviour on earth. God saw how great wickedness had become and decided to wipe humankind off the face of the earth. But one righteous man among all the people of that time, Noah, found favour in God's eyes. With very specific instructions, God told Noah to build an ark for him and his family in preparation for a catastrophic flood that would destroy every living thing on earth. God also instructed Noah to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, both male and female, and seven pairs of all the clean animals, along with every kind of food to be stored for the animals and his family while on the ark. Noah obeyed everything God commanded him to do. After they had entered the ark, rain fell for a period of forty days and nights. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days, and every living thing was wiped out. As the waters receded, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Noah and his family continued to wait for almost eight more months while the surface of the earth dried out. Finally after an entire year, God invited Noah to come out of the ark. Immediately, Noah built an altar and offered sacrifices to give thanks to God for deliverance. God was pleased Noahs Ark with the offerings and promised never again to destroy all the living creatures as he had just done. Later God established a covenant with Noah: "Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." As a sign of this everlasting covenant, God set a rainbow in the clouds. Could it really have happened? Research, Discuss and Estimate to work out: How many animals would have been on the ark? (2 of each kind!) How far would Noah have had to travel to collect all the animals? How big would the ark have had to have been? Make a list of the food that would need to be on board to keep all the animals happy. Which animals would NOT need to come on board the ark but would survive a flood? Different animals need different habitats/temperatures to survive. Some animals are preda- tors and it could be dangerous to keep them together. Design an ark that takes these things into consideration. John Agard has taken the Bible story and given it a Caribbean Twist! Synopsis Mother God and Father God are unhappy with man. The wind suggests they send a flood to get rid of the humans but to save Noah and his family. The wind delivers the news to Noah. Noah asks Saga, an old sailor, to help him build an ark. Mrs Noah and Japhetha gather all the animals and all the seeds to save in the Ark. Noah and Shemrod build the Ark. They only have 9 days! Which animals should they col- lect first? What if the animals start to argue? Where should they keep them all? How big should the ark be? They flood comes and for sev- en days and seven nights they sail without seeing land. The spiders offer to sit on the doves back and spin a web for the ark to follow while they look for land. As they hit the ground they look up and see that the spiders web has turned into a rainbow! From now on they will call it a spiders' bow! Saga appears. He has survived the flood! They light a fire with stones that Japhetha has Go Noah Go! Go Noah collected and plant the seeds to begin life on Earth again. Characters Characters Noah. Sumera (Mrs Noah), Shemrod (son) and Japhetha (daughter). I know a kind man on earth With a kind wife and daughter and son We must find a way to save them The others can die by water. The Wind. It is the wind. Hear what I say. I know the people are doing wrong but if there are no people left on Mother God and Father God.