The News About Noah

By Derek Conrad, Kara Kaufman, Kelsey Kaufman, Fran Rempel and Deb Rempel

Summary

Retelling the story of Noah using a television news broadcast.

Characters

Narrator
News anchor
Noah
Noah's wife
Noah's son #1
Noah's grandson #1
Noah's granddaughter
Noah's other relatives, (optional)
Weather person
Eyewitness

Script

Scene One

(News Anchor and Weatherman are on stage. On the other side of the stage Noah and his family are working on the ark.)

NEWS ANCHOR: Hi! I'm , your news anchor today, January 3. (Stop and flash a big, toothy smile after each time you say this.) The top story: Noah, is building an ark. He claims God told him to build an ark because there will be a large flood. Let's go to the scene and watch Noah and his family at work.

(Noah, his sons, their wives, their grandson and granddaughter are hammering and sawing on the ark.)

NEWS ANCHOR: So let’s go to our weather person to see if we need to build an ark too.

WEATHER PERSON: Hi! I'm _______! (Stop and flash a big, toothy smile after each time you say this). It's sunny today and there is no chance of rain. I'm predicting a dry year, not the rain that Noah says we are going to get. So, no, (news anchor), you don't need to build an ark.

Scene Two

(As before. Noah and one other person are looking around for something. The rest of the family are gathering animals -- slowly
so it lasts the whole scene -- and putting them in the ark.)

NEWS ANCHOR: Hi! I'm _________, your news anchor today, February 10. The top story today: Noah has finished the ark! He has started collecting pairs of animals. (Turn to Noah) Noah, what's the story here?

NOAH: Today God told me it's going to start raining a week from now.

NEWS ANCHOR: So what's with the animals?

NOAH: God said to get a male and female of every kind of animal. Right now we are looking for a boy ladybug.

NEWS ANCHOR: (Shakes head, like a "how crazy" kind of shake.) Let's go to the weather report. ___________?

WEATHER PERSON: Hi! I'm ________! It's cloudy today with a slight chance of rain. I predict thundershowers tonight,
clearing up for a sunny day tomorrow. I'm still predicting a dry year though. There's no need for everyone to jump into Noah's ark with all of the animals.

Scene Three

(Weatherman, News Anchor, and Eyewitness wearing an eye patch are on stage. Noah's family is standing behind the filled-with-stuffed-animals ark.)

NEWS ANCHOR: Hi! I'm , your news anchor today, February 17. The top story today: let's ask our weather person.

WEATHER PERSON: That would be me, _______! (Smile big flashy smile) Boy, was I wrong! After being cloudy for a whole week it's finally raining, and, boy, is it raining! But I predict that it will only rain today and tomorrow and clear up for a sunny weekend! Back to you, ____________ .

NEWS ANCHOR: Our boat builders, Noah and his family, and a whole mess of animals are all shut up inside their ark. (Noah and his family grin and wave). Let's hear from an eyewitness.

EYEWITNESS: Yeah, I was there. I saw all those crazy people and the animals and the birds and the snakes get into the ark. Then, this sounds even crazier, but a huge hand reached down from the clouds, touched the ark door, and slammed it shut.

NEWS ANCHOR: This story gets stranger and stranger.

Scene Four

(News Anchor and Weather Person on stage. Noah's family is still standing behind the ark, swaying together from one side to the other to pretend they are floating in a boat.)

NEWSMAN: Hi! I'm , your news anchor today, February 19. The top story today: it looks like Noah was right! Oh, no! There's water coming in the windows! Let's hear from our weatherman!

WEATHER PERSON: Hi! I'm _______, the weather person! Help! I'm sinking! Back to you, _________.

NEWS ANCHOR: (as if underwater) This is , signing off.

Scene five

(Weatherman and News Anchor and their props are off stage. Noah and his family are still behind the ark.)

NARRATOR: So it rained and rained and rained and rained, well, you get the picture. It rained for over a month! The tallest mountains were under 20 feet of water when the rain stopped. Every person, animal, and bird was dead except for Noah, his family, and the animals and birds on the ark. God blew a big wind over the land to blow the water away. In the middle of July, the ark got stuck on the top of a mountain. On October 10, you could finally see the tops of the mountains. At the end of November, Noah sent out a dove from the ark. (Noah throws the dove out of the ark) It flew and flew but couldn't find a place to rest, so it came back. (Somebody go get the dove and hand it back to Noah).

A week later, at the beginning of December, Noah sent the dove out again. (Noah throws the dove out the ark again) The dove came back with an olive leaf in it's mouth. (Someone goes out to get the dove, sticks the branch in its mouth, and brings it back to Noah again). On the first of January Noah sent the dove out and it didn't come back. (Noah throws the dove out the ark
again).

But God didn't let Noah and his family out of the ark for another couple of months. (Noah and his family get out from behind the ark, saying "Finally!" and "I don't think I ever want to get into another boat as long as I live" and "Me, too!") Let's go to Noah and his family, who are outside on dry ground.

NOAH: Hi, I'm Noah. I want to thank God keeping us safe and healthy.

NOAH'S WIFE: Hi, I'm Noah's wife. I'd like to thank God for keeping my family safe.

NOAH'S SON #1: Hi, I'm Shem, Noah's son. I want to thank God for letting us out of the ark. After a year, it was getting pretty stuffy.

NOAH'S GRANDSON #1: Hi, I'm Noah's grandson. It was getting pretty stinky too.

NOAH'S GRANDDAUGHTER: Hi, I'm Noah's granddaughter. I want to thank God for the pretty rainbow. Every time it rains from now on, the rainbow will tell us it will never flood like this again.

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© Derek Conrad, Kara Kaufman, Kelsey Kaufman, Fran Rempel and Deb Rempel, all rights reserved.
This play may be performed free of charge, on the condition that copies are not sold for profit in any medium, nor any entrance fee charged. In exchange for free performance, the authors would appreciate being notified of when and for what purpose the play is performed. They may be contacted at: debkr@cox.net