Part 1, Scene 1 Summary

The setting is an African American church in Louisiana in the 1920s. Elderly Preacher Deshee is teaching Sunday school by reading the Bible to ten children with varying attention levels and vivid imaginations. He explains the first five chapters of the Old Testament by reading the life spans of Adam, Seth, Enoch, and Methuselah, and mentioning Noah. The children pester Preacher Deshee with questions. Carlisle wants to know why God created the world as it is; what Heaven is like and what God looks like. Preacher Deshee explains that God looks like a distinguished African American preacher. He begins to read from Genesis. The children imagine the scenes from this play as he reads.

Part 1, Scene 1 Analysis

This play is a fable, a brief story illustrating a moral. It innovatively presents God, the angels and all the actors as African Americans...