Hope Floats: Sight & Sound Set to Launch 30th Anniversary Movie Release of Heartwarming 'Noah' Stage Production

Photo imager courtesy of Sight & Sound
For nearly 50 years, Sight & Sound theaters have been producing high quality theatrical stage performances based on the Bible that have delighted audiences near and far. From “Jesus” to “Jonah” to their latest success “Noah”, the Lancaster, Pennsylvania based theater company seeks to bring Bible stories to life in such a way that audiences will strengthen their faith through what they see on stage and beyond.

That ‘beyond’ continues to include movie theaters across the nation. To celebrate the 30-Year-Anniversary of the Ark and animals boarding it two by two, Sight & Sound is taking this live stage performance to the big screen. Noah, the epic story of a simple man seeking to be faithful in an increasingly chaotic world, is set to play in approximately 1,000 movie theaters nationwide on September 18th for one week only as a Fathom Movie Event.

Find a theater near you to view Sight & Sound’s Noah live movie event.

I recently sat down with Sight & Sound Director of Brand Development, Katie Miller, to discuss the upcoming movie event, what it is about Noah that is so endearing to people, and the theater’s responsibility to bring a quality product to audiences that will not only entertain but will honor God as well.

Sight & Sound Theaters is set to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of your first production of Noah with a Fathom Movie Event. What is it about the story of Noah that has captured the hearts of so many over the course of history?

There's so much to love about Noah as a story in and of itself. It’s so visual with all the animals going onto this ark. It's like every child's dream, a big floating boat full of animals. It's so fun but there's also such a beautiful story within, the story of God's faithfulness. God's faithfulness to his promises when Noah was faithful, God was faithful to him. And as that story has unfolded on our stages for the last 30 years, it's become this cherished multi-generational experience. Noah first premiered in 1995, and this year with it being the 30th anniversary on our stage here in Lancaster (Pennsylvania), what we continue to hear back from people is, ‘I came as a kid with my parents or grandparents, and now I'm bringing my kids or bringing my grandkids, and we're all having this experience together.’ And so, it's gone from being this cherished story in and of itself to a very cherished Sight & Sound experience. And now to be able to take it beyond our stage and out into the nation via movie theaters is feeling exceptionally special right now.

This is a very content rich story as it features so many colorful stories like the ark, the animals two by two, the Flood, and the stark realization that Noah’s family will be the only remaining humans on earth after it takes place. Does this create a greater sense of challenge and responsibility on your part to deliver an authentic story or as close as you can get to it?

I think that's always the challenge, no matter what story is on stage. It’s taking these epic huge Bible stories that often do have adult themes woven throughout them that might be hard for families to always be able to take in together. But that's our challenge. It’s the opportunity to be able to do that and hopefully break these really big stories down into ways that people of all ages can understand, experience, and connect together. I always like to say this because I think it's so true. We can't take credit for the stories themselves. They've been changing lives for thousands of years, but we do get to tell them in a new and hopefully big, fun, spectacular way that people can connect to them.

Is there any one event from Noah’s life that you feel is the key to the story of this Biblical hero?

One of my favorite things about this show and the way that our story team wrote the story is I think it's really easy to forget. When you read the Bible, it's like God speaks to Noah. Noah builds an ark. The water comes. The end. And what we often fail to forget when we just read it through in that short narrative – the whole story of Noah is only five or six chapters long. But what we fail to forget is that it took him nearly 100 years to actually build the ark. And so, there was a lot of life that happened while he was building it. One of my favorite scenes that is written into the show is that Noah's facing a lot of peer pressure from his family members and some neighbors who say, “Why are you even doing this?”

And they're facing all of this violence and injustice around them that's breaking their hearts. They're encouraging Noah to fight. And he has this one moment where he says, ‘If God would've called me to build an army, I would have, but he didn't. He called me to build an ark.’ Then his son says, ‘But how do we fight?’ It's one of my favorite lines ever. Noah said, ‘We fight by being faithful. That's what we're called to do.’ And so, that story of faithfulness is woven so beautifully throughout the whole show. It was actually really challenging and inspiring to me, when I sat here on Premier night this year and watched the updates they had done to the show. It came out even stronger than it used to in the past. And it's shining really bright from the stage right now.

How will people’s faith be challenged by the story of Noah?

I'll speak for myself personally. I think what I was so challenged by was just that call to fight by being faithful. I think sometimes we think of faithfulness to God in the really big moments, and those big moments do happen, but often it's in the day after day after day of doing, putting one foot in front of the other on the days where ministry feels hard, on the days where parenting feels hard, where marriage feels like hard work, friends, neighbors, whatever the thing is, being faithful in those moments is often where obedience and the blessing of the Lord comes through those small things.

Recreating the ark, the flood, and God’s promise is no small feat. What were some of the biggest creative or technical challenges in producing NOAH live? How did you see God at work through those challenges?

In the Sight & Sound story as a whole, or whenever it comes to producing shows, we end up finding ourselves in these stories and these characters way more than we ever think we're going to. The process from start to finish is a process of trusting from day one of saying, what message do you want us to tell? I'm sorry. You want us to build an ark on stage? You want us to have animals running up and down the aisles of the theater? Okay, well then, you have to be with us in it. We constantly are seeking the Lord's wisdom, discernment, and direction on the day-to-day choices that we're making. We are trusting Him with the rest. One of the things I think we've learned in our story, COVID being one of the moments, was that this ministry isn't ours. We get to steward it. We get to partner with what the Lord is doing, but at the end of the day, it is really His. And the more we can keep that in the forefront, the much easier it is to continue to take those steps of obedience.

After people come see Noah in theaters, when they leave the movie theater at the end of the night, what do you want your audiences to take away from the experience? What is your greatest hope for the event?

Our prayer is always that people leave a Sight & Sound experience, whether in person or at the movie theaters, with a sense of hope and a sense of understanding and knowing that just as God was faithful to Noah, He's faithful in our lives today too. He's the same God that Noah served. He's the same God that we serve. And His faithfulness lasts through all of the generations. Our hope for this show in particular, is that people will leave knowing that.

Find a theater near you to view Sight & Sound’s Noah live movie event.

WATCH A TRAILER FOR SIGHT & SOUNDS NOAH 30TH ANNIVERSARY LIVE MOVIE EVENT: