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CTC Family Guide 
Family Guide: Go, Dog. Go!
A detailed description of the play, including things to do and think about, for parents to share with their families.
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Summary 
This production is half circus, half picture book. It is very physical. Think of it as a pop-up book that comes to life - with accordion music, and a traveling percussionist. The dogs in the original book are quite like humans, and the humans in this play are quite like dogs. And, as in the book, these dogs are green and red and blue and pink and, well, very colorful. The focus is more on what the dogs are DOING than on what they are THINKING, after all, they are dogs. This play runs on the power of imagination and LAUGHTER.
A Synopsis of the Story
See, kids. See!
Dogs all over the place.
Big dogs. Little dogs.
Green. Blue. Red dogs.
Dogs in water, trees and cars.
To put it plainly - if you've read the book Go, Dog. Go!, then you've read the script for this play. (If you haven't, please do!) All 516 words are here! It is as simple and as complicated as that. The first moments witness a transformation that introduces us to MC Dog who narrates our journey as we meet dog after dog, big and small. What do they do? The dogs go. First they whiz past on small wheels - roller skates and such. Then they get bigger wheels.
They go in. They go out. They experiment with trees. They go in cars, on houses and in water. They climb, and clown and slide and float...and even sleep – but only when they have to. They go day and night, hot and cold, and occasionally must pause to answer the unavoidable question, "Do you like my hat." Finally, the dogs go to a party, and finally, finally, they say, "Goodbye." Sigh.
These dogs are Crayon colored versions of dogs we know or wish we did. There might be a bulldog or a terrier or a Labrador retriever, who knows? There must, of course, be a poodle. All are enjoying the excursion, and you will recognize picture after picture from the book you may well know by heart.
If you wonder how it is possible to watch dogs go for an hour and a half or more, think of it this way: the dogs experience an ordinary cycle of human life: work and play and rest. A whole cycle. Then think about the word, "GO." It is a word packed with action, a tremendously physical word. Just like this play.
You will watch and watch. You will laugh. A lot.
| The PLAYWRIGHT'S Note of INTRODUCTION to the SCRIPT |
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This play is adapted from a book renowned for its ability to generate fun, learning, adventure and surprise with a minimum of text. It honors the joyous simplicity of the world around us. Therefore, in the making of this play, it is not our intention to "fill out" or "open up" the story in the style of many traditional adaptations. "Expanding the book" in this way would, we believe, rob it of its essential wondrous and loopy anarchy. Instead, we hope to celebrate and explore the existing words and pictures; to look not "outside the book," but more closely "within it" - in the way that a child can page through Mr. Eastman's book night after night and find something remarkable and new with each subsequent reading. We have chosen, therefore, to play inside the story - to explore the buckets of bliss, wonder, longing and discovery that are waiting for us, for all of us, there. -Allison Gregory and Steven Dietz
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| RELATED READING |
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 Bears on Wheels by Stan and Jan Berenstain. An acrobatic act begins with one bear on a unicycle and ends with twenty-one bears and sixteen wheels flying through the air! (gr. K-3)
Big Dig – Little Dog by P.D. Eastman. Two dogs are opposite in every way, but are best friends. (gr. K-3)
The Digging-est Dog by Al Perkins. When city-dog Duke is adopted by Sammy and taken home to the farm, the country dogs snub Duke because he does not know how to dig. (gr. K-3)
Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins. Rhyming text describes what can be done on a drum with hand, fingers and thumb. (gr. K-3)
The Sneetches and Other Stories by Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss). Through wordplay, humor and the wacky drawings of Dr. Seuss, the Sneetches discover that differences do not make one superior or inferior to another. (gr. K-3)
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| THINGS to IMAGINE, THINK about & DO |
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Have you ever noticed that some people look like their dogs? Look around! Let your mind make these pictures: Think of a lady who owns a fluffy little poodle. What does she look like? (Take your time to fill in some details... Imagine her with her dog.) Next, imagine a man who owns a Doberman Pincer? (Is he wearing a hat? What color is his hair?) Got it? Good. Now switch dogs! Think of the man with the poodle and the lady with the Doberman. Did it make you laugh?
With someone in your family answer this question: If you could be any kind of dog, what would you be? Why? Draw yourselves as dogs, and then tell each other about your pictures.
In this play dogs do a lot of the things people do in the course of a "normal" day. Think of one thing you do every day, and imagine what it must look like to a dog. Describe it to someone as if the dog is describing it to another dog, or write it down as an entry in a Dog Diary.
Do you know a dog personally? If you do, answer this: if that dog could be a person what would s/he love to do best? Draw the dog doing that thing.
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