'The Miracle Worker' Offers Lessons For All

"The Miracle Worker" by William Gibson
CAST
Helen McElwain as Annie Sullivan
Kelsey Bennett as Helen Keller
John Little as Captain Keller
Eve Kagan as Kate Keller
Paul Nugent as James Keller
Dale Place as Dr. Anagos, Doctor
Andrea Lyman as Viney
Donna Sorbello as Aunt Ev
Reina Morales as Martha
Maya Morales as Percy

Directed by James B. Nicola, Scenic Design by Michael Kramer, Lighting Design by Anthony R. Phelps, Sound Design by Ed Thurber, Costume Design by Kurt Hultgren

Performances through January 29, 2006

Box Office 508-754-4018, www.foothillstheatre.com

Eleven-year old Kelsey Bennett opens our eyes and ears to the silent world of Helen Keller in the Foothills Theatre Company production of "The Miracle Worker." In her debut, Bennett inhabits the role in a way that belies her tender age and limited theatrical experience. Helen McElwain meets her stride for stride as her teacher and mentor Annie Sullivan.

Director James B. Nicola and the production staff have collaborated to bring this show to life as playwright William Gibson intended. The Keller house is open and airy, with few walls, the rooms being framed by studs to allow us to see the action in more than one space at a time. Most of the scenes occur in the family dining room and Annie's bedroom, each located on its own platform; outside by the water pump; or in the downstage garden house. Lighting enhances movement from one area to another.

"The Miracle Worker" dramatizes the inspiring story of Helen Keller's triumph over handicap and hardship. Blind, deaf, and mute since an illness in infancy, the child is a last resort away from being sent to an institution. While her mother Kate remains ever hopeful that a treatment can be found for her, Captain Keller is stalwart, yet exasperated. Out of their desperation, they seek help from the famous Perkins Institute in Boston and it arrives in the person of the half-blind Sullivan. She journeys to Alabama with the fierce determination of youth and inexperience.

Sullivan believes that communication is the key to open the world for Helen. "First, last, and – in between, language…Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye." She starts from ground zero with the disruptive, out of control child, having to first impose some discipline, as well as to train the family in the techniques of tough love. The scene in which Annie forces Helen to sit at the dining table, eat only from her own plate, and, finally, to use a spoon is marvelously choreographed and played by Bennett and McElwain. The interaction between the two is very physical and obviously well planned, but appears to be spontaneous. Kudos to the actresses and director!

While much is riding on the shoulders of the two lead players, the rest of the cast is deserving of praise. John Little is all blustery and commanding as the Captain, yet shows the confusion and helplessness of the father with a severely handicapped child. Eve Kagan finds a good balance between the obedient wife and the fiercely protective mother wanting and needing to do whatever she can for her daughter. Paul Nugent shows James' struggle to survive in a family where so much is focused on his wild half-sister. As a group, they make us feel the stress and dysfunction they must live with, yet always bathed in the civility of the proper Southern manners.

First a Tony Award-winning play in 1960 and then a 1962 Academy Award-winning film adaptation, "The Miracle Worker" has been called powerful, touching, and a magnificent drama by others in the media. This company has added to the legacy of Gibson's work and Helen Keller's life. She started out as an uncontrollable, violent dervish, and through the persistence and love of her teacher was able to learn. Keller became famous, learning to read, write, and speak, and she was the first deaf/blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree when she was graduated from Radcliffe College in 1904. In this miracle, there are lessons for us all.

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