Word: helene
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Miracle Worker tells in remarkably unmawkish fashion the story of the childhood of Helen Keller. Miss Keller, left blind and deaf in infancy by a near-fatal illness, is deservedly one of the marvels of our age, a woman who despite her handicaps has "seen" and done more than many dream of. The "miracle worker" who awakened young Helen Keller to the world around her, who taught her to "talk," to "see," and to "hear" was Annie Sullivan, a Boston Irish girl, once blind herself...
After several brief, effective expository scenes, Gibson's play traces Annie's struggles with her pupil up to the crucial point where young Helen, standing at a pump outside the Kellers' Alabama homestead, realizes that the W-A-T-E-R which Annie is spelling out in her hand means something and that that something is the water flowing over her arms. With this discovery of language, Annie's job has both ended and just begun; from this first world "water" Miss Keller built and understood a world...
...Gibson's task is a far more demanding one: while Schary could work with the breezy personality of the adult F.D.R., Gibson has as his heroine a six-year-old girl who cannot speak a word. There is, of course, the wonderful Annie, beautifully played by Miss Bancroft, but Helen remains the central figure, an unusual and tremendously difficult character...
Gibson is extraordinarily lucky to have the assistance of Penn as director and of Patty Duke in the role of Helen. Since Helen cannot speak, her every movement must convey something to the audience; Helen cannot be played as a mere dumb animal, for the entire play is meant to prove that there is something inside her, waiting to be released. Under Penn's direction, Miss Duke is more than a success in this awfully taxing part; without ever uttering a word, she is the most memorable child actress to appear in years...
...Tufts Arena Theatre provided an opportunity for student apprentices to acquire or improve their basic acting technique. Some years the group has had one or two truly outstanding talents; this summer there was none, but a few did show more than average aptitude, notably Karen Johnson, Alvin Cohen, and Helen Kelly...