On September 23rd, The Ivoryton Playhouse opens the sixth production of the 2009 season - William Gibson's Tony-Award winning drama The Miracle Worker. It was first produced as a 1957 Playhouse 90 broadcast starring Teresa Wright as Annie Sullivan and Patricia McCormack as Helen. Gibson adapted his teleplay for a 1959 Broadway production with Anne Bancroft as Sullivan and Patty Duke as Keller. The two reprised their roles for the award winning1962 feature film, directed by Arthur Penn.
Set in Tuscumbia, Alabama in the 1870's, The Miracle Worker tells the astonishing and inspirational story of the blind and deaf Helen KelleR. Locked in a frightening, lonely world of silence and darkness since infancy, Helen has never seen the sky, heard her mother's voice or expressed her innermost feelings. Then Annie Sullivan, a 20-year-old teacher from Boston, arrives. Having just recently regained her own sight, the no-nonsense Annie reaches out to Helen through the power of touch - the only tool they have in common and leads her bold pupil on a miraculous journey from fear and isolation to happiness and light.This inspirational play of challenge, conflict and triumph weaves a powerful tale of the struggle for connection, language, and love and is alternately heroic, comical and sympathetic. In these challenging times, The Miracle Worker is a compelling and uplifting testament to the will to maintain courage in the face of adversity. As Helen Keller herself said, "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."Videos