PFAA Hosts Auditions for THE MIRACLE WORKER 8/15-16

Auditions for The Miracle Worker by William Gibson

Director: Catherine Miller Hahn
Assistant Director: Martha Steeves
Dates: Adult Auditions: August 15 and 16 (stage)
Children's Auditions: (Ages 5-12) August 17 (stage)
August 18 (gallery)
7:00 - 9:30 p.m. for all dates
Performances: October 13 - October 22, 2011

The Miracle Worker premiered at The Playhouse in New York City on October 19, 1959.
Time: The 1880's
Place: In and around the Keller homestead in Tuscumbia, Alabama; also, briefly, the Perkins Institution for the Blind, in Boston.

Cast:

Doctor Male role. Age range 35-75 (Could be double cast with Anagnos).

Kate Keller Female role. Age range 30-45.

Captain Keller Male role. Age range 45-65.

Martha (Viney's little girl) Female role. Age range 7-12. (African American or Caucasian)

Percy (Viney's little boy) Male role. Age range 7-12. (African American or Caucasian)

Viney Female role. Age range 30-50. (African American or played by a Caucasian with a slight Irish accent.)

Helen Keller Female role. Age range 13-19. Must be small in stature to play much younger. Very physical role.

James Keller Male role. Age range 18-30.

Aunt Ev Female role. Age range 50 - 75

Anagnos Male role. Age range 35-75 (Could be double cast with Doctor).

Annie Sullivan Female role. Age range 25-45. Slight Irish accent. Very physical role.

Blind Girls at the Perkins Institute 6 Female roles. Ages ranging from 5-15.

Dear Actors and Actresses:

Most people refer to this play as "the one about Helen Keller." It is of course about her, but William Gibson says, "I wrote the play about her teacher, Annie Sullivan, hence the title, Worker and not The Miracle Workee." What draws me to this play is Gibson's
discussion of it: "The Miracle Worker, which can make people cry, is a comedy; and the
grace of comedy is a white lie-that the story ends, and happily - which we take home
to nourish our everyday lives wherein no story ends, short of death. It is no secret that man proposes, God disposes, and all of us who survive our youth live in a clutter of dreams gone wrong: we pick up the pieces and continue. So Annie."

The mother of a handicapped child myself, I can tell you that this play is also about family, every single member. We all need one another, much in the way the entire Keller household and especially Helen's mother, not just Helen, need Annie Sullivan. So, the play asks the question, "Is the miracle in the teaching or in the learning?" Or I wonder, is it born in a dream by both? Whatever else our production does, it will dramatize how we dare, we hope, we believe, and for so doing we become.

Scripts and audition scenes will be available in mid June for a $10.00 deposit. Those auditioning for the role of Helen will be asked to read other roles as well as engage in physical pantomime.

May I just add that there are plays and then there are literary plays. I encourage you to check out a script and read all of Gibson's fabulous words.

"Helen, reach . . . reach! I wanted to teach you - oh, everything the earth is full of, Helen, everything on it that's ours for a wink and it's gone, and what we are on it, the light we bring to it and leave behind in - words, why, you can see five thousand years back in a light of words, everything we feel, think, know - and share, in words, so not a soul is in darkness, or done with, even in the grave. And I know, I know, one word and I can - put the world in your hand - and whatever it is to me, I won't take less!"
--Annie

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