AWARD WINNING FAMILY PLAY “The Miracle Worker” At Richardson’s
CHARLES W. EISEMANN CENTER

RICHARDSON, TEXAS -- The Charles W. Eisemann Center for Performing Arts and Corporate Presentations will be presenting the production
LIVE ON STAGE: of the “The Miracle Worker” by William Gibson. Join us Sat., March 8, 2003 in the Hill Performance Hall at 8:00 pm as The Montana Repertory Theatre performs this endearing family classic story about courage and resilience of the human spirit.  This stirring dramatization of the story of Helen Keller and her tutor Anne Sullivan has been mesmerizing audiences for decades.  It is a story of overcoming unbelievable odds.  It is a story of conviction, of not giving up, and of true, unfettered love.  The play recounts the early life of Helen Keller, deaf and blind since infancy, as she finds her way, with the help of her tutor, Anne Sullivan, into the world of inner light – the most important “sight” of all.  In some of the most turbulent, violent and emotion-packed scenes every presented on the stage, we see Helen work through her rage and confusion of knowledge, understanding, and acceptance. 

The idea for this play came to William Gibson some years before he wrote it, as a result of his explorations in the Stockbridge, Massachusetts Public Library, where he discovered a book of the letters of Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller’s teacher.  In its first form it was a television drama presented in l957 on CBS’s “Playhouse 90”.  It won for Gibson the Sylvania Award and tremendous acclaim.  Then Gibson began to transform the script into a full-length play for the theatre.  The play opened in New York on Oct. l9, l959, became an instant success, and ran for two years.  The play was awarded four “Tony’s” including Best Play of the l959-l960 season.  The film, which was released in l962 starred Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke in their original roles for which they both won Oscars.  Arthur Penn directed the film as he had done the stage play. 

“Really and truly powerful, hair-raising, spine-tingling, touching, and just plain wonderful.  The author (William Gibson) has done all of the stirring, frightening, theatrically explosive things that his subject matter suggests…The author has dramatized human intelligence; he has dramatized the mind in its incredible energy, in its determination to express itself in violence when it cannot arrange itself into thought.  But it’s not a miracle.  It’s honesty and talent.”--------Walter Kerr, New York Herald Tribune. 

It is the mission of Montana Repertory Theatre to tell the great stories, reawakening that which we thought we knew by bringing new vitality and vision to time-honored material.  This story stands as just such a piece – another example of our exploration, through the medium of theatre, of the heart of character and the mystery of courage.