The latest production at Willow Leaves of Hope spotlights far more than the amazing story of teacher Anne Sullivan’s work to unlock deaf and blind Helen Keller’s mysterious world.
Actress Julia Blair, playing the lead character of Sullivan in the classic story of “The Miracle Worker” opening Friday, can easily tell you that much.
The show reigns as an independent, dinner-theater production, and hope is woven as deeply into the storyline as surely as a defiant nature is part of Keller’s fiber.
“If Anne Sullivan had merely given up on Helen Keller, then how many might have given up on people since then?” Blair said, knowing full well that true story has served as equal parts inspiration and motivation for untold numbers through the years.
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Blair immediately considers the struggle locally of those needing hope amid the opioid crisis. And she sees this story as a practical reminder of sorts to show people in such situations that the seemingly impossible can materialize — even when people are deeply wounded and scarred.
The real-life Sullivan, for example, was abandoned as a child by her father after her mother died and was sent to an overcrowded almshouse, a facility for the poor, in Massachusetts. And, like Keller (played by Kathryn Baylor), Sullivan herself battled blindness from childhood, and painful shots and surgeries to keep fragments of her sight.
So Blair, whom friends know as high-energy and successful enough to be a certified life coach, acknowledged that she is reaching into the tender areas of her experiences to present the complexity of Sullivan.
“I am old enough to have experienced life,” Blair said. “I’ve definitely had times when I felt like I was a complete failure — or felt very unqualified for something.”
At age 20, Sullivan finds herself in that situation when she is assigned to teach an obstinate Keller, with no real, formal training and no blueprint for such a task that some view as an impossibility.
First-time director Connie Kiviniemi-Baylor, also the producer and the mother of the actress portraying Keller, summarized her perspective of the emotional drama that many know from a popular 1962 movie of the same name.
“I think it’s certainly the story of how just one person can make a huge difference,” Kiviniemi-Baylor said. “Just the physical and mental strength Anne needed to reach Helen is incredible. And when she finally found a way to break through Helen’s silence and darkness, then the whole world opened. So this is also an incredible story of perseverance, dedication and commitment.”
The director gushed over the talent and work of her cast and staff that have prepped a real, working water pump for the key spelling-in-Keller’s-hand scene near the end of the show. Both Kiviniemi-Baylor and Blair like the idea of a Willow Leaves presentation highlighting a more serious focus amid an array of successful, sold-out comedies that have been produced in Hope in recent years.
Blair figures that perhaps she was destined for such a role, having nurtured a fascination with Keller in her years at Rockcreek Elementary School.
“Helen initially was not really taken seriously (as important),” Blair said. “Sadly, in our world today, we can quickly dismiss or discount people who don’t look a certain way or act a certain way as unfit.”
Ideally, the actress hopes the show leaves audiences with one big question about such ignored people: “What can I do to step in and bring the real beauty out of them?”
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What: An independent dinner-theater production of William Gibson’s classic “The Miracle Worker” about the amazing work of blind teacher Annie Sullivan with a young blind and deaf Helen Keller.
When: 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. Also 6 p.m. Aug. 18.
Where: Willow Leaves of Hope, 326 Jackson St. in Hope.
Tickets: $25, includes the show and full meal and salad bar, drink and dessert.
Information: 812-546-0640.
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