ASF Study Materials for by William Gibson Study Materials written by: Susan Willis ASF Dramaturg
[email protected] Contact ASF: 1.800.841.4273, www.asf.net 1 by William Gibson Welcome to The Miracle Worker The challenge of writing historical Characters drama is that we all know the ending and in Tuscumbia, Alabama: something of the major characters, so raw suspense does not drive the action Captain Keller, Helen's so much as a sense of watching how the father events happen. William Gibson dazzled the Kate Keller, his second wife, genre with his 1959 award-winning play, Helen's mother The Miracle Worker, dramatizing a superb James Keller, his son by his All-American story of a young woman and first marriage a child who face immense challenges and Helen Keller, blind and deaf triumph. The action is as physical as Rocky since a toddler and as intensely language-based as the Aunt Ev[eline], the Captain's recent filmArrival —and the climax comes sister down to the understanding of one word. A Doctor People usually consider The Miracle Viney, a black servant Worker to be "the play about Helen Keller." While Helen is indeed the play's focus of Martha servants' energy and the miracle happened within The well pump at Ivy Green, Helen Keller's Percy } children her, the actual worker of the miracle is Annie childhood home in Tuscumbia, Alabama, with cottage near the house in background Sullivan—the play is about Annie Sullivan at Perkins Institute, Boston: with Helen Keller. Gibson puts Annie's Mr.