Drama, drama, drama. Woodland Regional High School’s renowned Drama Club is putting on their version of The Miracle Worker, a story about Helen Keller’s inspirational life. This award winning group has put on several productions since their start three years ago including Little Shop of Horrors, West Verona Story, and Once on This Island. But this is a very special production.
Based on a true story, The Miracle Worker is the story of a girl named Helen Keller, a blind and deaf girl who learns how to function from her “teacher” Anne Sullivan, a former blind woman. Helen Keller will be played by spirited Erika Pellegrino and spunky Catherine Pelkey will play Anne Sullivan. Pelkey’s character will teach Helen how to communicate and learn things such as manners and how to speak sign language.
The idea of performing the Miracle Worker came about when director, Susan Cinoman, was perusing on Youtube and found an authentic video of Helen Keller interacting with her teacher Anne Sullivan and she was fascinated. The drama club was unanimous about putting on the play.
The set of the Miracle Worker was built by chamber choir teacher Sean Lewis. Assisted by parents of drama club members and his stage craft class, Lewis built the props for the play based on director Cinoman’s sketch. Some of the props include a staircase, a well, a chariot, and a room.
“We’ve done a little bit of building some of the design, and most of the work that stage craft has done has been painting and priming materials and sanding things down to get everything ready,” says Lewis. “They’ve all contributed. Some have helped with hanging lights, refocusing the lights, and changing microphone placement.”
While the stage craft class is working hard, so are the actors.
“I’m really excited to work with Erika,” says Pelkey. “We started our theater careers in school together and now we’re ending it and it’s pure nostalgia.”
Pelkey used her free time to learn sign language to help her performance on stage as Anne Sullivan. The drama club has been rehearsing the play since the end of October and practices every day, including weekends, for the event.
All of the actors are working together to make the production fantastic.
“I think it’s going to go really well,” says Pellegrino. “We’ve been working really hard and I think it will show. It takes a lot of emotional depth to play Helen Keller so I had to really look into her character to be more like her.”
The production will start at seven on Friday and Saturday in the WRHS auditorium. Tickets will be sold at the door; adult tickets are $12 and children tickets are $5. A portion of the proceeds collected will go to the Life Skills children to fund their program. Everyone is welcome.
Cinoman is so proud of the Drama Club cast and is eager to see them perform.
“Every single person is vitally important to the success of the production,” says Cinoman. “Everyone has been working so hard and I think that we will be successful.”