BHS to present 'The Miracle Worker'

The spring play at Buffalo High School presents a unique challenge for its cast and crew. 

There are the usual hurdles – memorizing lines, creating a set that effectively brings scenes to life, and finding time for rehearsal among the rush of school obligations and activities that seem to accelerate as the end of the academic year crests the horizon.

But preparing a show where a lead actor has only one line of dialogue, where scenes are occasionally built around physical rather than verbal expressions of emotion, and where actors must accurately recreate the experiences of remarkable historical figures is no simple matter. 

Audiences will see how Buffalo High School students have surmounted each of those challenges when they come to three performances of “The Miracle Worker” in the BHS Performing Arts Center Thursday through Saturday, April 24-26. Each show is at 7:30 p.m.

The production focuses on the true story of Helen Keller, who is both blind and deaf as a result of infant illness, but who is able to emerge from her dark, silent world with the help of her teacher, Anne Sullivan. 

“Out of all the (non-musical) plays I’ve been in in high school, this one is probably my favorite in terms of storyline,” said senior Ben Krinke. “It is based on real-life events, so it’s easier to connect to.”

Students were given a choice of genre for the spring play, and chose a drama. So director Debb Bestland, her husband and tech director Greg, and fellow theatre director Tracy Hagstrom Durant began sifting through options.

“I hesitated to pick ‘The Miracle Worker’ because it’s a difficult show to do,” said Debb Bestland. “There are some really hard scenes. One of the main leads says almost nothing throughout the show. There are two or three major fights throughout the show. It presents a challenge I wasn’t really sure we could handle. But we decided to go for it and see what happens.”

Inhabiting the characters
Sophomore Kaylee Anderson has embraced the opportunity to portray Helen Keller, but it isn’t easy to represent a blind and deaf character in a believable way.

“In other shows, if I’m supposed to be angry at a person, I’ve felt that before and I can put that into my character. But this isn’t like anything I’m used to,” she said. “I’ve tried walking around my own house without having my eyes open just to get more of a feel of what it’s like, because it’s hard to imagine that when I’ve never lived through it.”

Bestland said that opportunity to portray a completely unfamiliar experience is an aspect of the show that helps actors develop their skills in a different way from a typical production.

“It creates sympathy. It gives them a chance to play the role of a person they might never be or experience in their lifetime,” she said. “That requires a lot of research and forethought on their part. They need to get into this character and figure out what has brought them to this place.”

How does Anderson maintain the illusion of blindness even though her eyes are open on stage?

“I try to focus on one thing at a time, and not look where I’m going, which is challenging because I go up and down stairs a few times,” Anderson said. “It’s especially hard when I’m next to Avery [Russek, who plays Anne Sullivan] and she’s talking to me or signing into my hand, and I’m thinking, ‘I can’t make eye contact,’ because that would break the character.”

Sullivan grew up in a poorhouse in Boston, and overcame her own set of health- and circumstance-related adversity before she joined the Keller household.

“So the kids get a chance to see that sometimes the people we meet who are [difficult to deal with] have other things in their past that make them what they are, and sometimes that allows them to do things you wouldn’t dream possible,” said Bestland.

Inspirational experience
Russek, a junior, said that learning more about Sullivan’s own journey and her devotion to Helen has been inspirational.

“I’m really enjoying the historical aspect of it,” she said. “I’ve learned so much about what Annie strives for as a teacher. She isn’t sitting at a blackboard making Helen write sentences. She literally just brought her out in the world. They explored things through touch and smell. It was a different way of exploring the world without your eyes or ears, but she still learned, and it’s amazing how much they accomplished.”

Although the play only focuses on the beginning of Helen’s learning with Annie, Bestland said the broader story of their lives is one of unimaginable accomplishment.

“How do you take a child at 7 years old who is living in a world completely devoid of sight or sound, and teach that child to talk, read and write?” said Bestland. “[Anne Sullivan] was so successful at it that by the time Helen was in her teens and 20s, she graduated summa cum laude from Ratcliffe College, the equivalent of Harvard for women. Annie spelled every lecture into her hand. When a book wasn’t in brail, Annie read it to her, finger-spelling into her hand.”

Portraying the special relationship between Sullivan and Keller requires a certain chemistry between actors, and Anderson said she has appreciated the chance to undertake that journey with Russek.

“Avery is someone I’ve looked up to ever since we were young when we were in shows together. So it’s just amazing to be able to play this kind of role with her, where the characters are so directly connected,” she said.

Senior perspective
Krinke has played prominent roles onstage over the last four years, including Quasimodo in the fall musical “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” This week he will perform for the last time as a member of the BHS Theatre program.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet, but I think it will when this one is over and there’s not another one to look for afterward,” he said. “But I’m not going to let that affect me. I’m going to put on the best show I can for the audience we have, whether it be 5 people or 300 people.”

One aspect of acting that makes high school graduation a relatively soft transition is the possibility of continuing in community theatre as an adult.

“I’ll soak this in as much as I can, but at the end of the day it’s over and you have to move on,” said Krinke, who is planning to attend the University of Minnesota in the fall to study biology and eventually pursue a degree in the medical field.

Tickets
“I really do hope that people come in to enjoy and take away the little details of the show and what it’s really meant to share, which is learning and experiences – you can do everything you put your mind to,” said Russek. “If you come in with an open mind, I think you’ll really enjoy it.”

Tickets are available at the door, or online at https://bit.ly/BHSplaytix25.