Laconia, NH-
The Streetcar Company will present William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker at Laconia High School on December 2nd, 3rd and 4th. With two months of rehearsals behind them, cast and crew will spend the last few days before opening night fine tuning their roles and acclimating themselves to the newly constructed set. Director J Alward and assistant director Carolyn Desrosiers are quite pleased with the progress made by the cast, especially as a number of them have had little or no previous stage experience. One thing Streetcar tries to encourage is for new members to come and be a part of the live theater experience. While lead actress, Nerrishia Bodwell as Annie Sullivan has a number of shows under her belt with Streetcar and other surrounding companies, this is the first show Heidi Erhard, as Kate Keller, has performed in since high school. “I feel very fortunate to be a part of this presentation.” said Erhard. “It’s been a really positive experience; I feel I have joined a whole new family and I hope the audience appreciates all the work everyone has put into this production.”

Sophia Joyal, a sixth grader at Laconia Middle School, has been seen in a number of Streetcar productions and shows a capacity beyond her years as she portrays the deaf and blind Helen. New to Streetcar, but not to the stage, are Suzanne Banister as Aunt Ev and Eric L. March as Capt. Keller. Others performing in the production are Braeden Alward as James, Dawn Thompson as Viney, Doug Embree as Mr. Anagnos, Riley Alward as Percy, Sharleigh Thomson as Martha, Peter Ayer as Ezekiel, Johan Andersen as the doctor, Rebekah Roy, Hannah Watson, Alexa Dembiec, Cecilia and Kayla Zarella as the blind girls, Alec Thomson as Jimmy and Marcia Haven and Melissa Bigler as the crones.

Based on Gibson’s 1957 teleplay, The Miracle Worker was first presented on Broadway in 1959 starring Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan and Patty Duke as Helen Keller. Gibson’s adaptation of Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life, garnered rave reviews for the production and lead to the Academy Award winning movie also starring Bancroft and Duke in 1962. The struggle by Sullivan to teach a deaf and blind Keller to communicate with the outside world is a powerful story of compassion and strength of character. Battling her own demons as well as the frustrations presented by the Keller family having coddled Helen for so long, Sullivan’s progress is slow but eventually all parties grow and adapt to the challenges in the end.

Show times are at 7pm on Friday and Saturday night, December 2nd and 3rd, with a 1pm matinee on Sunday the 4th. Tickets are available at Greenlaw’s Music in downtown Laconia, Danbury General Store 705 US Route 4 (at the junction of Routes 4 and 104), and will also be available at the door. Ticket prices are $10.00 each with an advanced sale price of $8.00 for 4 or more tickets purchased at the same time. All tickets will be $10.00 at the door.

For more information go to the company website at www.streetcarcompany.com