The Miracle Worker is a cycle of 20th century dramatic works derived from Helen Keller's autobiography The Story of My Life. Each of the various dramas describe the relationship between Keller — a deafblind and initially almost feral child — and Annie Sullivan, the teacher who introduced her to education, activism, and international celebrity. Literary cycles are groups of stories grouped around common figures, based on mythical figures or loosely on historic ones. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was a deafblind American author, activist and lecturer. ... Cover of the first English edition of 1793 of Benjamin Franklins autobiography. ... Deafblindness (or deaf-blindness) is the condition of a person who is both deaf and blind. ... This article is about the feral child. ... Anne Sullivan, Annie Sullivan, or Johanna Mansfield Sullivan Macy, (April 14, 1866–October 20, 1936) was born in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts. ... Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action or inaction to bring about social or political change. ... For other uses, see Celebrity (disambiguation). ...

Its first realization was a 1957 Playhouse 90 broadcast written by William Gibson and starring Teresa Wright as Annie and Patricia McCormack as Helen. Gibson adapted his teleplay for a 1959 Broadway production with Anne Bancroft as Annie and Patty Duke, who reprised their roles for the 1962 feature film. Playhouse 90 is the name of a 90-minute long dramatic television series that ran on CBS from 1956 to 1961. ... William Gibson (1964) William Gibson (born 13 November 1914) is a Tony Award-winning American playwright. ... Wright in Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Muriel Teresa Wright (October 27, 1918 – March 6, 2005) was an Academy Award-winning American actress, known professionally as Teresa Wright. ... Patty McCormack as Rhoda Penmark in The Bad Seed Patty McCormack (born August 21, 1945) is an American actress. ... Sample from a screenplay, showing dialogue and action descriptions. ... Anne Bancroft (September 17, 1931 – June 6, 2005) was an iconic Academy, Tony, and Emmy Award-winning American actress. ... Patty Duke (born December 14, 1946) is an Academy Award-winning American actress of the stage and screen. ... The Miracle Worker is a 1962 film based on a play by William Gibson from Helen Kellers autobiography, The Story of My Life. ...

The Miracle Worker was remade for television in 1979, with Patty Duke as Annie Sullivan, Melissa Gilbert as Helen, and Diana Muldaur and Charles Siebert in supporting roles. In 2000, another television production directed by Nadia Tass starred Alison Elliott as Annie and Hallie Kate Eisenberg as Helen, with David Strathairn and Lucas Black in supporting roles. Melissa Ellen Gilbert (born May 8, 1964) is an American actress, writer and producer, primarily in movies and television. ... Diana Muldaur (born August 19, 1938 in New York, New York), is an American television actress. ... Charles Siebert (b. ... Nadia Tass (born 1956) is a film director and producer, originally from Macedonia, northern Greece, who moved to Australia in the 1960s. ... Alison Elliott (born 19 May 1970) is an American actress. ... Hallie Kate Eisenberg A precocious child with a mass of brown curls and deep dimples, [1] Hallie Kate Eisenberg (born August 2, 1992) is an American actress. ... David Russell Strathairn (born on January 26, 1949) is an Academy Award-nominated American film and television actor. ... Lucas York Black (born November 29, 1982) is an American film and television actor. ...

A 1984 made-for-television sequel, Helen Keller: The Miracle Continues, starred Blythe Danner as Annie, Mare Winningham as Helen, and Jack Warden as Mark Twain. its a movie about another girl who is deaf and blind like helen http://www. ... Blythe Katherine Danner (born February 3, 1943) is a prolific two time Emmy-winning American actress who has appeared in numerous stage, screen, and film roles. ... Mary Megan Winningham (born May 16, 1959) is an American film and television actress. ... Jack Warden (September 18, 1920 – July 19, 2006) was an American actor. ...

Source of the name

The title originates in Mark Twain's description of Sullivan as a "miracle worker." The famed American humorist and author was an admirer of both women, and although his own personal finances were problematic, he helped arrange the funding of Keller's Radcliffe College education by his friend, financier and industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),[1] better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American humanist,[2] humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer. ... Radcliffe College was a liberal arts womens college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, closely associated with Harvard University. ... Henry Huttleston Rogers (January 29, 1840 – May 19, 1909) was a United States capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist. ...

The "MAH MAH" controversy

The "miracle" in The Miracle Worker occurs in this when Sullivan and Keller are at the water pump refilling a pitcher of water. It is in this moment that Helen Keller makes the intellectual connection between the word Sullivan spells into her hand and the concrete substance splashing from the pump. Keller demonstrates her epiphany by miraculously whispering the word "Wah-wah," the baby talk equal of "water." This article is about the form of speech. ...

Many have questioned the reality of this depiction, as Keller had not uttered a single vowel in the course of the film, and, as an apparently pre-lingually deaf and blind child, would not have been aware of the existence of drama. Although the moment of comprehension is the most satisfying scene in the film, it was designed for hearing audiences. A hearing audience would not be expected to fully relate to the importance of the moment by seeing Keller merely spell the word, which would require an understanding of the manual alphabet. Keller mimics the words Sullivan spells into her hand throughout the film by spelling them back in Sullivan's hand, so at this moment it would only seem that Keller was continuing to mimic without understanding the concept. To bridge that problem the film's writer and director had actress Patty Duke (and others in subsequent remakes of the film), who portrayed Keller, speak the word "mah mah" while she finger-spelled "mother". The moment of revelation thus becomes clear for hearing audiences, but has been criticized for setting unrealistic expectations for deaf children to "be like Helen Keller" and speak, when even the most gifted deaf child realistically takes years to utter a comprehensible syllable and a lifetime of speech therapy to maintain the ability.

Nevertheless, according to Keller's own account in The Story Of My Life, she was not quite pre-lingual when she experienced the illness that destroyed her sight and hearing. She was a year and a half old, at a developmental stage where she understood what was said to her, and she had a small spoken vocabulary, including "Howdy", "Tea, tea, tea" and "mother", which she in fact pronounced "mah-mah". She continued to say "mahmah" long after she was deafened; she describes it as the one word she kept, while substituting a large vocabulary of signs for everything else she wanted to say. She not only remembered that speech existed, but she constantly put her hands over others' mouths as they were talking and attempted to talk as well. This is depicted accurately in the play. Like Laura Bridgman, she did have that year and a half of developmental normalcy, and it is not unreasonable to assume that this is one reason "water" was the first spelled word that gave her the understanding that the symbol and the water itself were meant to be linked. Laura Bridgman (December 21, 1829 – May 24, 1889) was the first deaf-blind person to be successfully educated, fifty years before the more famous Helen Keller. ...

William Gibson did not use "The Story of My Life" as his exclusive source for the play. In interviews, he has said he also relied on a printed volume of Sullivan's letters written during the time of her early stay with the Kellers. This is alluded to during the film, which depicts her writing letters in her room.

Finally, Helen's utterance of "wah-wah" is consistent within the dramatic unity of the play and film. In the middle of the play, Helen's mother tells Sullivan that Helen, before her illness, had been precocious in her learning of language and that her first word had been "wa-wa" for water. This sets up the emotional power of the scene at the well. By echoing the first word Helen spoke as an infant, the viewer immediately knows that Helen has made an intellectual breakthrough and now grasps the existence and purpose of language.

Popular culture references

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• South Park has an episode centering on a student musical production of the The Miracle Worker.
• A Family Guy episode recreates a Miracle Worker scene, but with Sullivan and Keller speaking in binary.
• The Sanjay Leela Bhansali film Black starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee is a retelling in an Indian context of a similar story.
• In the Suzue Miuchi manga Glass Mask, two fictional actresses, the protagonists Maya Kitajima and Ayumi Himakawa, each perform the Keller role.
• The drama teacher in the Disney film High School Musical on Stage! contrasts the show being rehearsed with The Miracle Worker, in telling a student actor to open his eyes.
• In Clerks II, Randal argues with Dante over his own confusion between Anne Frank and Keller.
• A Mad TV episode parodies the musical-style movies of the Olsen Twins, with one actress playing both twins; one takes the role of Keller and the other of Sullivan. Than Helen wenton getting smarter by the day.

Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... This article is about the TV series. ... Helen Keller! The Musical is episode 61 of South Park. ... The Black Crook (1866), considered by some historians to be the first musical[1] Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. ... Family Guy is an Emmy Award-winning American animated television series about a dysfunctional family in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. ... The binary numeral system, or base-2 number system, is a numeral system that represents numeric values using two symbols, usually 0 and 1. ... Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Devanagari:संजय लीला भंसाली) is a highly acclaimed Indian film director. ... Black (Hindi: ब्लॅक) is a Hindi and Indian English film released in 2005 and directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. ... Bachchan redirects here. ... Rani Mukherjee (Bengali: (also known as Rani Mukerji), born March 21, 1978 in Bengal, India) is a six-time Filmfare Award-winning Indian film actress. ... Suzue Miuchis self portrait. ... This article is about the comics created in Japan. ... Original run April 09, 1984 – September 27, 1984 Episodes 23 OVA Director Tsuneo Kobayashi Studio TMS Entertainment Episodes 3 Released December 16, 1998 TV anime Director Mamoru Hamatsu Studio TMS Entertainment Network AT-X, TV Aichi, TV Osaka,TV Tokyo Original run April 05, 2005 – ongoing Episodes 51 Glass Mask... Disney redirects here. ... High School Musical on Stage! is a musical with music and lyrics by Matthew Gerrard, Robbie Nevil, Ray and Greg Cham, Andrew Seeley, Randy Petersen, Kevin Quinn, Andy Dodd, Adam Watts, Bryan Louiselle, David N. Lawrence, Faye Greenberg and Jamie Houston, and a book by David Simpatico based on the... Clerks II is the sequel to Kevin Smiths 1994 movie Clerks, and his sixth feature film to be set in the View Askewniverse. ... Annelies Marie Anne Frank ( ) (June 12, 1929 – early March 1945) was a German-born Jewish girl from the city of Frankfurt, who wrote a diary while in hiding with her family, the Van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War... Mad TV has three meanings: MADtv — a TV series. ... Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Fuller Olsen (born June 13, 1986) are twin American actresses who have appeared in television and films since the age of 3 months. ...

External links

• Playhouse 90 production at the Internet Movie Database
• The Miracle Worker (1962 film) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Miracle Worker (1979 television remake) at the Internet Movie Database
• Helen Keller: The Miracle Returns at the Internet Movie Database
• The Miracle Worker (2000 television remake) at the Internet Movie Database