Emily Landham and ten-year-old Madeleine Hall star as Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller in Studio Tenn’s upcoming production of William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker. Studio Tenn, resident professional theatre company of the Franklin Theatre today announced complete casting for the production that debuts February 23 and runs through March 4.
The cast will include some of Middle Tennessee’s best-known stage actors and features Hall in her professional stage debut as Helen Keller.
“We weren’t sure how young we could afford to go with Helen,” explains managing director Jake Speck. “We wanted to go pretty young but weren’t sure we could find a ten-year-old with the chops to pull it off—well, we did!”
Hall says playing Helen Keller is both an honor and a challenge: “When I enter [Helen's] world, I find it is interesting and scary,” she says. “The story is about her triumph over the dark and scary place where she lived. I hope everyone learns that Helen persevered and taught us to conquer our challenges and disabilities.”
Adult members of the cast include some of the best-known names, including Emily Landham—whose recent successes include lead roles in Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s Romeo and Juliet, Tennessee Repertory Theatre’s All My Sons and Studio Tenn’s A Christmas Carol—will take on the role of Anne Sullivan, the legendary teacher who helps Helen learn how to communicate.
Joining the actresses onstage will be Ellie Sikes (Studio Tenn’s The Glass Menagerie and A Christmas Carol) as Kate Keller; film and stage actor Jeremy Childs (Studio Tenn’s Guys & Dolls and Tennessee Women’s Theater Project’s Impressionism) as Captain Keller; Nashville Shakespeare Festival artistic director Denise Hicks (who just closed a critically acclaimed production of Julius Caesar) as Aunt Ev; Patrick Waller (Studio Tenn’s Guys & Dolls and Tennessee Repertory Theatre’s Yankee Tavern) as James Keller; Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva (from ACT 1’s production of Master Class and Street Theatre Company’s Hairspray) as Viney; and two-time First Night Award winner David Compton (seen most recently in NSF’s Julius Caesar, Tennessee Rep’s To Kill A Mockingbird and Nashville Children’s Theatre’s Holes) as Dr. Anagnos.
“To have assembled a local cast of such stellar quality is thrilling for us,” says Studio Tenn artistic director Matt Logan. “I am delighted with this group and could not imagine a more capable ensemble of professionals.”
Set in Tuscumbia, Alabama in the 1880s, The Miracle Worker tells the true story of Helen Keller, a young girl afflicted with both blindness and deafness, and Anne Sullivan, the teacher who finds a way for Helen to learn. The play centers on the pivotal portion of Keller’s childhood when Sullivan enters her life. As Sullivan struggles to reach Helen, she must also contend with the obstacles in her student’s family, namely a domineering patriarch resistant to change, a young mother who loves too much, and a son whose resentment of Helen bubbles close to the surface. “
Tickets for The Miracle Worker are available now. For more information about Studio Tenn, or to purchase tickets to The Miracle Worker, visit FranklinTheatre.com/Studio-Tenn.
pictured: Emily Landham and Madeleine Hall
