Lighting designer John Webber and costume designer Sheila White create a look of old photographs come alive, which suits not just the context of the late 19th century but also the 50 year old play itself, acknowledging it’s dated storytelling style of stylized exposition and heavy handed scene endings.
The set revolves (literally) around the ever present water pump, like a religious symbol in a house of worship, thereby not distracting us with thoughts of “I guess the famous water pump scene comes later”. Instead we have immediacy and intimacy with characters and ideas. The vastness of space around the characters and the careful choices of basic set pieces beautifully strip bare the weight of the realism of Victorian rooms in a wealthy Old South plantation. She starts with the doll she brings Helen as a gift.Īllan Stichbury’s set feels like being inside a paper lantern, where light and darkness guide the story. No one is sure what exactly can be taught to such a child but Annie has designs on teaching her sign language, getting her to understand objects by immediately signing the word for them in her hand. and the desperate family hires Annie Sullivan to teach her. Alone with her 15 month old daughter, Kate Keller (Jennifer Clement) discovers Helen’s fever has left her deaf and blind.įor the rest of the play Helen is a young girl running wild.
Alessandro Juliani’s soundscape gives us a brief and powerful impression of the last sounds Helen heard. The play opens with doctor and family gathered around baby Helen’s crib, as she recovers from a fever. The play follows a short snapshot of the lives of Helen Keller (Margot Berner, alternating with Emma Grabinsky) and her teacher Annie Sullivan (Anne Cummer), but it is of course their most pivotal time together that is at the core. What director Meg Roe achieves is a stunningly robust and creative working of a rather dusty and creaky script. Given my commitment to my childhood heroines, imagine my excitement and trepidation attending the Vancouver Playhouse season opening production of William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker, the story of Annie Sullivan coming to teach a young Helen Keller. The latter was inspired by actual encounters (my Dad was a commercial fisherman), but my interest, um, make that obsession, with the deaf and blind Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan came from regular readings of their Scholastics biographies (both by Margaret Davidson).
Schwartz is hopeful that Albertans will heed public health warnings, particularly before the Christmas season, after seeing how efficiently the virus has been able to spread within the Flames organization.When I was nine, I was limited to three very enthusiastic topics of conversation: Helen Keller, Annie Sullivan, and whales. That is good news.But how the outbreak was able to occur rapidly is an example of how efficient this virus is, and how it is able to quickly spread among the vaccinated unknowingly.That, It spreads twice as fast as the Delta variant.According to a Flames spokesperson Thursday, all infected members of the organization, who are all (at the very least) double vaccinated, continue to be asymptomatic and are doing well. 11 and had players test positive in the following days. Schwartz said in-game transmission was likely how the virus spread from the Flames to the Boston Bruins, who were in Calgary for a game on Dec.
The team received news the Omicron variant was present among some results on Thursday, contributing to the province's 119 new cases - a figure that nearly doubled from the 60 reported on Wednesday. On a larger scale - locally, provincially, across Canada, globally, and, of course, in the National Hockey League - his team's current situation has become a microcosm of what could be in store with the new strain of the rapidly spreading virus.The Flames have confirmed 30 positive cases of COVID-19 since Saturday, 18 of which are affecting players.