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Actress Jennifer Martin performing Kate Keller, on the right, and Melia Cressaty, performed by Helen Keller, during the rehearsal for The Miracle Worker by the Lakeshore Players Dorval theater troupe.
Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette
When the Lakeshore players, Dorval, announced the auditions for The Miracle Worker, the idea was to hand Helen Keller, a teenager aged 14 to 18, deaf and blind.
But when director Donna Byrne saw Melia Cressaty's 11-year-old audition play a lesser role as a blind child, she asked him to play a role in Helen. It worked.
"I was very nervous because I had not prepared," Cressaty said.
Lakeshore players Dorval launches season with William Gibson's The Miracle Worker at Lakeside Academy on Thursday.
The play is based on the true story of American activist, author and academic Keller, who became deaf, blind at 19 months, as a result of what today's doctors would call meningitis. The disease has resulted in it becoming almost wild. His fits were epic.
For the audition, Cressaty was invited to do one of the most demanding angry scenes in the play.
In 1903, at the age of 22, Keller wrote the autobiographical Story of My Life. She explained how her parents, eager to help their isolated and frustrated daughter, had contacted the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston and hired Anne Sullivan as their daughter's housekeeper. Sullivan, played by Stephanie von Roretz in the Lakeshore production, finally made a breakthrough with Keller that allowed her to connect and communicate with the world.
Cressaty had no line to learn. Instead, everything was focused on memorizing several signals: when to go out, when to throw or to catch an object. She also had to learn to stare and move her limbs with uncertainty.
"I can not walk normally because I do not see," Cressaty said. "And I can not turn my head when someone talks because I can not hear."
In the play, Cressaty, like Helen, spends a lot of time in the arms of her mother, Kate Keller. Kate is played by Jennifer Martin, Cressaty's real mother.
"(Helen) knew that her mother loved her," Cressaty said. "Being in her arms made her feel safe."
His real mother had to learn to separate the reality from the imaginary.
"I like to watch her," said Martin about his daughter. "But she often turns her back on me, so I can not see. I had to do the separation – we are casting companions. "
Although Martin could not get out of his character to advise his daughter during rehearsals, she helped her get ready for the role at home in Dollard-des-Ormeaux.
To help Cressaty better understand Keller's isolation, Martin rearranged the living room furniture. Cressaty, who was not allowed to see the new layout, then inserted earplugs that the director gave him, covered his eyes with a blindfold and attempted to navigate the room .
"I did not know where anything was," Cressaty said. "I learned to hold my arms and move my legs."
Back in the day, Cressaty and her mother wrote school reports about Keller. So they started the project by understanding a little better the achievements of the activist. They also watched the 1962 film starring Anne Bancroft as Sullivan and Patty Duke as Keller. Both have won Oscars for their performances.
"It's inspiring," said Martin about Keller's story. "At first, there was no hope, and yet she became a scholar and a speaker."
From an eye catch
Lakeshore Players Dorval presents The Miracle Worker at Lakeside Academy, 5050 Sherbrooke Street, Lachine, November 8 at 7:30 pm, November 9-10, and 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm at 2:00 pm. mornings from 11 to 17 November. Ticket prices range from $ 20 to $ 26, depending on the location of the seat and the age of the ticket holder. To reserve, call 514-631-8718 or visit www.lakeshoreplayersdorval.com.
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