Actress Search Update on The Miracle Worker

Gina Wilhelm Actress: Actress Search Update on The Miracle Worker

A nationwide search has yielded a disabled actress to understudy Abigail Breslin in the upcoming revival of "The Miracle Worker" to go up on Broadway.

Advocates for the disabled had been upset that Breslin was playing the role of Helen Keller, rather than an actress with vision or hearing disabilities.

The Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts had said a blind or deaf actress would make the portrayal of Keller, who was herself blind and deaf, more authentic.

In response, producer David Richenthal had pledged to make an effort to find a disabled actress to understudy Breslin in the play, but that in the end, the role would be cast based on acting ability.

The understudy position will be filled by 10-year-old Kyra Siegel, of Eugene, Oregon. Siegel has limited vision in her right eye and finds it challenging to use both eyes together.

She'll be one of the few disabled actresses working on Broadway this season.

"Performing on Broadway was one of my dreams, but I never thought it would come true," Siegel wrote in an e-mail to a New York Times interviewer.

Gina Wilhelm Actress

Advocacy Groups Opposes Actress Search

Gina Wilhelm Actress - Advocacy Groups Opposes Actress Search

The Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts, as well as other groups, are protesting the decision to cast Abigail Breslin, who starred in "Little Miss Sunshine," as Helen Keller in the revival of "The Miracle Worker."

The groups are protesting that no hearing- or vision-impaired actresses were auditioned for the role of Keller, who was deaf and blind. The part was played in the original Broadway production by Patty Duke.

Lead producer of the show David Richenthal explained that he needed an established star for the role and his research did not producer any well-known deaf or blind young actresses.

Richenthal did say that he would audition deaf and blind actresses to be Breslin's understudy.

Gina Wilhelm Actress

The View From "Golda's Balcony"

Gina Wilhelm Actress - The View From "Golda's Balcony"

Tovah Feldshuh has a show on Broadway and works on TV. But her most reliable work is "Golda's Balcony."

"Golda's Balcony" is a one-woman show, a condensation from a multicharacter piece called "Golda."

That play was an attempt to re-create the magic of "The Miracle Worker" by reuniting its star, director, and playwright, all of whom won Tonys for the earlier play.

"Golda" was a commercial flop. "Golda's Balcony," by comparison, has proven reliable for Ms. Feldshuh.

In that play, Feldshuh portrays Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, when Meir turned to the United States for assistance.

In the course of her extensive research for the role, Feldshuh has become convinced that Israel had nuclear weapons and would have used them if the aid from the US hadn't come through.

Israel has never admitted to having nuclear weapons.

Ms. Feldshuh has to do a lot of work for the role. She wears a false nose and frizzy wig. She also has prosthetic legs to give the impression of Meir's phlebitis.

The hardest part, though, is the chain smoking. She says the trick is to grind the cigarette out almost as soon as it's lit.

Lighting the cigarette is what creates the illusion of chain smoking.

Feldshuh uses mild menthol cigarettes. She tried herbal cigarettes, which most nonsmoking actors use, but she said it smelled like "dope" to her.

She will perform the show in Kansas City this weekend, and then she goes back to her Broadway show Tuesday.

She says she performs the show maybe 10 times a year in places as far away as Africa and Hong Kong.

Interestingly enough, the one place she hasn't performed it is Israel.

Gina Wilhelm Actress