13-year old Abigail Kathleen Breslin was chosen by the producers to portray Helen Keller in a Broadway revival of the play “The Miracle Worker.” “The Miracle Worker” is all about the early childhood of Helen who was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor Arts degree. It is all about how her teacher, Annie Sullivan, guided and taught her how to communicate.
Abigail is best known for portraying Olive Hoover in the 2006 film “Little Miss Sunshine“in which she earned her first nomination to the Academy Award and make her the fourth youngest actress ever nominated in that prestigious award giving body. She also starred in “Signs,” “Nim’s Island,” “No Reservations,” My Sister’s Keeper,” and “Zombieland.”
After she signed a contract to play Helen Keller on stage this winter, deaf and blind advocacy groups complained and largely opposed in this decision. According to the executive director of the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts named Sharon Jensen, it’s not that they are against Abigail but they said that the producers or the management should have at least consider an actress from their community because they believed that they are the one suitable for this role and it would make the play more real.
David Richenthal, the show producer, said that they can’t find a blind or deaf child actress who can have a large impact to the audience. They wasn’t able to find someone from their community who has the star factor to justify the show’s large budget. And he said that they can see that Abigail has potential to carry this big role. He also added that the show will somehow make an effort to find a blind or deaf actress to play Abigail’s understudy but they are not going to make any promises.
Some members of the group are wondering if the management just didn’t want to make an effort to train impaired persons so that’s why they are considering Abigail who have been already recognized because of her acting skill and well-known young actress because of her great roles in different films.
Abigail Breslin will be making her Broadway theater debut beginning on February 10, 2010 and it is set to open on March 3, 2010.
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