Ruby Spence (left) as Helen Keller (left) and Ryan Long as Annie Sullivan stole the show.

A High School Play Makes a Statement

It has been quite a long time since I sat in the audience for a high school play, but tonight was special. My last appearance was when I was 17, a senior at Cranberry High School in Avery County North Carolina. I forgot the name of the play, but I had the lead in it until a football injury required surgery. So, I got to watch and not to act. The play sucked.

Faith (left) and Linsee Lewis.

Tonight, my friend Linsee Lewis, whose acting in local productions I have admired for years, asked me to see "The Miracle Worker" at Salem High School because her daughter, Faith, was in charge of sound (which she did well).

It was basically a high school play until Ruby Spence and Ryan Long made their way onto the stage. Miss Spence, a sophomore, was simply riveting as the deaf-mute child, Helen Keller. Junior Ryan Long, as Keller's teacher Annie Sullivan, also shown in a remarkably physical part. Misses Long and Spence spent a good half of the play wrestling, kicking, pulling, shouting, crying. 

The performances were remarkable when you consider that this was a high school play. When Keller uttered the word "wa-wa" at the end of the play, I simply could not stop a large, intrusive tear from speeding down my cheek and losing itself in my beard.

A thoroughly enjoyable evening for me, and I didn't have a kid on stage. Go figure.