New Orleans actress Lucy Faust has appeared on local stages with theatre companies including Southern Rep Theatre, Skinhorse Theatre, and the New Orleans Shakespeare Company. But when she was cast to play Annie Sullivan in the Bayou Playhouse’s upcoming production of The Miracle Worker, the play about the deaf-blind Southern author and activist Helen Keller, it was something special. “My grandmother’s father was Helen Keller’s brother,” observed the professional actress, who graduated from Middlebury College in 2009. “My entire life I’ve heard her referred to as ‘Aunt Helen.’ I do a lot of theatre and film, but I’ve never done The Miracle Worker before. I’ve always, always wanted to play it. I didn’t want to tell the director I was related to Helen until casting was finalized.”
That last fact becomes particularly germane when you consider that the director of The Miracle Worker, Perry Martin, is himself legally blind. “He’s pretty amazing,” noted Faust. “He can see shadows and colors and movement. He can discern some facial expressions. And The Miracle Worker was the first show he ever directed. That was twenty-eight years ago.”
Language is important to Faust, a professional actress who has appeared in films including The Bookie, In the Morning, and Beautiful Creatures, in addition to more than twenty stage productions. So the opportunity to play the woman who threw her great, great aunt the lifeline of language, literally rescuing her from a life of isolation and darkness, is something she doesn’t take lightly. “Annie taught Helen to understand by spelling everything,” she noted. She couldn’t see or hear, so that’s how she imbibed language. Annie had to teach Helen that words are things. If you have those things then you have the world. It’s a huge pleasure to play this role.” Directed by Perry Martin, The Miracle Worker plays at The Bayou Playhouse in Lockport from May 8—31. Bayouplayhouse.com.
