“The Miracle Worker” creates new beginning for Rochester Civic Theatre

(ABC 6 News) – “The Miracle Worker” opens this weekend at the Rochester Civic Theatre and it is marking a new milestone for RCT.

This is the first time American Sign Language (ASL) has been used in a Rochester theatre performance. Helping to tell the story of Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan. Sharing how Anne teaches Helen, who is blind and deaf, to communicate.

“We’ll be having ASL interpreters at every single show,” said Eric Decker, the director of the show.

“That is a total of five interpreters on stage acting as shadows of the actors. So right there next to them will be the interpreter signing, making it much more accessible. Accessible for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.”

It’s not just a show. The exhibit “A Child in a Strange Country” is on loan from the Museum of American Printing House for the Blind in Kentucky. It helps visitors experience first-hand how Helen, and other hard-of-hearing, and deaf people learn math, reading, science, and geography.

“There are a lot of the historic, tactile objects blind, deaf, and hard-of-hearing people use throughout their formal education. So here’s an exhibit on chemistry, or physics, or the earth’s rotation around the sun and this is how they learned.”

You don’t need a ticket to see the exhibit.

“The Miracle Worker” opens Friday night and will run for two weekends. The exhibit will stay open through the end of April.