Cast members and the crew of Community Players of Southwestern Wisconsin’s production of “The Miracle Worker” are excited for the curtain to open this Thursday.

Show dates are July 26-28 and August 3-5 at the Richland Center High School auditorium. 

The cast is as follows: Helen Keller, Aundrea Nundahl; Annie Sullivan, Tessa Snyder; Captain Keller, Glen Dunne; Kate Keller, Leah Garner; Aunt Ev, Sharon Zales; James Keller, Nathan McDougal; Viney, Laura Merwin; Martha, Alea Klingaman; Percy, Gabriel Schmitt; Doctor, Duane Rose; Mr. Anagnos, Cameron Cormican; Blind Girls, Brynn Keller, Maggie Keller, Emma Spry, Amber Klingaman, Jessica Carlson; Off Stage Voices, Ezra Spry, Debbie Daus, Sharon Zales, Laura Merwin, Grayson Schmitt.

The director is Amy Rohn and the assistant director is Daniel Carlson.

This classic tells the story of Annie Sullivan and her student, blind and mute Helen Keller. “The Miracle Worker” dramatizes the volatile relationship between the lonely teacher and her charge. Trapped in a secret, silent world, unable to communicate, Helen is violent, spoiled, almost sub-human and treated by her family as such. Only Annie realizes that there is a mind and spirit waiting to be rescued from the dark, tortured silence. With scenes of intense physical and emotional dynamism, Annie’s success with Helen finally comes with the utterance of a single, glorious word: “water.”

Audiences may be familiar with the 1962 cinematic version, starring Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan and Patty Duke as Helen Keller. Leonard Maltin states, in his “Movie Guide,” Bancroft and Duke had been playing these parts on Broadway for over a year, but you’d never know it from their spontaneous and totally compelling performances, which earned them both Oscars.”