BIGGEST THEATRE I WANTED

By Terence McQueen
APLAY which the distinguished American Catholic magazine "The Sign" hailed as "the play of the year" in the Broadway 1959-60 season is to open next month (7th) at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford on Avon, and in early March at the biggest available theatre in the West End.
The play is "The Miracle Worker", based on the early childhood of Helen Keller who has become a legend in her own life-time as the American champion of those who like herself have the triple handicap of the blind-deafdumb.
Chosen to play the part of Helen Keller as a child overwhelmed with a tragic past is 12-year-old Janina Faye, who is in the parish of the church of the Holy Ghost and St. Stephen, Shepherds Bush, West London.
-"ANNA (she was christened J Bernadette) is being tipped as one of the brightest discoveries in the English theatre.
Born in London, of Polish-English parents, she started her dramatic training at the age of six, and a a year later won her first film part in "The Story of Esther Costello", playing Esther as a child.
SHE has had six film parts since then — among them, the juvenile lead in "Never Take Sweets from a Stranger". She has also appeared in several television plays — notably the Tom Sawyer serial on BBC TV, in which she played Tom Sawyer's girlfriend, Becky.
Last year, when she obtained her licence permitting here to go on the stage, she won a part in "The Most Happy Fella".
Over 100 child actors competed with her for the role in the British production of "The Miracle Worker".
N praising "The Miracle
Worker" when it first opened on Broadway, the Catholic theatre critic of "The Sign" recommended it to family audiences as an inspiring. memorable, intensely moving study of a lonely child groping for friendship and the light of faith.
Three West End theatres have already offered to stage the play in London.