Arts Blog

I am sad to read of the passing of William Gibson on Tuesday. The playwright of The Miracle Worker, the story of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller was 94 and died in Stockbridge, Mass.

I didn't know that his first success was a novel, The Cobweb, which was sold to MGM and made into a movie in 1955. He turned down the chance to make big money as a screenwriter because he preferred playwrighting. His success with The Miracle Worker (written shortly after Two For the Seesaw) brought him international fame in his 50's in 1959 as a Tony award-wnning Broadway hit and in 1960 as an Oscar-winning film hit.

I love this quote from his obituary in the New York Times: "Good things come to those who wait...far too long."

The Dallas Children's Theater did a couple of wonderful productions of this play under the direction of executive artistic director Robyn Flatt. Ms. Flatt showed an unerring ffeeling for what Mr. Gibson touched on, so exquisitely: the delicate, almost cross-hatched interconnectedness charged by the personal pain and passion required to make a difference.

Annie Sullivan could not have mustered the determination to help Helen without the shadow of the love between her and the little brother whom she couldn't save. And she would not have succeeded without the extreme stubborness and faith in her vision that is required of all visionaries.

He wrote until the end, evidently. And while his name was never as famous as the work he produced, he gave us a gift: ideas to ponder that will endure.