"The Miracle Worker" is one remarkable story about two amazing women.

Blind, deaf and mostly mute, Helen Keller lived in a world of silence and frustration in the until an inventive teacher named Anne Sullivan arrives. Sullivan's dedication and determination helped Helen Keller discover the power to communicate. Helen Keller went on to become one of the world's most respected women.

Two pre-teen actresses are portraying the role of Helen Keller in the Ross Valley Players' production of "The Miracle Worker," playing through Dec. 6 at the Ross Valley Players' Barn Theatre in Ross.

One of those actresses, Sierra Stephens of Fairfax, is our Center Stage guest on this Thanksgiving morning.

Sierra has been performing in alternating presentations of the Tony Award winning play by William Gibson, based on the inspiring life of Helen Keller. She has learned sign language and has worked on adopting physical characteristics to portray Helen Keller as authentically as possible.

WEBSITE: www.rossvalleyplayers.com

More about Helen Keller:

Helen Keller was born on a plantation called Ivy Green in Tuscumbia, Alabama in 1880. After a childhood illness of meningitis she was rendered blind and deaf. She went on to become one of the world's most respected women with the help of her devoted tutor Anne Sullivan who taught Helen to communicate by spelling words into her hand.

In 1894, Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan moved to New York and attend the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf and Horace Mann School for the Deaf. In 1896, they returned to Massachusetts and Keller entered The Cambridge School for Young Ladies before gaining admittance four years later to Radcliffe College. At the
age of 24 Keller became the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree when she graduated from Radcliffe in 1904.

Keller went on to become a respected author and lecturer. She toured and presented lectures, raised funds for the training of the blind and promoted social causes throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Keller also became a political activist who was outspoken in her opposition to war and campaigned for
women's suffrage, workers' rights, socialism and many other progressive causes.

President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Helen Keller the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. Keller died on June 1, 1968 at her home located in Westport, Connecticut.

Keller was listed in Gallup's Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century in 1999.