Helen Keller (Amy Thompson, left) and Annie Sullivan (Joanne Fayan, right) work towards a miraculous break-through moment in 2nd Story Theatre’s The Miracle Worker by William Gibson.

Richard W. Dionne, Jr.

The plot’s not the point. It’s merely the messenger: to enlightenment.

The Miracle Worker opens tonight at 2nd Story Theatre in Warren. William Gibson’s 1957 play relates to the life of Helen Keller, a blind and deaf woman who overcame her disabilities and not only learned to communicate with the world, but to be a force in it — as an author and an activist.

“I’ve always been haunted by that moment of elucidation that happens,” says Ed Shea, 2nd Story’s artistic director. “It’s the amazing moment when Helen Keller gets it. The reverberations are powerful.”

The Miracle Worker is based on Keller’s autobiography, Shea notes. But it’s really not about her. It’s about her teacher, Anne Sullivan.

“She was the miracle worker.”

The play, though rooted in reality, isn’t so much about the particulars of the people, namely Keller and Sullivan, but the broad ideals they embrace: of hoping and believing, caring and trusting, persevering and changing, and allowing yourself to love again.

“The play is so highly metaphoric. It’s almost like a fairy tale. The characters are such wonderful archetypes.”

On its surface, The Miracle Worker can be seen as an ode to all those who teach, he says, and, perhaps, a hope to all those who raise children with curbed communication, perhaps caused by autism. But more deeply, he says, the play is about everyone, because it’s basically about learning to live. “This is a play. It’s not a literal biography or documentary. I’m interested in the universal experiences.”

Keller was born in Alabama in 1880. At 18 months, she contracted an illness that left her blind and deaf.

“Helen is determined to remain in the dark. She does not want to change. This is about the power of knowledge and language, and the fear of change.”

Sullivan, 24 years older than Keller, grew up in Massachusetts. At 3, she contracted an eye disease that took away much of her vision, which would later be restored after multiple surgeries. Her mother died when she was 9; she and her brother went to an orphanage, where her brother died soon thereafter.

After graduating from the Perkins School for the Blind, located outside Boston, Sullivan became a teacher at the school. And when Keller was 8, her mother, who hadn’t lost hope in helping her, contacted the school requesting a full-time tutor.

Sullivan took the job, seeking only money, according to Shea, not a lifelong relationship.

“So many people whose hearts have been broken shield themselves from loss by not investing in another person emotionally again. They protect themselves against that same devastation. Annie learns this.”

Sullivan learns to love again as she teaches Keller to learn, which was quite difficult given Keller’s sensory isolation and almost feral interaction with the world.

“Helen is like a monster. But as with many fairy tales, the monster has a heart. That’s the quest that Annie is on, to find the heart in that monster.”

Sullivan tirelessly taught Keller by spelling the names of objects in Keller’s palm. Reportedly one of the few words Keller learned before losing her vision and her hearing was “water.” And when water coursed over Keller’s hand as Sullivan spelled the word in her palm, a communication epiphany came to Keller.

In Gibson’s play, the enlightenment is made metaphoric as Keller drops a key into a well.

“Her key to understanding comes from the water. Gibson puts the elements together.”

Breaking through to someone who’s blind and deaf seems epic. But Shea says all of us have similar experiences, or at least we should.

“People fight against growth, which I’ve seen as a teacher. It’s a battle to get actors to change and push past what they feel safe with. People doggedly guard against change in the way they deal with the world, whether it’s in art or in relationships.”

Keller was a young girl when she first met Sullivan. In this play, the character of Keller, who will be played by Amy Thompson, a young woman, will be portrayed as an adolescent girl, with open eyes.

“That’s about letting something in. There’s a desire for knowledge.”

The set will be mostly black.

“That’s Helen’s world. She can sense shapes and textures, but not colors.”

So the set will have visibly textural elements, including molding and newel posts. There will be off-stage sounds — birds, train whistles, etc. — to underscore what Keller can’t hear. And the characters will be dressed in light colors against the dark set.

“What becomes highlighted are the relationships between the people.”

Perhaps people will learn something about Keller and Sullivan from the play. But Shea hopes audiences learn something about themselves from The Miracle Worker.

“It’s a lovely title. But nothing comes without work. Miracles come because people work tirelessly.”

The Miracle Worker will be presented at 2nd Story Theatre, 28 Market St., Warren, tonight through Dec. 14. Shows are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m. For tickets, $25, call (401) 247-4200. For more information, visit www.2ndstorytheatre.com.

brourke@projo.com