I am another of Helen Keller's great-nieces and I agree with my cousin's comments below. The goal of putting on a play is to put on the best play possible - and that means of course the best cast and the best director and the best sets, etc. If there is a different goal, then why put on the play in the first place?Any hoped-for effects of the play - like, say, drawing attention to the capabilities of the blind and deaf - will be diminished if the play is not as good as it can be. I am not suggesting that no blind and/or deaf child actress could play this role well, but that the pool is surely considerably smaller and the communication issues with other cast and director considerably complicated, and that the director no doubt chose the young actress whom she felt she could work with best to achieve the best performance. As she should.
The best actor or actress for a job is the one who can convey that role believably to the widest possible audience. There are always experts in something-or-other who will notice the shortcomings of the actor's art. Someone below made the very good observation that to her, hearing actors are never believable when they do sign language - it's choppy and awkward and nuances of expression are lost. She is an expert in sign language and notices the unreality, the acting, that most of us don't notice. New Orleanians (I am one) are always rolling our eyes at the accents of actresess portraying Blanche Dubois, for instance, but no doubt the rest of the world isn't. Military history experts have plenty to scoff about in costumes and manners on stage and screen, but the rest of us don't. Of course any good actor or director tries for the best possible accuracy, but no one can be all things to all people.
Casting always, or usually, involves intelligent give-and-take. One actor looks the part perfectly, another, who looks most unlike the part is a better actor. It all depends on the play and the role and the rest of the cast and the director's vision - how can he or she work with the strengths and weaknesses of all the cast to achieve the vision and stage the best possible performance? That's not the audience's decision to make until the performance..
