The Show
Yes! Contrary to what you might think is the normal state of the universe, Helen Keller really did perform on vaudeville stages for four years (1920-1924). Stumbling across this little known fact about one of the most famous women of the modern world, michelle-leona decided to investigate Helen’s motivations and the reaction of others to her startling career move which she describes in her much lesser known and out of print follow-up autobiography to The Story of My Life called Midstream. Much of the script of the Star of Happiness quotes Helen’s eloquent words about her uniquely glamorous life as a performer, her unenviable frustrations at not being taken seriously as a politically engaged and often radical thinker, and her poignant thoughts about living life as “an unmated.” Helen’s words are further complicated by michelle-leona’s perspective as a professor, performer, and woman with a progressive eye disease. Irreverent humor rubs up against reverential admiration in the patchwork of jokes, philosophy, biography and the sound and vision scapes that call attention to both the joys and superficialities of the sensory experience.
Though the story moves forward in time from 19th century Tuscumbia to present-day nyc, The three acts are snapshots connected more by ideas than a strict narrative. Act One enacts the impossible but nonetheless worthy attempt of SHE to recover Helen’s Life and personality out from under the debris of juvenile jokes on the one hand and stuffy biographies on the other. Her “lecture” is framed by the limited narrative of The Miracle Worker in order to draw attention to the constraints Helen experienced living eighty years in the public eye – an eye that for the most part refused to let her grow up or to see her as a complicated, thinking person.
Act Two recreates and deconstructs the act Helen performed for four years on the vaudeville circuit. SHE quotes Helen’s words and her jokes as well as the feel of 1920’s variety from shtick to sentimentality. At the same time SHE grapples with Helen’s politics, religion, and sexuality from a point of view that is both skeptical and sympathetic. In Act Three SHE presents herself as dr michelle-leona godin, professor and performer. SHE may now be allowed to participate in a more universal and nuanced discourse than had been her predecessor, but still cannot quite get over the blind thing. Likewise, the jokes are hers now and biting and funny though they may be, there is still something pathetic and pandering in them. Throughout the show the rare photos and virtual stage sets illustrate ironically and honestly the visible world in which SHE lives and the spectator may be left wondering where to find the line between exploitation and transcendence.

Michelle-Leona Godin (writer, all parts & voices) received her Ph.D. in English literature from NYU’s English department in January 2009.  Her dissertation The Spectator & the Blind Man: Seeing and Not-Seeing in the Wake of Empiricism is available through ProQuest.  Professor G. Gabrielle Starr writes: “I have learned more and have been more intrigued by what she has written than I have been in reading any dissertation that has come across my desk.  “Though her research on Helen Keller launched her from eighteenth-century England to 20th century America, the central concerns, namely  how social and philosophical constructs shape blindness as both a trope and a disability, provide a through-line.  Michelle-Leona is a regular adjunct and occasional faculty at NYU and is currently working on a companion paper provisionally titled “What is it Like to be Helen Keller?”, inspired by Thomas Nagel’s 1974 essay on consciousness  and subjectivity, “What is it Like to be a Bat?”.
when she is not teaching and writing she performs at comedy, storytelling, and variety shows in downtown Manhattan and beyond.  Recently she appeared at the Newyorican with KickAssonance and the 92Y Tribeca with Sideshow Goshko.  She has also performed on The Moth Main Stage, and at Tell Your Friends, The Liar Show, and at many music venues around the city, both with her former band Gutter & Spine and currently as a solo act which can only be described as an avant-accordion brain-smash!
The Star of Happiness: Helen Keller on Vaudeville?! Is thus a true and living synthesis of Godin’s experience as a professor and performer.  It debuted at Under St Marks in July 2011.  Kyle Erickson (okieinthecity.com) says, “a masterpiece!  It’s a shame this woman is not famous!” 
For more info please visit: michelleleonagodin.com

Igor (lovely assistant) is Michelle-Leona’s guide dog.  He is a two year old German Shepherd born, bred, and trained at the Seeing Eye guide dog school, which is the oldest guide dog school in the united states and one of the most prestigious in the world.  his trainer was the marvelous Sue, who also trained his mistress michelle-leona, and they  graduated together at the top of their class in September 2011.  Since then he has been working hard in the streets of New York City.  He is proud to be part of this production of The Star of Happiness.  You can read his Guide Dog FAQ here: michelleleonagodin.com

luckydave (tech designer)  is a sound/lighting technician & projections designer.  His recent Projections Design credits include assisting in projection design for Blue Man Group’s upcoming Vegas show, Ibsen's "Ghosts" (Extant Arts), "No More Big Secrets" (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), "Intríngulis" (LAByrinth Theater Company), "underneathmybed" (Associate to S. Katy Tucker) (Rattlestick), "No Traveler" (Frigid Festival), "One Man Hamlet" (Horse Trade Theater Company), "The Rock Tenor" (Wilma Theater, Philadelphia), "Flamingo Court" (New World Stages), "Kill the Band" and "Hysteri-KILLY" (Horse Trade Theater Company), "Gato Loco Coconino" (Ars Nova Theater), "The Colored Museum" (Crossroads Theater Company) and "A View from 151st St" (LAByrinth). He's worked quite proudly with "Uncle Jimmy's Dirty Basement" for many years. He is honored to be a Stable Hand with Horse Trade. He also supports QLab.
http://figure53.com/qla

Randi Rivera (director) is a director/designer/stage manager/native New Yorker. She holds a BA in Theater and Hispanic Studies from Hamilton College. She studied Technical Theater at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and Production Management at Universidad San Pablo (CEU) in Madrid, Spain. Randi has proudly worked with many performing arts organizations such as Dance Theater Workshop, HERE Arts Center, Atlantic Theater Company, DanceNOW NYC, New York Film Academy, Venue13 at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Ivy Baldwin Dance, Horse Trade Theater Group, and The Chocolate Factory. Recently, she's been touring with and stage managing for Faye Driscoll Dance Group and Gallim Dance. Her NYC directing debut, The Geographical History of America by Gertrude Stein, was named Critic's Pick by Backstage Magazine. Randi is delighted to be on the Star of Happiness team!

David Lowe (image curator and designer) is a musician, conceptual and video artist, and photo archivist. He has made video displays for musical performances and a series of absurdist, surreal short films; turned a Portuguese former bomb factory into a giant amplifier, and installed telescopes inside a cathedral; was a member of the band Gutter & Spine with Michelle-Leona; and has compiled over 80,000 biographies of photographers for a forthcoming historical research database to be published by the New York Public Library in 2012.

Christina B recorded The Star of Happiness Theme song for us.  (The song was written for Helen’s vaudeville act in 1920 by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn.) Christina is a singer, songwriter, producer, and front-woman for the band Starlight Girls. Her third album, and Starlight Girls' debut EP, will be released this January. Songs are available for free download at starlightgirls.net.