Hand in Hand

written and performed by Leslye Orr
inspired by the letters and lectures of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan

Hand in Hand is a disability awareness play where audiences are asked to close their eyes and use their heightened senses to “see” through the touch of hands and the minds eye.

About the live version of the performance: First performed in 1982, Hand in Hand is a play in which audience members are seated in a spiral configuration, asked to close their eyes, and brought in touch with the world of Helen Keller, who was deaf and blind, and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, who was legally blind. A myriad of objects are passed around the spiral while actress Leslye Orr tells a riveting story inspired by the profound letters and witty lectures of the great educator and her spirited pupil. Orr, herself legally blind since birth, created Hand in Hand to share her belief in the “possibilities of disabilities.”

This workshop-performance has been presented for schools and colleges, at staff trainings for organizations such as Serve Minnesota (Americorps), CTEP, the AFS/Flex program, and for human resources departments at organizations such as the Walker Art Center and Carlson School of Management. In 2012, Leslye traveled to Lithuania, Latvia and Israel with Hand in Hand as a speaker/specialist for the U.S. State Department.