Living in the light of laughter—a keynote unlike any other

An Autobiographical monologue on over coming adversity with humor.

With her skills as a dramatist, Estelle transfers her audiences from her youth in South Africa and London to her current life in America.

Live with Estelle, as she faces ever-increasing challenges in the process of losing her sight. As a child she is unaware of her disability. She causes gray hairs as she goes through hilarious phases, such as her funeral phase in which she buries household necessities. Her parents try relentlessly to find a “cure” for her vision loss. They travel from ophthalmologist to soothsayers to witchdoctors and she is coaxed to take preposterous cures like eating seven lice on a slice of bread.

Throughout her years at a performing arts high school and university she loses more of her precious sight. She learns to overcome her obstacles with a humorous attitude and dedication to her art. This endears her to her educators, who in turn encourage Estelle on her career as an actress and drama teacher at her own school, The Imagination Station.

Though legally blind by now she furthers her studies at a theatre school in London England–a city she could barely see. There she finds her way to yet another ophthalmologist who prescribes enormous contact lenses Live with Estelle as she tries the lenses out in the busy streets of London.

In America we find Estelle married, combating the anguish of culture shock and facing the total loss of her sight. When she becomes blind, she is relieved from the haunting fear of blindness and learns to cope by’ living in the light of laughter’. Learn the innovative ways Estelle solves mobility and orientation problems around her house, garden and performance spaces. With the help of her husband, David, she discovers adaptive technology and writes a best selling children’s book “See the Ocean.”

Audiences are inspired by this performance which reflects on the resilience of the human spirit. It reinforces that laughter is the best medicine and that everyone can lighten their load with a humorous attitude.

Blind People Shouldn’t Vacuum—Laughter is the best medicine

To overcome our personal challenges we have to learn to laugh at ourselves. Most people would say blindness is not a laughing matter-but not Estelle. She starts the audience rolling in the aisles in the opening scene when she comes in carrying a vacuum cleaner which has sucked up everything but the dust. She has the audience in her hands as she goes from one routine to the other sharing hilarious, side-splitting experiences in the life of a blind person. In addition to pure fun and entertainment, the audience realizes that blind people don’t spend their lives in the doldrums. Laughter is also part of their lives and they welcome others to laugh with them.

 

 

Vibrations of Laughter–A teacher’s story

How did Annie Sullivan overcome the barriers of her traumatic childhood and poor eyesight and cross the formidable barrier of reaching the mind of a deaf, blind, and mute child? How did she bring laughter into the life of a child who had never seen nor heard others laugh? These are the questions answered in Vibrations of Laughter. Estelle becomes Annie Sullivan, the Miracle Worker, sharing insights into the life of this remarkable woman and her student, Helen Keller. This powerful and moving sixty-minute theater production is a reminder that what can be conceived can be achieved.