Blind playwright explores challenges in personal journey
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- Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:06:12 -0400
The Express-Times, NJ, USA
Friday, October 19, 2007
Blind playwright explores challenges in personal journey
By melinda rizzo
"Weights: One Blind Man's Journey" will be performed by its author, Lynn
Manning, beginning Wednesday at Touchstone Theatre in Bethlehem.
Manning, based in California, is a poet, playwright, actor and former Blind
Judo world champion. He lost his sight at the age of 23, during a bar fight in
which he was shot and blinded.
"I think 'Weights' resonates with audiences because there is something each
person can relate to," Manning explains.
"What one person takes away from the story and performance isn't always the
same thing as what the person sitting next to him takes away. The play is an
emotional, forward-moving journey."
"Weights" begins the night Manning was shot and takes the audience on a
time-travel back to his troubled childhood. There are experiences in the Los
Angeles foster care system, and ultimately to the place where he rents his
first apartment as a blind man
"There was so much work being done about being a black person in New York, or
in Chicago, or in the South, but there was no work being done about being a
black man in Los Angeles, or anywhere in California," Manning reflects. "I
guess it's because we're all supposed to be living in paradise here."
Manning says the play, which is among his most extensive body of work and the
most performed, is a 90-minute, one-act journey that illustrates his childhood,
youth and struggle toward complete independence.
"This isn't just a blind person's story, but rather a story that has a broader
exploration of disabilities and how we overcome them," Manning explains.
He will perform in Philadelphia during his upcoming stay in the Lehigh Valley,
at the Amaryllis Theater and at the Playground Theatre at the Adrienne.
In addition to "Weights," Manning has written "Shoot," "Up from the Downs,"
"Private Battle," and "The Last Outpost." He is a member of the
Playwrights/Directors Unit of the Actors Studio West Coast.
Manning's television credits include appearances on "8 Simple Rules,"
"Popular," "Seinfeld," "The Sinbad Show," and "Dream On." He has also appeared
in commercials for Nike Shoes, Hewlett Packard, Schweppes, Bank of America, and
Sprint Long Distance.
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/expresstimes/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-1/1192767066207390.xml&coll=2
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