Lynn Manning’s tale
of personal triumph

By Rita Charleston
For the Times

Lynn Manning is an award-winning playwright, poet, actor, paralympic silver medallist and former blind judo champion of the world, and has accomplished all this after being shot and blinded in a Hollywood bar at age 23.
Weights, his critically-acclaimed autobiographical solo show, is being showcased by Amaryllis Theater at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., through Sunday.
The one-man show dramatizes Manning’s triumph over extreme adversity. Through poetry, music and riveting narrative, Manning presents his incredible journey of an artist, who, though shot and blinded, refused to be pitied or to fail his inner spirit.
Born in Los Angeles in 1955 to an impoverished single mother and raised in foster care, Manning had dreams of succeeding as a visual artist. Then, the unthinkable happened. Losing his sight completely changed the life he was planning to live.
"I had originally dreamed of becoming a visual artist," Manning explained. "I was already painting and drawing and selling a few pieces here and there before the brawl. But my response to the incidence was quite a bit different from what I guess was expected.
"First of all," he continued, "I was just glad to get up off the barroom floor and had already made alternate plans in my life that if, for some reason I couldn’t paint, I would write. So I wanted to set that game plan in motion right away, and I knew that the best way to do that was to go back to school, get as much training as I could, and be able to reclaim my independence — which was very important to me."
And so he did. This man, who had grown up in foster care and who had already experienced a great deal of loss in his life, refused to suffer anymore. He insists he did not want to wallow in self-pity, which seemed to him counterproductive and of very little value.
Instead, he began writing poetry at first and, highly successful, was invited to share his work with others. Having to perform in front of an audience was difficult, he said, because he suffered from stage fright. But, overcoming that, Manning went on to test his skills as an actor, again achieving success. Later, that same success came to him as a playwright.
"When I was still a teen I told myself someday I would write my autobiography, so, when I did become a writer, that’s exactly what I began to do," he said. "My first multi-character play was produced in 1991 and later there were more. Weight, my ninth play, was finally done and presented in 2001."
The play, which premiered n Los Angeles, went on to win three NAACP Theatre Awards, including Best Actor for Manning, and has since been performed throughout the country, including by the Theatre By The Blind in New York City.
As a poet, his work has appeared in numerous magazines and literary anthologies. As an actor, he has appeared in such TV shows as 8 Simple Rules, Seinfeld, The Sinbad Show and others. He’s also been seen in commercials and on film.
Additionally, Manning has achieved "world class" status in competitive judo. Now retired from competition, he teaches judo to blind and visually impaired students at the Braille Institute in Hollywood.
A true Renaissance man despite his disability, Manning said he hopes, after seeing Weights, that his audience comes away with one message: "That is recognizing that there are far broader possibilities for people who are blind or visually impaired, or disabled in general, and that since we don’t all fit into one profile, one mold, we should all be judged as individuals." ••
For times and ticket information, call 215-717-2173, Ext. 93.