I watched this production on Thursday, March 9th, at 7:30 p.m. In this paper, I will address three topics of interest to me after seeing this play. My personal reaction to how seeing this play was different from watching movies, television, or videos, the major strengths and how this play is responding to life today.
The reason why I chose my topic to be Tyler Perry is because he is inspirational to me. I grew up watching his plays; my family would gather to watch his plays when they came to DVD. Tyler Perry writes great plays, he has a lot of work: ranging from television shows to having a best-selling book. A big reason to why I chose this person to write about was because I feel like he gives out motivating messages to the urban community. I feel like Tyler has a lot of information to write about so that is another reason why I chose him to write about. His hard work and determination are motivational; he went from being poor and living on the streets to becoming a multi-millionaire. One more thing about Perry’s work is that he acts in most of his
“Perry’s writing career got started one day while he was watching Oprah Winfrey’s television talk show and heard Winfrey say that writing downs one’s experiences could be cathartic.” (Manheim) The word “cathartic” means by feeling relief from openingly expressing emotions. After watching this episode, he was inspired and began to write down what was going on in his life. He wrote about his family and the people he knew but replaced their names just in case someone read his notes. As years went by, Perry began to act out what he had wrote. Perry started acting in 1992 where he lived in Atlanta. He rented out a building called 14th Street Playhouse and acted out his first production called I Know I’ve Been Changed. He did not start out with a full house. He only had about 10 people watching and as he keep trying he still did not have many people coming to watch his performance. One day as he was getting dressed for his play he was sweating and
This play is about the experiences of a dying school boy, it is a celebration of life and the power to heal through gaining insight.
Viewing an episode on Oprah, he was inspired by the comment made pertaining to a difficult experience could lead to personal breakthroughs. So he took that comment to heart. Tyler started writing soul-searching letters to himself. These letters were about full of pain and in time and forgiveness. With taking that comment from Oprah, these letters inspired a musical, I Know I've Been Changed. In 1992, he headed for Atlanta, with his life’s savings, hoping that his musical would have sold out crowds. He spent all of his earnings, hoping that this would occur, unfortunately, the crowds did not show up. Then was faced with poverty that infected his youth. He spent months sleeping in motels, and his car. Still keeping faith in his dream, he secured a strong bond with the church and kept
Those letters would be transformed into his first hit musical, "I Know I've Been Changed." Perry's humble spirit and his faith in God kept him focused. He believed that God was calling him to share his story with as many people as possible so that he might help others. Perry learned real forgiveness, deep down inside, a forgiveness that leads to success in the soul. He chose the stage life as a vehicle, and this new life has been a learning process, full of hard work. But now Perry has reached out to millions across the country and in doing so has tremendously altered how people perceive and attend urban
3. The power of the play is its relevance to today’s society. We are surrounded in everyday life by men and women who might as well have been characters in this play.
Introduction Tyler Perry was born Emmitt Jr. on September 13, 1969 the third of four siblings, to father Emmitt Perry Sr. a carpenter and mother Willie Maxine Perry (née Campbell). Throughout his childhood, he endured abuse at the hands of his father. Later, during an interview Perry was quoted saying, “My father’s answer to everything was I’ll beat it out of you” (Gale 2006). He additionally disclosed being molested by a friend of his mother at the age of ten. Following years of abuse, Perry attempted suicide.
When the play was written and set (these may be different!) and a description of the cultural/social/political climate of these times and how is it reflected in your play
Emmitt Perry Jr. was born September 13, 1969 to Emmitt and Willie Maxine Perry. Throughout his childhood, his father would physically abuse Emmitt and his 3 sisters. With that, Emmitt tried to commit suicide to escape the abuse. One time, his mother, Maxine decided to pack up her stuff and take the children to California to get away from the abuse but her husband then decided to report the car stolen and caused the family to be held in jail until he picked them up. Afterwards, he beat Maxine Perry all the way home. When Emmitt got to the age of 16, he decided to change his name to Tyler to separate himself from his father. He also decided to drop out of school and get a GED later on.
While Hollywood’s prominent objective is to create a mockery through the portrayal of the “Black church”, Tyler Perry reinforces the religious views through his works by producing and broadcasting African American church culture in an authentic manner. Prior to Perry building a multimillion dollar empire within the entertainment industry, he was once an outcast to the Hollywood mainstream and dealt with personal experiences that only his faith got him through. Perry’s poor lifestyle before such a remarkable success in marketing movies, has allowed him to develop and share meaningful messages through his films.
Tyler Perry is a well-known actor, producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, and songwriter but, what some people don’t know is what occurred during his childhood. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. It all started when he was 5 or 6 when he was building a bird house with a male neighbor. The neighbor decided to sexually abuse Perry in a manner that he would forever remember. Tyler’s father was one of the main ones that severely beat and abused him. Tyler’s father would beat him with a vacuum cord. It got so serious he changed his name from Emmitt Perry Jr. to Tyler Perry to push his father further away. Every night when Tyler’s father fell asleep he would run to his aunt’s house so he was able to escape the abusive household. Abuse
Perry was asked what have kept him through his challenges and even suicide endeavors, Perry said "the Bible and his confidence". Life started to change for Tyler around age 28, the majority of his motion pictures and plays are altogether adored from a Christian imminent, and this he gained from an early age. Tyler keeps on composing, act. Deliver and coordinate different preparations about existence, marriage and absolution. One of his films "Why did I get hitched" depended on an awful relationship encounter he had and how you can beat it (Paxson & Waldfogel, 2002, p. 470). Despite the fact that Tyler Perry early years were troublesome he always remember about how to love and look after youthful kids and the old. All through his vocation he gave a great deal of time and cash to different groups and clubs. He generally discovered time to visit his old group to instruct the young fellows about family ethics.
Tyler Perry’s films frequently contain a Christian message, thus appealing a market that puts religious content and the target market and/or audience as whole ahead of influential people. Perry’s films, specifically those we watched in class, feature prostitutes, drug dealers, domestic violence disputes, and adulterers who happen to find their souls by coming to Jesus and those family members surrounding Christianity. One work that exemplifies this ideology, is Perry’s, Diary of a Mad Black Woman—Brian tells Helen that it isn’t good “to hold on to the things God is trying to tear apart,” but the most vivid reminder of Christianity for me was when Helen’s mother told her that, “God is a jealous God,” which took place during a conversation she and Helen had about Charles and how he was her entire life, rather than God being the center of Helen’s life.
I have never been involved with the production of any kind of play, so my partner and I decided that we would watch multiple versions of this play. There was Kenneth Branagh’s version which was sort of lack characteristic that we thought would be suiting for our “soap opera” themed performance.