The Week of February 26th, 2006: IN BLACK HISTORY
TYLER PERRY
CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY EVERYDAY

From homelessness to sheer bliss, thirty five-year old playwright, director, producer and actor Tyler Perry is truly riding high! Within the span of only six years, he went from being "out on the streets" to "selling out" theaters wherever he goes. He has done it with not only one show - but with seven shows having successfully toured the nation and thus creating a change in the history of Black theater.

This New Orleans native has had a stellar decade and is showing no signs of letting up any time soon. In 1992, he wrote a series of letters to himself in an effort to find a catharsis for his own childhood pain. Those same letters would eventually culminate to become Tyler's first hit musical, "I Know I've Been Changed," a rousing stage play about adult survivors of child abuse. The story combines a delicate mix of comedy and drama while addressing the often times uncomfortable issues which surround one's recovery from painful childhood scars.

Perry, feeling that he was onto something, eventually saved twelve thousand dollars, moved to the city of Atlanta with a script in his hand and a dream in his heart. However, after renting out a theater and starring in the production, he soon found out that it was not going to be as easy a task as he had thought. When only thirty people showed up in the audience over the entire weekend, Tyler came to the realization that theatrical promoting was definitely not his calling......read more from the official website www.TylerPerry.com.

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