Entrepreneur of the Month

Tyler Perry
March 01, 2007

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.

However, one thing that he did know was that "this" was what he was supposed to be doing. And when God leads, He will provide. Out of the thirty in the audience, one wanted to invest. This newfound investor would soon find out that it took more than money to make a show work and as a result, the show would fail, repeatedly.

Because of having put all of his eggs in one basket, Tyler would eventually find himself homeless on one or more occasions over the following six years. Broke and at times starving, he relentlessly held on to his faith in God and continued to believe that it would all "come out all right" one day. "I know the Lord will make a way!" Perry would often exclaim.

When he did finally reach a point where he was going to give up, he reluctantly decided to do one last show. It was that one faithful decision which would change his life forever.

In the summer of 1998, what was supposed to be the "final" production of Tyler Perry's "I Know I've Been Changed" opened at the House of Blues in Atlanta and sold out eight times over. Two weeks later, the play would move to the prestigious Fox Theater and sell out 9,000 more seats for just two shows! "I Know I've Been Changed," would go on to gross several million dollars in revenue and ultimately raise the level of thinking concerning Black theater productions. Critics and audiences alike would eventually abandon the insulting title of "Chitlin Circuit", when referring to Black theater, bestowing upon it instead the respectable title of "Urban Theater."

The Washington Post wrote rave reviews for both the production quality of "I Know I've Been Changed" and Tyler's acting performances, calling it "on the whole" the most "well-produced Gospel show" they had "ever seen". To date, Mr. Perry continues to receive fan mail from people who talk about how seeing that show changed their lives. Evoking conversation between family members and encouraging them to talk about secrets that were long buried and hidden. In essence…helping entire families to heal.

"I Know I've Been Changed" has since been called one of the most successful shows of its genre, selling out repeatedly during its 1998-99 tour in major cities like D.C., New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Miami. After his performances sold out for three weeks in Dallas, an exhausted Perry decided to add an additional show on a Monday night. This would be the show that Bishop T. D. Jakes of the famed Potter's House Gospel Church would bring his family to see, thus adding a major turn of events.

Immediately after the show, Tyler was asked to help with next production of the "Woman, Thou Art Loosed" stage play. After reviewing a video tape of the initial play, Perry informed Bishop Jakes that if he came aboard, he would need to rewrite, produce and direct the show. He further explained that his desire to wear all of these hats was not arrogance, but that when he had gotten started, it was with nothing and he had no choice but to be all of these things. He had learned to do everything from make-up to stage-managing and production design.

With the Bishop's blessing, Tyler reworked the piece and the show opened in the summer of 1999 to enormous success. Although the summer is usually a hiatus time for these types of plays, "Woman, Thou Art Loosed" rolled on without a hitch. It grossed over $5 million in just five months, selling out in every major city and performing to standing room only crowds.

Seeing 16,000 to 25,000 people each week (predominately African Americans), Perry has developed a faithful following all across the country. In addition to requests for him to pen a play for the W.B. star, Steve Harvey, entitled "The Reverend Mack", which is currently on hold for touring.

The mere mention of the name "Tyler Perry" in a playbill advertisement practically guarantees a sellout in several major markets. Case in point, Perry's show, "I Can Do Bad All By Myself", opened in the year 2000 to rave reviews and sold-out houses in New York, Chicago, D.C., Memphis, New Orleans, and Atlanta. The show had only played in five markets and yet grossed one million plus!

Perry's comedic genius is once again put into full swing with this successful show. He plays Madea Simmons, a 68-year-old grandmother who leaves the audience in one round of hysterical laughter after another. The Washington Post best described the show when they called it, "wicked good fun".

In the spring of 2001, Tyler earned the honor of being nominated for the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actor (non-resident) for his role as Madea. Tyler is the first Urban Theatre actor to be nominated for such a prestigious award!

Bishop T. D. Jakes again honored Tyler by asking him to work on his latest musical entitled "Behind Closed Doors." The show also written, produced and directed by Perry and premiered in the summer of 2000 in Atlanta and proved another huge success. It was the first Broadway Gospel show of its kind. A musical filled with a talented multiracial cast, an incredible set, and superb vocal and musical arrangements. In the fall of 2001, Tyler was nominated for four NAACP Theatre Awards for his production of "Behind Closed Doors."

Mr. Perry is currently celebrating being the first playwright of this genre to be sponsored by a major pharmaceutical company, Glaxo Wellcome.

Tyler's second independent but fifth touring project was entitled "Diary of a Mad Black Woman", and opened to a full house in New Orleans in January 2001. "How did the play end?" one might ask. The answer: "It depended on what night you saw it".

In January 2002, "Madea's Family Reunion", a production in which Tyler once again donned the Madea Simmons persona, began touring the country. The show sold out its twelve-day performance schedules across the country for a full month before its arrival in designated cities. When Tyler discovered that his fans just could not get enough of the incomparable Madea - he kept her and the fun coming in January 2003 - the outspoken, gun-wielding grandmother and a host of other truly unforgettable characters "cut up" in his latest project, "Madea's Class Reunion - The Class that had No Class!"

As a result of the success of the astounding Madea character, Tyler also ventured to portray more of life's ups and downs by placing in the comedic spotlight David & Tamela Mann in the 2004-2005 debut and tour of "Meet the Browns". This play, not featuring Madea, generated overwhelmingly positive responses to another favorite character, Mr. Leroy Brown. Following the success of "Meet the Browns", Tyler began touring "Madea Goes to Jail" in January 2005, once again bringing to life the beloved Madea Simmons.

Mr. Perry caught the eye of Hollywood and looks forward to the nationwide February release of "The Diary of a Mad Black Woman". He also has plans for a film version of a play that he has not yet released, entitled "A Jazz Man's Blues," the story of a male jazz singer who falls in love with a woman who has decided to live a "better" life. This powerful drama is set in New Orleans in 1947 and is a story that is very close to Tyler's heart.