Lynn Manning | Theater group founder, 60

Lynn Manning, 60, who wrote acclaimed one-act plays and cofounded a theater company in Los Angeles, died Monday at his Los Angeles home.

After a stranger blinded him with a gunshot to the face at a Hollywood bar, Mr. Manning, at 23, had to learn how to get around by himself. To stay fit, he took up martial arts and became a world champion in blind judo. To stay sane, he wrote funny, angry, poignant poems and read them at poetry slams. To grapple with stage fright, he studied acting. To find his voice on a tangle of profound issues that were wrapped up in having a disability and being an African American, he wrote acclaimed plays.

Mr. Manning, who last month attended a White House celebration on the 25th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, had liver cancer, said Eric Inman, managing director of the Watts Village Theater Company, a group established by Mr. Manning and local activist Quentin Drew in 1996.

- Los Angeles Times