I Know I've Been Changed was the first successful play from playwright Tyler Perry.[1] The play focuses on issues including child abuse[2] and rape and how they can be overcome by a strong belief in God.
Soul musician Ryan Shaw got his start performing in this play in 1998. The play received its first staging in Atlanta in 1992.[3] The play toured from 1998 to 2000.[4]
Grammy award winning vocalist Ann Nesby of the musical and instrumental group Sounds of Blackness played a supporting role in this play/production.
Saycon Sengbloh would later become the first Black stand-by and then principle lead for the role of Elphaba in the Broadway musical WICKED.
Plot
This hard-hitting play used comedy and drama to tell a story of two adult survivors of child abuse who became the people that their abusive mother said they would be. It is also the story of how they overcame, by the power of God, with a shocking twist at the end. Mary, the lead character, married and had two children before she had the opportunity to become an adult herself. Emotionally and spiritually irresponsible, she sought the succor of drugs to alleviate the pressure of rearing her children. This drug abuse manifests itself in verbal, emotional and physical abuse toward her children. She is unable to see the beauty of her own children, and, while addicted to drugs, is unable to alter the destructive path she has embarked upon. Compounding an already dysfunctional family situation, the husband is abusive to his wife and children as well, molesting his older son, which results in a dramatic plot twist later in the play. Fanny, is a mother divorcing her husband after becoming a famous singer. In a bold move to pursue her dreams she had to leave her daughter Ellen, to be raised by her husband, Joe.
In this play, Tyler Perry portrays Joe, a character still being portrayed by Perry in his movies (as the brother of fan-favorite character, Madea).
While existing as one of Perry's first plays, it is one of the very least few that is not available on DVD.
The show was later supposed to be taped in 2002, and then in 2003. The plans wouldn't follow through for unknown reasons.
"More Than Just A Sin" would later be included as part of the filmed version of "Why Did I Get Married? in 2005.
This arrangement of the "Old Time Mix" would later be reused in 2002's "Madea's Family Reunion.
Chandra Currelly, Ms. Millie in the show, subs in for the voice of Sister Lewis on the play's soundtrack recording, performing the show original "Don't Be Discouraged" in place of LaShun's "Just Because God Said It."
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