BARON OF BROWN STREET Comes to Rubber City Theatre

Eric Mansfield's award-winning "Baron of Brown Street" explores the aftermath Lenny King endured after becoming an overnight celebrity for showing true forgiveness in the face of evil.

Few in Akron had ever heard of Lenny King, a homeless man living under a bridge along Brown Street south of downtown, until news outlets noted that King had been lucky to survive an attack in which a group of men had set him on fire outside of his tent. What appeared to be a shocking crime story in the Ohio news cycle took a dramatic turn when King's attackers appeared in court for sentencing.

King told the men that even though they intentionally scarred his body and traumatized him for life, he forgave them.

Baron of Brown Street follows the days immediately after King's extraordinary act of forgiveness as news reports of his rare words in court made him an overnight celebrity and forced King to confront strangers who sought to take advantage of him as he was trying to return to life under the bridge.

Rubber City Theatre will host the play's world premiere beginning Sept. 8 at the Sandefur Theatre at Guzzetta Hall at the University of Akron. The production runs through Sept. 16 and takes place about a mile from the bridge where King was living.

"We are committed to supporting new works from local playwrights, and this powerful story deserves to come to life in the same town where Lenny King survived this assault and then showed us all a lesson in forgiveness," said Dane CT Leasure, Executive Artistic Director.

Directed by Joe Soriano, the play features Brian O. Jackson as Lenny King. Jackson lives in Akron and graduated from Akron's Firestone High School around the time of the attack. The play's supporting cast includes Isabelle Bailey, David Bays, Andrew Keller, Cait McNeal and Zach Palumbo.

"I was one of the reporters who interviewed Lenny under the bridge following his words in court, and the stories he told me about those who tried to take advantage of him just never left me," Mansfield said. "I set out to tell a compelling story of how one man's act of forgiveness went over the heads of so many around him all while he struggled to forgive himself for the choices that led him to be homeless."

Earlier this year, Baron of Brown Street received the Jean Kennedy Smith National Playwriting Award (2nd Place) from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. among other awards. Mansfield, a professional playwright and member of the Dramatist Guild, began writing the play in 2021 as part of a class assignment for his Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program at Kent State, where Mansfield works full-time. An Emmy award-winning TV anchor and reporter, Mansfield spent 20 years covering the Akron area.

This is his second collaboration with Rubber City Theatre, which premiered Mansfield's military drama Love in Reserve in 2021. Mansfield said those who knew King believe he left the Akron area about 10 years ago.

Tickets range from $12 to $40 and can be purchased from Rubber City Theatre's website.

Support for this production comes from the GAR Foundation, Peg's Foundation, Akron Community Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council.

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