“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;”>Martin Sophia owes the inspiration for the play he is producing this weekend to a chance encounter on one of his day jobs. He was driving a cab when he picked up a blind man as a fare.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”> “I was fascinated how he was able to live without seeing,” said Sophia, age 31. “He was giving me directions.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”> Though Sophia found it interesting that a blind man could give directions to anywhere, his destination gave the cabbie/director more to marvel at.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”> “I was taking him to an anger management class,” Sophia recalled. “I said, ‘Okay, you are blind. Why are you going to an anger management class?’”
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”> It turns out the blind man was merely on his way to work, but for the split second that Sophia wondered what anger management issues plagued this blind man, he had entered imaginatively into the world of the blind.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”> “I was fascinated,” Sophia said. “He was a very human being. He goes through things in life just like you and I.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”> Sophia will put this insight to work this weekend when he plays the lead role of Don Baker in his own independent production of Leonard Gershe’s play Butterflies are Free.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”> Sophia cast himself as the blind man because he identifies with the role as an immigrant who came to St. Louis from the east African nation of Kenya – essentially flying blind into a new life where he had disadvantages as a dark-skinned immigrant with an accent.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”> “The character has this thing about life where he says, ‘Just because I’m blind doesn’t mean I need to limit myself,’” Sophia said. “I can relate to when I first came to this country, trying to make it in a very distant world, very different from what I was used to. In a way, it resonated with me – that first time I got here.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”> Sophia has adapted to well to St. Louis, though like most immigrants he has to hustle. “I work about 100 hours a week sometimes. I work for Scholastic Book Fair about 55 hours a week, then I drive a cab on the weekend, do personal training midweek and maybe give a massage,” he said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”> He works so hard so he can fund his own independent theatrical productions. That, too, takes a lot of work in a city that has more options for live theater than it has audience to support the scene.
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“Getting an
audience has been the biggest challenge,” he said. “I was prepared
for that, though, because I am not known here and hence my ticket
sales have just been from word of mouth.”
“font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>For
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”> Butterflies are Free “font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”>, he will be joined by an actor from home, Yvonne Carter, a Kenyan actor now living in South Carolina. The blind man’s mother is a major supporting role in the play. “I needed someone to play my mom, and obviously it was better to cast someone with the same accent that I do,” he said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”> The play dramatizes a son who learns to live independently of his mother. Sophia also can relate to that. He grew up with a single mother and learned to take on many responsibilities at an early age.
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“I was an adult
at the tender age of 9,” Sophia said. “I cooked for my two sisters,
went grocery shopping and pretty much raised them. I was the man of
the house, something my mom made very clear to me and I thank her
to this day for that.”
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Martin Sophia’s
production of
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”>Butterflies are Free “font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana;”>will play at
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”>Shrewsbury
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”>Civic Center “font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:”>, 5200 Shrewsbury Rd., 6:30 p.m. Friday, February 10; 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, February 11; and 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, February 12. Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 advance. For advance tickets, call/text 314757-4527.
