The road to "Blind Street"

When Weiko Lin, the UCLA alumnus, playwright and director who
brought to campus the musicals “Parachute Kid” and
“Heavenly Peace,” immigrated to the United States at
age 8 his father remained in their home country, Taiwan.

“(Since) childhood I have searched for alternate father
figures,” said Lin, an alumnus of UCLA’s undergraduate
creative writing program and School of Film and Television.

This quest for human relationships has since colored Lin’s
work within and outside the theater. His latest work, “Blind
Street,” which will debut May 2 at the Century City
Playhouse, will also be the debut of Lin’s career as a
writer/director since graduating from UCLA last year. The piece
dramatizes the random nexus of eight Angelenos (a dying British
backpacker, a homeless veteran, a delusional prostitute actress, a
grave digger, a Beverly Hills runaway, a violent bully and a
Hollywood screenwriter) on a street corner where a blind musician
plays.

What unites each of the characters is a performed identity: each
constructs a facade so as to avoid intimate relationships and the
pain that accompanies those close connections.

“These characters don’t believe “˜it’s
better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at
all,'” said Lin, recipient of the 2001 Samuel Goldwyn
Writing Award for “Parachute Kid”.

The inspiration for Lin’s new play came when the
playwright chanced upon a blind musician’s obituary. The man
was a great conductor from the ’60s but later in life
transitioned from music hall conductor to street performer and
tinkered on odd instruments.

Lin thought about all the people that must have marched past
this man on their daily regimens. As he further considered the
obituary, the musician became the embodiment of what Lin called
“uan” ““ the Chinese word for the magnetic force
that draws people together.

“In the play, the blind musician is the physicalization of
uan: he brings the eight people together,” Lin said.

Their intersection on the musician’s corner cracks the
walls they had so carefully constructed and allows love to seep
through the fissures.

Lin’s other works have engaged social commentary:
2001’s “Parachute Kid” centered on immigrant
latchkey children in 1980s working-class Los Angeles, and
“Heavenly Peace” recalled the 1989 Tiananmen Square
Massacre. “Blind Street” is no different.

The newest production portrays eight social outcasts ““
people to whom passersby would attach assumptions and unknowing
judgments.

“When the audience walks away I want them to think to look
past exteriors and be more understanding, and to not be afraid to
love and possibly lose,” said Lin.

The playwright is not unfamiliar with the pain that often comes
with love.

“Writing is painful. People ask why I write if it’s
painful, but it’s like giving birth: the product is
rewarding. Nothing can top the high I get from writing,” he
said.

When Lin becomes inspired, he closes himself up at home and
writes for two weeks. After he writes a first draft, he workshops
his script with actors, makes sense of it, and then writes the next
draft. When the play is ready for production he assembles a cast
that understands his vision, books a theater, rehearses, works on
public relations, and takes to the street himself to pass out
fliers.

While attending UCLA, Lin received a third of his
productions’ funding from the school, but as a professional
he has had to work from his own bank account and donations from
family, friends and those who know and appreciate his work.

The lively and passionate playwright does not feel unprepared,
however, for this labor of love.

“My education definitely prepared me well. The UCLA
faculty has always encouraged, fostered and inspired me,”
said Lin.

Lin has absorbed and utilized his education well, and, in
addition to his theater and screenwriting undertakings, is passing
that knowledge on to his students at UC San Diego as a visiting
lecturer in screenwriting. He has also taught English classes at
UCLA.

“I will always teach,” Lin said. “My students
keep me going, give me strength and positive energy, and (in turn)
I want to get them excited about writing and literature. Once
you’re my student, you’re always my student.”

Lin’s personal writing process has also been educational.
He connects to emotions, explores them, then discovers and learns
as he creates his characters. He has even learned life lessons from
the characters he creates.

“It took one of the characters in “˜Blind
Street’ 38 years to fall in love because he was
afraid,” said Lin. “I’ll take the
chance.”

“Blind Street” will run from May 2-10 for a total of
four performances, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. at the Century
City Playhouse, 10508 W. Pico Blvd. Tickets are $18 for general
admission and $15 for students and seniors. Advance tickets can be
reserved by phone at (310) 826-3876 or at www.riverscope.com.