SHANNON
MANNING
Brooklyn, New York
Shannon Manning studied at the School of the Art Institute, the University of Chicago (BA History), the University of Illinois at Chicago (MA Theatre), Second City, and with the legendary comedy inspiration Del Close.
That education led her to diverse creative and professional fields. She produced TV news and weather, wrote and produced an award-winning Chicago Bulls scoreboard animation, and started one of the first web publishing businesses in Chicago. She was a baggage handler through many cold winters (deciding at some point that the only honest labor is physical labor) and wrote, performed, and directed for fun and for stage, including a play called Dead Dads.
Since moving to New York in 1997, she has directed improv through the UCB, Magnet Theater (which she also founded), Toyota Comedy Festival, and Drinkytown, and has performed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and with the improv show The Mosaic and UCB's improv teams Mexican Popsicle and Frank Johnson. She directed and performed in the political improv show Red All Over and the music and improv show Beauty Love Truth. She also helped to manage the estate of Charles Mingus, worked as the corporate cash manager for a major publishing company, as webmaster for Pathetic Geek Stories, and has worked as a tv writer and producer for LifetimeTV, Fuse, Kraft.
She published and edited Pipe Up! Magazine, and co-founded the video collective Leche Magica. Her videos from that era can be viewed here. She is now focusing on building a multimedia empire/subculture/revolution through Sparkle Television and LeftyTV.
More info on all these projects is available at Little Commie.
Writing samples:
The Day's Last Peace Bear (words set to images and music)