PROSTATE CANCER SURVIVOR ACKERMAN'S PLAY OPENS IN L.A.

Hal Ackerman, co-chair of the UCLA Screenwriting Department, has a play opening in Santa Monica. Check out this article from Yahoo News:

Actor-playwright Hal Ackerman takes a frank look at his own mortality in his poignant, humor-laced, autobiographical play, Testosterone: How Prostate Cancer Made a Man of Me, April 18-May 10 at The Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica, CA.

Ackerman - co-chair of the screenwriting program at the U.C.L.A. School of Theater, Film and Television - completed his treatment for prostrate cancer in 2001.

"I underwent a non-traditional hormone treatment that turned me into a chemical eunuch," he laughs. "The play is about how we define masculinity when the very thing that defines manhood is taken away. I look at all the relationships that define maleness: father, son, husband, friend and lover. It opens with what I jokingly call a 'manologue.'"

"Testosterone: How Prostate Cancer Made a Man of Me" was originally written as a long prose piece that was published in AARP magazine. After adapting it into a play, Ackerman has presented it at numerous prostate cancer conventions around the country including, most recently, the IMPAcT convention sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Michael Milken Foundation.

Anyone who's ever attended screenwriting classes at UCLA knows Ackerman to be inspiring, insightful and wise. His book "Writing Screenplays That Sell - The Ackerman Way" is one of the best screenwriting books out there and one we recommend constantly. We look forward to what we're sure will be a great evening of theater. Good on ya, Hal!