If you live in L.A. you might want to make reservations for this new play. It’s not just topical but funny, according to this review. And if you’re a cancer survivor, you get $5 off. (Now don’t say membership in this “club” doesn’t have its benefits!) Finally, kudos to Mr. Ackerman for going public with his story — this is the best kind of advocacy. It’s something only a real man would do.

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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.

Ackerman says, laughing:

“I underwent a non-traditional hormone treatment that turned me into a chemical eunuch. 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.'”

Director Arabian stated”

“There are very few subjects that are taboo for men, and this is one of them. Hal works at a pretty high level in the entertainment industry; his willingness to put himself out there with this piece is really courageous.”

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.

Ackerman’s playwriting career began in New York in the late 1960s, when many of his plays were performed Off-Off Broadway. He has had numerous short stories published in literary journals, several of them winning awards in annual fiction contests.

For more information call (310) 396-3680 or visit www.powerhousetheatre.com.