Altman's Last Stand
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King Solomon’s Treasure Productions Presents the American Premiere of ALTMAN’S LAST STAND By Charles Dennis Directed by Charles Haid Starring Michael Laskin Producer Associate Producer Set & Projections Racquel Lehrman, Victoria Watson, Designer Theatre Planners Theatre Planners Yee Eun Nam Lighting Designer Costume Designer Sound Designer Toranj Noroozi Jeffrey Kurland Corwin Evans Graphic Designer Photographer & Set Builder Kiff Scholl Visual Consultant Pete Hickok AFK Design Ellen Giamportone Props/Scenic Painter Publicist Additional Photography Katelyn Fink Judith Borne Rene Auberjonois Stage Manager Angelica Estevez Setting Mid-town Manhattan, February 1990, Evening Who is Franz Altman? Who is Franz Altman? Was he a real person? This isthe question people always ask me when I describe Altman’s Last Stand. The answer: yes and no. Some years ago, a now famous psychiatrist in London told me about a patient he had seen that morning: an elderly Jew, an Auschwitz survivor, who had attempted suicide. “All my life,” he told the doctor, “I have been a failure. Even as a suicide, I am a failure.” That was all I needed. I gave this anonymous senior a name and created and eleven page history. When I began writing my novel, A Divine Case Of Murder, Franz Altman made a cameo appearance in the novel. That was the problem. He had nothing to do with the plot. Just an entertaining extended monologue that broke up the action of the main story. I removed him from the story. A few years later, I tried slipping him into another book. Same result. What was I going to do about Franz Altman? His sense of failure had seeped into my work like an oil spill. Enter Eric Donkin, a star of Canada’s Stratford Festival, and my first mentor in the theatre. He’d been touring successfully in a one man show - correction, one woman show - for years. “I can’t put on that girdle one more time. Do you have a one person show I could do?” I removed Franz Altman’s story from a drawer. He loved it, but wondered if I could make a whole evening out of it. No problem. There was enough material in my head for three evenings. Our old friend, John Wood, who ran the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, commissioned the play. We were a hit, and later moved to Toronto. Franz went into limbo for several decades after that. I gave it to Hume Cronyn, who loved it but said he could never remember all the lines. A producer had it under option for twelve years, and we had several prospective Altmans do backers readings, including Hal Linden, Louis Zorich, and Bob Balaban. Then, in 2011, Michael Laskin convinced Christopher Hart to hire me for a revival of Light Up The Sky. On the second day of rehearsal, I made a startling discovery: Michael Laskin was a great actor, and perfect casting for the proprietor of King Solomon’s Treasure. But, like Hume Cronyn, he was terrified of all the dialog (almost twice the length of the play you are about to see). Instead we began working on my movie, Chicanery, which we shot off and on for three years. Towards the end of the shoot, Michael said he was ready to play Franz Altman. He also recommended Charlie Haid to direct it. I was thrilled. Mr. Haid and I had met on the red carpet for an under appreciated Disney film we had both voiced,Home On The Range. He was also the late Merv Griffin’s cousin, who had been a mentor to me when I was an entertainment journalist. The stars were in alignment. So here we are, at the end of one journey, and the beginning of another. Franz Altman is finally on the road to success. – Charles Dennis CAST BIO MICHAEL LASKIN (Franz Altman) Michael Laskin has been a professional actor for 40 years, with scores of film and television credits including Seinfeld, Eight Men Out, Nypd Blue, From The Earth To The Moon (HBO), The Grifters, Hill Street Blues, Passion Fish, Tracey Takes On, La Law, Poodle Springs (HBO), Winchell (HBO), The Man Who Captured Eichmann (Showtime), Iron Will (directed by Charles Haid), and Disclosure. On stage, Michael was a company member of the Guthrie Theatre under Michael Langham’s artistic leadership. He also starred off-Broadway (The Basement Tapes) and at leading regional theatres including the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Mixed Blood Theatre Company, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, LA Public Theatre, Empty Space Theatre, and Cricket Theatre. Michael played “Matt Friedman” in the Canadian premiere of Talley’s Folly at the Manitoba Theatre Centre, and “Richard Nixon” in Tea With Dick & Gerry at the Edinburgh Festival. He was awarded the coveted Fringe First Award in Edinburgh and went on to a subsequent run at London’s Roundhouse Theatre. Michael is a highly regarded acting teacher and coach at The Michael Laskin Studio in Los Angeles (www.michaellaskinstudio.com). And his recently published book The Authentic Actor – The Art And Business Of Being Yourself has been widely praised as a fresh and newly examined approach to the work and the life of an actor. He spoke of this synthesis of art and business in a recent TedX talk at Chapman University. Michael is a graduate of Northwestern University and earned a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota, where he also received a Bush Fellowship, and a Distinguished Alumnus Award. He’s taught Master Classes at the University of Minnesota, Kennesaw University and at the Hawaii International Film Festival. Currently he teaches acting for the camera to MFA candidates and undergraduates at UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film, and Television. Michael is married to Emily Laskin, and they have two sons; Nick Laskin (screenwriter), and Joe Laskin (environmental project manager). Altman’s Last Stand represents a clear return to his stage roots and a joyous collaboration with two old friends; Charles Dennis and Charles Haid. He would like to dedicate his performance to the millions of untold stories of bravery, courage, and strength among those who endured the holocaust. PRODUCTION TEAM BIOS CHARLES DENNIS (Playwright) Born in Canada, Charles Dennis planned his escape to the United Staes from the age of seven. He made his radio acting debut at the age of eight, his professional theatre debut at 16, and joined the staff of the Toronto Telegram at 17, where he interviewed luminaries like John Gielgud, Judy Garland, Gig Young, Rod Steiger, Jack Benny, Lee Remick, Merv Griffin, and Jason Robards. He has juggled a career ever since as an actor, playwright, author, and filmmaker. He created the role of Alfred in his play Going On at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and subsequently in New York, and Los Angeles. His plays, Significant Others and High Class Heel, have been produced in New York, London, and Los Angeles. His novels include The Magiker, Given The Crime, Shar-Li, Bonfire, The Dealmakers, and The Next-To-Last Train Ride (which Richard Lester directed for the big screen under the title Finders Keepers). As an actor he has appeared as Sunad in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and as Rico in Disney’s Home On The Range. His voice has been featured in several video games including Star Trek (as Sarek, Spock’s father), Skyrim, Doom3, Law& Order, and Mass Effect. He wrote and directed Hard Four, which featured Bryan Cranston, Edward Asner, Dabney Coleman, Ross Benjamin, and Samuel Gould. His latest film, Chicanery, stars Michael Laskin, Brent Huff and Neil Dickson. It was shot entirely on an iPad. His latest novel, Hollywood Raj, has just been optioned for tv by Carnival Pictures, who hope it will follow the success of their long- running series Downton Abbey. CHARLES HAID (Director) Charles Haid is a producer, director and actor with more than 40 years of experience in the entertainment industry. He started his career as an actor, and has performed in such films as Who’ll Stop the Rain, Altered States and The Third Miracle, and such tv series as Barney Miller and The Waltons but is perhaps best known for his role as Officer Andy Renko on NBC’s Hill St. Blues, a role he played for seven years and which earned him four Emmy nominations. Most recently, he starred in the award winning short film ‘One Armed Man’ based on the Horton Foote story, directed by Tim Guinee. In 1990 he segued into directing, while still continuing to perform as an actor. His TV directing credits include 10 TV pilots and more than 50 hours of episodic television including ER, for which he was an Emmy nominee and a DGA winner; NYPD Blue and the pilot of Murder One (Emmy and DGA Award nominations). He also directed numerous movies-of-the-week including The Sally Hemmings Story, Buffalo Soldiers (DGA nomination), Riders of the Purple Sage and the Humanitas Prize-winning TV movie Cooperstown. More recent credits include HBO’s Nip/Tuck; Disney Channel’s Life Is Ruff; AMC’s Breaking Bad; CBS’ CSI, Criminal Minds and The Defenders; USA’s In Plain Sight; TNT’s The Closer, and NBC’s Grimm. He also directed the Disney feature Iron Will and the play Belfast Blues, for which he was an L.A. Drama Critics Award nominee Mr. Haid’s producer credits include the TV movie The Nightman and TV series The Court (for John Wells), Big Apple (for David Milch), Buddy Faro (for Aaron Spelling), Threat Matrix and High Incident (for Steven Spielberg), and the upcoming feature filmSensitivity Training, among others. Earlier in his career, he was an associate producer of the original stage production of Godspell.