Testosterone: How Prostate Cancer Made a Man of Me

Hal Ackerman takes a frank look at his own mortality in his poignant and often humorous play, Testosterone: How Prostate Cancer Made a Man of Me. Originally written as a long prose piece that was published in AARP magazine, Ackerman has presented this adaptation in part and in whole at numerous prostate cancer conventions around the country. Most recently, he performed at the IMPAcT convention sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Michael Milken Foundation.

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