Direct from hurricane-ravaged Florida, Peculiar Works Project presents Frank Blocker as Holocaust survivor Henryk Altman in Good Jew, Official Selection of the 2022 United Solo Festival. Written by Murray Scott Changar and Frank Blocker, this verbatim solo play is based on multiple interviews with the late Mr. Changar’s late father, Henryk, and directed by Jamibeth Margolis, granddaughter of Holocaust survivors.

He escaped the Treblinka death-camps, twice, joined the Resistance, navigated from the ghettos of Warsaw, through Germany and onto Norway, but Henryk Altman doesn’t see himself as a Good Jew. No one survives war by being good.

There will never be enough stories of Holocaust survival, but there are none like the ones of Henryk Altman. He navigated World War II using false papers, ingenuity, guile, and was blessed with a lot of luck, traveling through Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and Denmark, even passing through Germany at the height of the war. Continually avoiding and denying his own heritage, Henryk’s journey offers hope and humor, as he gets away with… well, a lot of things.
Frank Blocker has performed solo works throughout the US for more than 20 years, and he brings Henryk to penetrating life, revealing the chards of courage and perseverance that push him on. An award-winning playwright and Drama Desk Award-nominated performer, he is best known for character roles and multiple personalities in solo performances. He recently rode out Hurricane Ian at home in Naples, Florida with his rescued greyhound Razmus, where he is the Film and Theatre Director at Centers for the Arts Bonita Springs.

Co-author Murray Scott Changar is Henryk’s son. Blocker and Changar were partners in theatre and in life until Changar’s passing a decade ago. The two worked together as editors of the Stage THIS! series of short play collections and Blocker edited Changar’s only novel, sci-fi thriller The Slaves of Votarus. Changar has the distinction that all the plays he wrote have made their way to production, including The Gates of Helen which premiered at Whole World Theatre in Atlanta, a year prior to his death.

The senior Changar (Henryk Altman) was a man with a quick wit, many skills, and the ability to speak four languages. When the son passed only a few years after his father, Blocker feared the project they had begun together would fade along with the rich and powerful stories that Henry held in his memories. Blocker developed the play over the pandemic years, until the opportunity arose to work with director Jamibeth Margolis, herself a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. Her commitment to these stories and her style of directing are a match not to be missed.