CAA agent Peretzian set to retire
Dealmaker to become full-time theater director

Daily Variety
December 13, 2007
By MICHAEL FLEMING

After 38 years of dealmaking, CAA agent Michael Peretzian is leaving
the tenpercentery biz at year’s end to become a full-time theater
director.

Peretzian, who began his career in the WMA mailroom before rising to
agent, spent the last eight years at CAA and reps directors and
writers including Anthony Minghella, Christopher Hampton, John Madden,
Zach Helm, Jeremy Brock, Peter Hedges and Alexander Dinelaris.

He starts his directing career quickly thanks to those clients.
Minghella asked him to direct "Cigarettes and Chocolate," a radio play
he wrote, and Hampton has invited Peretzian to direct a revival of his
play "Tales From Hollywood."

First up, mostly likely, will be "Red Dog Howls," a play by Dinelaris
that concerns the Armenian genocide of 1915 and a young man who thinks
he’s Greek until he discovers a letter his late father wrote to his
grandmother, who hid their Armenian origins.

Kathleen Chalfant ("Angels in America," "Wit") has agreed to play the
woman with a secret. Peretzian hopes to find an L.A. theater to bring
the play to the stage next year.

"Michael’s eye for talent and passion for great art poise him for a
wonderful career ahead as a stage director," said CAA partner and
managing director David O’Connor.

Before he became an agent, Peretzian’s background was in legit. He
studied for seven years at UCLA and taught graduate courses at the
Pasadena Playhouse. When it went bankrupt, he decided to make money
and found his way to the WMA mailroom. An assignment to walk a Steve
McQueen royalty check over to the actor’s accountant sealed his plans.

"I peeked, and saw that it was for over a million dollars, just for
the second year’s worth of profits on ‘Bullitt,’" Peretzian
said. "That check opened my eyes to possibilities."

Before long, Peretzian made money, but found himself empty: "I woke up
one day and felt dead inside," he said. "I realized the last time I
was really excited and passionate was when I was doing theater."

Moonlighting as a director, Peretzian kept it secret until it became
impossible. The cover was first blown when he was asked to direct a
local version of Pulitzer Prize-winning play "The Shadow Box." First,
he had to ask the playwright, Michael Cristofer — his client.

"He responds by saying, ‘My agent wants to direct my play?,’ "
Peretzian recalled.

After Peretzian was named best director by the L.A. Drama Critics for
the Hugh Leonard play "A Life," WMA found out but kept him on. The
pedigree made the agent a magnet for playwright clients like Beth
Henley, Mark Medoff, Jon Robin Baitz and Minghella.

A move to CAA left little time to direct, and Peretzian finally made a
hard choice.

"I turned 66 in May, and after 38 years, it wasn’t as exciting
anymore," Peretzian said. "It felt like time to move on, and when I
told my clients, they said, you must do this."