Marc Singer as Frank Alden

About the Character:
Frank Alden is one of those faceless men who “lead lives of quiet desperation”, but are really unsung heroes, because they go out into the world every day without complaint and do their best, even if it’s not appreciated.

Frank is a civil engineer. He had the usual dreams of building dams and skyscrapers, but has never built anything. Because he's patient and conscientious, he gets stuck filling out paperwork for every company project. Doing the scut work for other peoples’ big plans, in other words.

In his personal life, Frank reads science fiction. He only follows tech and architectural news. He likes Star Trek, but just to watch it. He would never dress up like a Trekkie.

If you asked, Frank would say he has several friends. If you asked to name them, Frank couldn’t. This lack of connectedness would be worrisome if he thought about it.

His stated hobby is taking care of the house, but it’s set. He likes to make furniture, but again he’s pretty much filled up the house and run out of projects. He had spent a lot of time running after the kids, but that’s tapering off since Katie is becoming independent and Peter doesn’t do much of anything. So again Frank has a vague unease on how to keep occupied. He’s been thinking of making furniture to sell at craft shows, but that might have to wait until retirement. He could take up fishing or bowling, but hasn’t.

At least he’s a little busier with projects to fuss over. He’ll need a home water filtration system, for instance. And is thinking of installing a generator. So he’ll get to spend time in the hardware store.

Frank is a worrywart. Perhaps from never achieving his vague life goals. Perhaps from raising two boys and two daughters. Perhaps just because it’s a habit.

Now the new regime has come in, bringing new worries. Unlike Martha, Frank figures the changes are temporary, and things will settle down. His anxiety goes up when 1) things don’t settle down, but get steadily worse, and 2) events start to impact his family.

There’s the biggest worry of all: an uncertain future where anything can happen, and much of it will be bad.

About the Actor:

Marc's IMDB

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