Theater News

A Letter to Harvey Milk Launches #GratitudeNow Social Media Campaign

Tell the production what you’re grateful for.

Adam Heller plays Harry, Michael Bartoli plays Harvey Milk, Julia Knitel plays Barbara, and Cheryl Stern plays Frannie in A Letter to Harvey Milk, directed by Evan Pappas, at the Acorn at Theatre Row.
Adam Heller plays Harry, Michael Bartoli plays Harvey Milk, Julia Knitel plays Barbara, and Cheryl Stern plays Frannie in A Letter to Harvey Milk, directed by Evan Pappas, at the Acorn at Theatre Row.
(© Russ Rowland)

Off-Broadway's A Letter to Harvey Milk, running at Theatre Row's Acorn Theatre, will partner with the Harvey Milk Foundation and the app Punkpost to launch a #GratitudeNow social media campaign. The campaign asks people to take a moment and write letter of gratitude to someone who has made a difference in their lives, record it, and post it with the hashtag #GratitudeNow.

The first Punkpost entry is free for users with download. The campaign will also be supported by a mailbox at the Acorn Theatre, where audience members can write a letter and the producers of the show will make sure it is mailed and make a donation based on the numbers of letters mailed.

Based on the short story by Lesléa Newman, the musical has lyrics by Ellen M. Schwartz, with additional lyrics by Cheryl Stern, music by Laura I. Kramer, book by Jerry James, Ellen M. Schwartz, Cheryl Stern, and Laura I. Kramer. Evan Pappas directs.

A Letter to Harvey Milk stars Adam Heller and Julia Knitel, along with Michael Bartoli, Jeremy Greenbaum, Aury Krebs, C.J. Pawlikowski, and Cheryl Stern. On the creative team are Jeffrey Lodin (musical director), Ned Ginsburg (orchestrator), David Arsenault (set design), Debbi Hobson (costume design), Christopher Akerlind (lighting design), and David Margolin Lawsin (sound design).

Set in San Francisco in 1986, A Letter to Harvey Milk is described as follows: "What could Harry, an amiable but lonely retired kosher butcher have in common with Barbara, his young lesbian writing teacher at the senior center? Is it enough to bridge the divide? When Harry fulfills a writing assignment to compose a letter to someone from his past who's dead, he writes not to his late wife Frannie, but to Harvey Milk, the first openly gay political leader in California. Barbara is stunned. Harry's letter evokes life-changing revelations that neither could have foreseen."

For tickets and more information, click here.