Theater Review - Prejudices past and present

The monologue play A Letter to Harvey Milk reaches from the Jewish shtetl to the streets of San Francisco. The upcoming production at Morgan Design Studio features Israeli actor Yaron Schweizer as 77-year-old Harry Weinberg, whose personal story encompasses the Holocaust and an unlikely friendship with Harvey Milk, the gay activist and San Francisco supervisor gunned down in 1978.

The play is based on the short story of the same name by Lesléa Newman, author of the controversial children’s book Heather Has Two Mommies. “A Letter To Harvey Milk” was the second place finalist in the 1987 Raymond Carver short story competition and was read by Carl Reiner as part of National Public Radio’s “Jewish Stories from the Old World to the New.”

Laced with klezmer music and moments of humor, A Letter to Harvey Milk draws parallels between anti-Semitism and homophobia, with lessons of past tragedies and modern realities affirming the message: “Never forget.”

A Letter to Harvey Milk plays April 13-15 at the Morgan Design Studio, 345 Whitehall St., with performances at 8 p.m. Fri., 2 and 8 p.m. Sat. and 2 p.m. Sun. $10. 615-423-3188.??