A LETTER TO HARVEY MILK Launches Social Media Campaign #GratitudeNow

New York's newest "surprisingly fierce little musical"* A Letter to Harvey Milk, explores the themes of love, understanding and gratitude as its lead character Harry, a retired butcher, fulfills an assignment and writes a letter to his friend and former customer Harvey Milk. This letter changes his life and a brings up strong feeling of regret that he did not have the opportunity to tell Harvey what he meant to him.

A Letter to Harvey Milk is partnering with The Harvey Milk Foundation and app company Punkpost (which will feature a custom A Letter to Harvey Milk, postcard available to send to anyone. The first Punkpost is FREE with download) to launch #GratitudeNow, a social media campaign that asks people, in our community and beyond, to take a moment and write letter of gratitude to someone that has made a difference in their lives, record it and post it with the hashtag #GratitudeNow.

The most powerful facet of A Letter to Harvey Milk is the human connection and healing that can emerge when one takes the time to awknowledge those who have impacted our lives in some way for the better. #GratitudeNow is the embodiment of this movement, encouraging us all to say thanks while we have the chance. We invite everyone to join us in reaching out with words of gratitude because the time to say thanks is NOW." - A Letter to Harvey Milk Executive Producer, Lisa Dozier King

This 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. The campaign will kick off on March 2, 2018 with the cast of A Letter to Harvey Milk, starring Adam Heller, Julia Knitel and Cheryl Stern.

Here is how #GratitudeNow works:

1. ACCEPT: Accept your call to action.
2. THANK: Record a video of yourself expressing your gratitude and kindness for someone important to you. It can be a friend, family member or even someone you don't know that well. It just has to be someone for whom you are grateful.
3. UPLOAD: Upload your video to social media, tagging at least three of your friends inviting them to share their gratitude with the world.
4. GIVE: Make a donation in honor of the person for whom you're grateful here The Harvey Milk Foundation.

The Harvey Milk Foundation, an international non-profit NGO that promotes Harvey Milk's inspiring legacy through human rights education and global outreach has been recognized by world leaders as one of the most effective Global LGBT rights organizations of our time. Today, the Harvey Milk Foundation provides on-the-ground support and award-winning programing alongside struggling and emerging LGBT communities on 5 continents and in over 30 nations. The foundation was founded by Harvey's nephew, Stuart Milk, and Anne Kronenberg, Harvey's campaign manager and political aide. In 1977, Harvey Milk (1930-1978) became the first openly non- incumbent LGBT elected official to a major office in the United States. He was assassinated in San Francisco's City Hall 11 months later. For more information, please visit www.milkfoundation.org.

Punkpost sends beautifully handwritten cards, mailed by artists for you. Customers place orders via the Punkpost apps or online platform in the amount of time it takes to send a text. From there, one of our 50+ U.S.-based handwriting artists get to work, turning a typed message into a custom, handwritten design on the card of your choosing, and it's in the mail within 24 hours. Punkpost is the dashboard for creating and managing happy moments. The first card is free and after that, they start at $5. For more info or to start sending love today, visit Punkpost.co, follow us @PunkpostCo or download the app for iOS or Android.

San Francisco. 1986. 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. This musical - with its soaring score and deeply-felt, surprisingly funny lyrics - deals with issues of friendship and loss, the grip of the past, and the hard-won acceptance set in motion by the most unexpected people

A LETTER TO Harvey Milk will star Adam Heller (Broadway: It Shoulda Been You, Elf, Caroline or Change), Julia Knitel (Broadway and National Tour: Carole King in Beautiful, Bye Bye Birdie), Cheryl Stern (Broadway: La Cage Aux Folles, The Women) along with Michael Bartoli (National Tour: Joseph/Dreamcoat), Jeremy Greenbaum (Broadway: Newsies), Aury Krebs (Regional: Rent, Hairspray), and CJ Pawlikowski (National Tour: Book of Mormon, Memphis).

Based on the short story by Lesléa Newman, the musical A LETTER TO Harvey Milk 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 and will be directed by Evan Pappas with music direction by Jeffrey Lodin, orchestrations by Ned Ginsburg, casting by Stephanie Klapper. A LETTER TO Harvey Milk is presented by Letter Productions LLC, Associate Producer/Production Supervisor SenovvA Production Core and is executive produced by Lisa Dozier King.

Creative team includes set design by David Arsenault (Off- Broadway: Terms of Endearment. Broadway: The Color Purple (associate)) costumes by Debbi Hobson (Liberty: A Monumental New Musical), lighting design by Christopher Akerlind (Tony Award for INDECENT, Waitress), sound design by David Margolin Lawson (The Crusade of Connor Stephens), and the production stage manager is Ryan Gohsman.

A LETTER TO Harvey Milk is now performing Off-Broadway at Theatre Row's Acorn Theatre (410 W 42 Street), beginning performances on February 21, opening on March 6, running through May 13, 2018. Tickets are $79 - $99 and can be purchased at Telecharge.com or by calling 212-239-6200. Performance schedule is Tuesdays - Thursdays at 7pm; Friday and Saturday at 8pm; Matinees on Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm; Sunday at 3pm.

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