Award-winning playwright Jeff Cohen is heralding the importance of listening to Holocaust survivors while they're still living.

Actor Ed Asner stars in "The Soap Myth."(Photo: Burke-Cohen Entertainment)

Well-known stage and screen actors Ed Asner and Tovah Feldshuh star in a PBS concert reading of his play, "The Soap Myth," hosted by theHolocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus. It was filmed last January in New York and is viewable online now.

This Sunday, watch a Zoom conversation between playwright Jeff Cohen and Detroit News film critic Adam Graham.

"The Soap Myth" is set 50 years after the end of World War II and tells the story of an elderly Holocaust survivor,Milton Saltzman, who believes the Nazis turned the fat of murdered Jewish people into soap.

He teams up with a young investigative journalist in hopes that historians and museums recognize his eyewitness account. The play also delves into the evils of antisemitism and Holocaust denial in present day.

"The Soap Myth" reading at B'nai Jeshurun, New York in January 2019, starring Ed Asner and Tovah Feldshuh.(Photo: Burke-Cohen Entertainment)

"In the power of live theater lives a certain immortality," said Cohen in a press release about the virtual performance. "Five years from now, 50 years from now, 150 years from now when an actor portrays Milton Saltzman, Milton is alive. For those 90 minutes, Milton lives in all his rage and all his sorrow and all his stubborn refusal to be silenced. And when Milton lives, rest assured, he will not let the audience forget the Holocaust."

The play's reading is viewable to watch online now atbit.ly/TheSoapMyth-play-on-PBS.

Register in advance for the 2 p.m. Sunday Zoom webinar with Cohen and Graham atbit.ly/TheSoapMyth-HMC-event.Those with questions for Cohen or Graham can submit them by noon Tuesday atholocaustcenter.org/questions.

mbaetens@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @melodybaetens

'The Soap Myth'

Online discussion with playwright Jeff Cohen and Detroit News film critic Adam Graham

2 p.m. Sunday

Register in advance:bit.ly/TheSoapMyth-HMC-event

Concert reading of the play online now:bit.ly/TheSoapMyth-play-on-PBS

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Holocaust Memorial Center hosts 'Soap Myth' online reading and discussion - The Detroit News