When Barbra Streisand prepared for her role...

When Barbra Streisand prepared for her role as the girl who pretends to be a yeshiva boy in the movie “Yentl,” she consulted Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller. Rather than accept a fee for his services, the rabbi suggested that she help promote Jewish culture.

The result was The Streisand Center for Jewish Cultural Arts at UCLA Hillel in 1981. In 1984, the center spawned an annual Festival of Jewish Plays, under the artistic leadership of Susan Merson. Streisand’s mother, Diana Streisand Kind, introduced the program last year in Los Angeles.

Now San Diego will be the first city outside Los Angeles to showcase the results of that festival when the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre hosts staged readings of six one-acts and one full-length play Monday evenings in November at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre at 444 4th Ave.