48 Hills / SF Bay Guardian

By CharlesAndHisTypewriter on Monday, 18 October, 2021 • ( Leave a comment )

I grew up grabbing issues of the SFBG every week. Now, my name has a byline in its online successor.

Best of the Bay picks

Performer Charlie Gray (they/he) (February 2023)
Actor Jeunée Simon (she/her) (February 2023)
Indie venue Red Poppy Art House (March 2023)
Indie venue Stage Werx (March 2023)

Reviews and Previews

Autumn/Winter 2021

Review: Dear San Francisco: A High-Flying Love Story opening run at Club Fugazi, making it the successor to the Club’s long-running Beach Blanket Babylon. (October 2021)
Review: Interlude world premiere (in-person, a year after the audio-only version, which I reviewed here) by and at the New Conservatory Theatre Company (October 2021)
Review: The Claim at Shotgun in Berkeley (October 2021)
Review: world premiere of Michael Gene Sullivan’s The Great Khan at SF Playhouse (October 2021)
Review: Wintertime at the Berkeley Rep; their first live show since March 2020 (November 2021)
Review: Father/Daughter at Aurora Theatre Company; their first live show since early-2020 (November 2021)
Review: Plot Point in Our Sexual Development at NCTC (December 2021)
Review: Twelfth Night at SF Playhouse (December 2021)
Review: The Cassandra Sessions at Shotgun Players (December 2021)
Review: SF Ballet’s Nutcracker (December 2021)
Review: The Art of Banksy (Unauthorised) at the Palace of Fine Arts (December 2021)

Early 2022

Review: Gently Down the Stream at NCTC (January 2022)
Review: The Woman in Black at the ACT Strand (January 2022)
Review: Swept Away world premiere at Berkeley Rep (January 2022)
Review: Freestyle Love Supreme tour at ACT (February 2022)
Review: The Kind Ones world premiere at The Magic (February 2022)
Review: Heroes of the Fourth Turning at SF Playhouse (February 2022)
Review: Don Quixote at SF Ballet (March 2022)
Review: Otto Frank premiere run at Magic Theatre (March 2022)
Review: Dot at NCTC (March 2022)
Review: SF Ballet – Program 4 (March 2022)
Review: Passing Strange at Shotgun Players (March 2022)
Review: Water by the Spoonful at SF Playhouse (March 2022)

Spring 2022

Review: SF Ballet Programs 5 and 6 (April 2022)
Review: Intimate Apparel by Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (April 2022)
Review: PrEP Play, or Blue Parachute West Coast premiere at NCTC (April 2022)
Review: Spring/Summer showcase at the Museum of African Diaspora (April 2022)
Review: Drowning in Cairo world premiere by Golden Thread Productions (April 2022)
Review: Endlings West Coasts premiere by Ferocious Lotus and Oakland Theater Project (April 2022)
Review: The Incrementalist world premiere at Aurora Theatre (May 2022)
Review: Swan Lake (Helgi Tomasson’s final show) by the SF Ballet (May 2022)
Review: Octet West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep (May 2022)
Review: Deep River world premiere by Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s 40th anniversary (May 2022)
Review: Monuments, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play) world premiere by Magic Theatre (May 2022)

Summer 2022

Review: Encore at New Conservatory (June 2022)
Review: A Small Fire at Shotgun Players (June 2022)
Review: The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin at SF Playhouse (June 2022)
Review: Balikbayan Box at TheatreF1rst (June 2022)
Review: Killing My Lobster’s Let’s Do the Sex (June 2022)
Review: Romeo y Juliet world premiere at Cal Shakes (June 2022)
Review: The Mojo and the Sayso at Oakland Theater Project (June 2022)
Review: The Real Sappho (virtual) world premiere by Cutting Ball (July 2022)
Review: Back to the Way Things Were world premiere by SF Mime Troupe (July 2022)
Review: FLIP * FLOP * FLY world premiere by Circus Bella (July 2022)
Review: Wives West Coast premiere at Aurora Theatre (July 2022)
Review: Boys Go to Jupiter West Coast premiere by Word for Word at Z Space (July 2022)
Review: Sanctuary City West Coat premiere at Berkeley Rep (July 2022)
Review: Dream Hou$e West Coast premiere at Shotgun Players (July 2022)
Review: Deal with the Dragon at Magic Theatre (August 2022)
Review: Follies full San Francisco premiere at SF Playhouse (August 2022)
Review: Killing My Lobster’s My Parents Came to American and All They Got was a Kid Who Does Comedy at PianoFight-SF/Oak (August 2022)
Review: La Lengua Teatro’s Las Azurduy world premiere at Brava Theater (August 2022)
Review: Goddess world premiere at Berkeley Rep (August 2022)

Early-Autumn 2022

Review: This Much I Know world premiere at Aurora Theatre (September 2022)
Review: Evolution by Ferocious Lotus Theatre (September 2022)
Review: Antony & Cleopatra world premiere at SF Opera (September 2022)
Review: Back (all I wanna do is dance and fuck and swim with you) at CounterPulse (September 2022)
Review: Man of God at Shotgun Players (September 2022)
Review: Lear world premiere at Cal Shakes (September 2022)
Review: the ripple, the wave that carried me home. world premiere at Berkeley Rep (October 2022)
Review: Indecent at SF Playhouse (October 2022)
Review: Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name? at The Marsh – SF (October 2022)
Review: The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion at the Museum of the African Diaspora (October 2022)
Reviews: KML’s Freddy Krueger’s Day Off at EXIT Theatre and Misfit Cabaret’s Bite at The Alcazar Theatre (October 2022)
Reviews: Brian Copeland’s Grandma & Me and Tina D’Elia’s Overlooked Latinas, both world premieres at The Marsh-SF (October 2022)
Reviews: Sylvan Oswald’s Pony US premiere at Cutting Ball and Adrienne Price’s The Red Shades world premiere by Z Space (October 2022)

Late-Autumn/Winter 2022

Review: Dustin H. Chinn’s Colonialism is Terrible, but Phở is Delicious world premiere at Aurora Theatre (November 2022)
Review: La Traviata and Orpheus and Eurydice at SF Opera (November 2022)
Review: Nick Malakhow’s A Picture of Two Boys World Premiere at NCTC (November 2022)
Review: Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812 West Coast premiere (livestream) by Shotgun Players (November 2022)
Review: The Mark of the Minotaur at The Marsh Berkeley (November 2022)
Review: Killing My Lobster presents A Very Special Holiday Special at PianoFight and PianoFight-Oakland (November 2022)
Review: Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski at Berkeley Rep (December 2022)
Review: Wuthering Heights at Berkeley Rep (December 2022)
Review: Halie! The Mahalia Jackson Musical world premiere by the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (December 2022)
Review: Jota Mombaça’s THE SINKING SHIP/PROSPERITY art installation US debut at KADIST SF (December 2022)
Review: As You Like It at SF Playhouse (December 2022)
Review: Sleeping Beauty by Panto in the Presidio and A Very Merry Misfit Cabaret by Misfit Cabaret (December 2022)
Year-in-Review for Bay Area Theatre – 2022 (January 2023)

Two of my pieces this year (my op-ed “Pride isn’t a Safe Space…” and my review for The Art of Banksy (Unauthorised)) were listed amongst 48 Hills’ “Top Stories of 2022“.

Early 2023

Review: Poetic Justice by Lynne Kaufman at The Marsh-SF (January 2023)
Review: The Never Too Late Show with Don Reed at The Marsh-Berkeley (January 2023)
Review: SF Sketchfest 2023 – UCB’s ASSSSCAT (January 2023)
Review: SF Sketchfest 2023 – The Roast of Bruce Campbell and Cheech & Chong’s 50th Anniversary (February 2023)
Review: Paradise Blue at Aurora Theatre (February 2023)
Review: A Marriage world premiere by TheatreF1rst (February 2023)
Review: Crushing Wheelchairs (Aplastando las sillas de ruedas) world premiere by Theatre for the POOR (February 2023)
Review: Getting There world premiere by Dipika Guha at New Conservatory (March 2023)
Review: Anything Goes at 42nd St. Moon (March 2023)
Review: Cambodian Rock Band at Berkeley Rep (March 2023)
Review: Luis Alfaro’s The Travelers world premiere at Magic Theatre (March 2023)
Review: Gary Grave’s The Mondragola world premiere at Central Works (March 2023)
Review: Clue at SF Playhouse (March 2023)
Review: Merrily We Roll Along at 42nd St. Moon (March 2023)

Spring 2023

Review: Is God Is Bay Area premiere at Oakland Theater Project (April 2023)
Review: The Triumph of Love at Shotgun Players (April 2023)
Review: Aren’t You…? by Fred Pitts world premiere at The Marsh – Berkeley (April 2023)
Review: Cyrano by Edmond Rostand (adapted by Josh Costello) at Aurora Theatre (April 2023)
Review: English by Sanaz Toossi West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep (April 2023)
Review: Black Venus exhibit at the SF Museum of the African Diaspora (April 2023)
Review: Killing My Lobster’s Mythed Opportunity (May 2023)
Review: Exhaustion Arroyo world premiere at Cutting Ball Theatre (May 2023)
Review: Horizon Stanzas world premiere at Joe Goode Annex (May 2023)
Review: We Build Houses Here world premiere at Oasis (May 2023)
Review: Chinglish at SF Playhouse (May 2023)

Op-Eds

“London Breed’s big COVID failure” (aka “London Breed Sold Us Out to COVID)” (March 2022)

As a native San Franciscan who grew up during the height of HIV/AIDS, I can say that San Francisco’s current mayor (whom I’ve criticized before) dropped the ball on COVID.

“For most artists, NFTs are a false bill of goods” (aka “NFTs = ‘No Fuckin’ Thanks’, SF Arts“) (March 2022)

SF artists of all practices are dabbling in NFTs and other Web3 factors. Aside from the fact that they’re environmentally disastrous, NFTs are do more harm than good to the art scene.

“The ultimate troll just bought Twitter. Expect more pain for SF” (aka “The Lingering Stench of (Elon) Musk” (April 2022)

No sooner had SF gotten rid of this grifter when he tosses his South African apartheid money at the most intrusive company in our city.

“Unlike London Breed, I never took my mask off. (Now, COVID cases are up again)” (May 2022)

On April Fool’s Day 2022, SF dropped all indoor mask and vax mandates. A month later, I reported that the joke was on us as COVID cases shot up in record time.

“Pride isn’t a safe space with London Breed and the SFPD” (June 2022)

Since 2020, the Pride parade was put on ice because, y’know, COVID. They’re bringing it back this year, with the return of SFPD and the still-dangerous COVID virus. Yeah, I’ll pass.

“I just caught COVID—right before essential safety measures expire” (May 2023)

After 3 1/2 years of being an exemplar of COVID safety, I got infected by housemates or one of their visitors.
The good news is that I took full advantage of public safety measures. The bad news is those very measures are being eliminated.