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2 days ago | 
48hills.org | Charles Lewis III
I want to point out a specific moment from the inaugural production of The Blackest Wrench, SF Neo-Futurists new annual Juneteenth one-off, when the concept of “safe space” seemed to manifest perfectly.
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1 week ago | 
48hills.org | Charles Lewis III
Most of the time, I’m surprised to find out anyone reads anything I write. Other times, I can predict, with great accuracy, who will read it and what their reaction will be. As I was writing my last column, I knew that criticizing establishment Dems would lead some to reach out to me with that classic Oprah POV suggesting, “Just be nice to the Nazis. Then they’ll understand your side.”Such finger-wagging hypocrites like to evoke Dr. King.
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2 weeks ago | 
48hills.org | Charles Lewis III
It’s not always fun to be proven right. As dear Cassandra taught us, it can be an absolute burden to scream how danger is on its way, only for everyone around you to scoff.
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2 weeks ago | 
48hills.org | Charles Lewis III
At the end of the press preview, I was curious. We gathered journalists had just spent the last half-hour-or-so observing the decades-old—in some case, over a century-old—quilts made of every conceivable material, from cotton and silk to old newspaper, of Routed West: 20th Century African American Quilts in California (runs through November 30 at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive).
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3 weeks ago | 
48hills.org | Charles Lewis III
I haven’t been to EXIT Theatre since 2020. I forget what I saw, but if I’d known that it would be my last trip to the unofficial heart of SF indie theatre, I would’ve made that memory last. EXIT’s 2022 closure further illustrated SF’s (and the country’s) indifference towards the arts, particularly independent organizations. I highly recommend Nicole Gluckstern’s fantastic EXIT post-mortem to understand how this Tenderloin storefront became the center of our universe.
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1 month ago | 
48hills.org | Charles Lewis III
When the musical Parade (through June 8 at the Orpheum Theatre) premiered in 1998, it came at the tail-end of a tumultuous decade that everyone revisions as innocuous. Despite what reruns of Friends might have you believe, those of us who were alive in the ‘90s (particularly, those of us from marginalized groups) recall every great stride of the Clinton era being tempered with an equal-if-not-greater setback.
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1 month ago | 
48hills.org | Charles Lewis III
A common thread in the two shows below is how they nail the catharsis of placing blame. Be it baseless scapegoating or calling out the genuinely guilty, there’s a relief to putting a face to your frustrations. Humans have abstract thought, but we share the same fear of the unknown as every other sentient creature. A simple “just because” is never enough for when things go wrong; we need to know there’s a diabolical villain out to get us. When we don’t find it, we’ll make one up.
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1 month ago | 
48hills.org | Charles Lewis III
This is Drama Masks, a Bay Area performing arts column from a born San Franciscan and longtime theatre artist in an N95 mask. I talk venue safety and dramatic substance, or the lack thereof. I’d missed opening night for Crumbs from the Table of Joy (through May 25 at Aurora Theatre Company) because of the same DOGE-ified public transit woes I’ve mentioned before. Finally got to see it this past Friday.
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1 month ago | 
48hills.org | Charles Lewis III
This is Drama Masks, a Bay Area performing arts column from a born San Franciscan and longtime theatre artist in an N95 mask. I talk venue safety and dramatic substance, or the lack thereof. Explaining to folks that you’re a professional critic often involves dispelling misconceptions. But one stereotype that carries a hint of truth is that critics are unable to turn off the scrutinous parts of their minds. Why should we?
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1 month ago | 
48hills.org | Charles Lewis III
This is Drama Masks, a Bay Area performing arts column from a born San Franciscan and longtime theatre artist in an N95 mask. I talk venue safety and dramatic substance, or the lack thereof. Recently, I interviewed SF Mime Troupe’s Micheal Gene Sullivan about the Troupe’s emergency fundraiser. Like all of us in the nonprofit world (particularly us unabashedly leftists), they’ve felt the sting of a leaner-than-usual spring donation season.
