Email Author Lily Janiak

2013 Stories by Lily Janiak

• Lifting the Veil: Brava Theater Imports Pakistan's Most Controversial Play

  published May 8, 2013

  Shahid Nadeem, a three-time prisoner of conscience in Pakistan for his prominent work as an activist and dramatist, when asked about performing... More >>

• Underbelly Laughs: With Two S.F. Companies, You Can Never Be Sure that the Fellatio Isn't Real

  published April 24, 2013

  Many theater companies say that making "provocative" art is part of their mission. The Thrillpeddlers is one such company – depending on... More >>

• Beckett Sideshows

  published April 17, 2013

  Scott Baker knows how actors pigeonhole the work of Samuel Beckett. “They see these serious situations and the elevated language,” he... More >>

• Gender Roles: Local Theater Confronts the Lack of Women Behind the Scenes

  published April 10, 2013

  Sheherezade 13, a coproduction by Wily West Productions and Playwrights' Center of San Francisco, didn't start as a women-centered event. It... More >>

• Wide Range

  published April 10, 2013

  Michelle Jasso used to perform opera in the traditional, grand way, but then, she says, “I got bored.” The way performers simply stand... More >>

• Traditional Oppression

  published April 10, 2013

  The nine characters in Sheetal Gandhi’s Bahu-Beti-Biwi (“Daughter-in-law, Daughter, Wife”), a solo show that... More >>

• Agit Crop

  published April 10, 2013

  Playwright, director, and actor Ian Walker doesn’t make theater that only makes the audience think. “You go to theater,” he... More >>

• To Go

  published April 3, 2013

  Based on the true story of Ming Kuang Chen, an illegal Chinese immigrant who was stuck in an elevator in the Bronx for nearly 81 hours in 2005,... More >>

• Heartbreak of Regularness: Neil LaBute Spreads the Pain

  published March 27, 2013

  Reasons to Be Pretty, which opens this weekend at San Francisco Playhouse, is written by a man and follows a male character, yet its... More >>

• Merely Players: Updating Theater Can Be Tricky

  published March 13, 2013

  Impact Theatre Artistic Director Melissa Hillman is all about making the Bard into one of the bros. Shakespeare didn't write just for the... More >>

• Sondheim Redux

  published March 13, 2013

  The 12-year-old Ray of Light Theatre, which produces a couple of musicals every summer, had been talking, for 10 of those years, about creating a... More >>

• Cult Smash

  published March 13, 2013

  For its last two shows, the devised theater ensemble Mugwumpin took theater out of theaters and into a park, a hotel room, and the Old Mint... More >>

• An Archetypal Affair

  published March 6, 2013

  In Lynne Kaufman's first play, The Couch, a man cheats on his wife, and she tolerates it -- and not just because that man is Carl Jung. For... More >>

• Annie Danger: She'll Take Your Body on a Spiritual Journey

  published February 27, 2013

  Annie Danger isn't officially running for Pope, at least not yet, but the performing artist might win a sizable share of the electorate... More >>

• Number Games

  published February 27, 2013

  More Bigger (Masses) begins with the classic absurdist scenario of someone stuck in a situation beyond his control: The character... More >>

• Locked In: Magic Theatre and SF Playhouse Break Cycles

  published February 13, 2013

  In the Magic Theatre's "rolling world premiere" production of Se Llama Cristina, written by Octavio Solis and directed by Loretta Greco,... More >>

• Toward Three Dimensions: Two New Trope-Smashing Plays

  published January 30, 2013

  If you don't know the trope behind the title of Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a world premiere by Katie May now at the Costume Shop, the play... More >>

• "The Witch House": Possessed by History

  published January 16, 2013

  When I sat down to interview playwright Morgan Bassichis about the premiere of his play The Witch House at The Garage, he had a question... More >>

• The Heat Is On

  published January 16, 2013

  African-American Shakespeare Company’s production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof excises neither “redneck” nor the... More >>