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.

The Monkey King world premiere at SF Opera

It’s hard to imagine any part of the world where cultural allusions are more hegemonized than in the West. Everything is a naked Judeo-Christian reference. There have been plenty of great stories told with Western tropes, but it doesn’t take too long before everyone in the entire world feels they’ve heard the same story ad nauseum. It says something that few noticed how California just become the first to make Diwali an official state holiday—and of course the entire US economy revolves around a Christian holiday at the end of December.

One of the benefits

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