Along with our friend Dan Carbone, whom we already told you about, the NY/SF theater-as-mind-altering-device company Banana Bag & Bodice was honored on July 16th with three New York Independent Theater Awards nominations for its original play, The Rise & Fall of the Rising Fallen, last seen on this coast at the 2006 San Francisco Fringe Festival. Rising Fallen was cited by NYIT for Outstanding Ensemble and Outstanding Production of a Play, and playwright......

-- "Dub Mission": Resident DJs Sep and Vinnie Esparza welcome Teleseen to their weekly dub-dance club night in the Mission. 9 p.m.-2 a.m. at Elbo Room, 647 Valencia; $5. -- The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars: This winner of the SF Fringe Festival has famous writers visiting a playwright on the precipice of completing his final work. Film starts at 7 p.m. (with free wine and cheese afterwards. Hic!) at the Traveling Jewish......

Photo of Dan Carbone and friend, by Mike Kuchar Why? Because the stuffed-animal slinging, falsetto-singing, universe-weaving, Dada-referencing, Bay Area playwright and theater artist (and good friend and muse of seminal filmmaker George Kuchar) is all that -- and he's just been nominated for a New York Innovative Theater Award (being announced at a party in NYC tonight) for his 2006 Off-Off Broadway production of Kingdom of Not. Savvy Fringe Festival regulars may recall that this......

These shows resist lumping....

San Francisco has a hot theater scene, but that doesn't mean the rest of the Bay Area doesn't sizzle as well. ...

We -ists are an eclectic bunch, but there's a couple of things we all love: famous people, social causes, and wacky local facts. Join us as we starf**k, get virtuous, and learn across the -ist network! Austinist starts us off right by filling the famous person quota by interviewing Lewis Black, covers the social cause with a non-profit car sharing company, and gives us more wacky local facts than we can handle with Austin by......

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scene. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. Bostonist sees Boston and Somerville each whip out their art and face off. A plagiarized novel is the......

Like we said before, you never really quite know what you’re going to get at the San Francisco Fringe Festival. But last night we did a marathon Fringe, seeing three shows between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. that ran the spectrum between existential absurdity to full-out hysterical, offensive comedy, and a rock show. We had the perfect Fringe experience. We started out with Go: A Life in Progress, conceived and performed by Gillian Chadsey......

Thursday night was night number two of the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The Exit Café, Fringe headquarters, wasn't very busy, but they had the beer and free pretzels ready (you can eat and drink in the Exit's theatres). Lily, the Exit's nonchalant dog, was on dropped-taquitos patrol. First up on our Fringe itinerary was Show Me Where it Hurts by Karen Ripley and Annie Larson with the Gallimaufrey Orchestra (Dan Wortman, JX Jones and......

Get your running shoes, because it's time for the San Francisco Fringe Festival: 42 theater companies, 12 days and 7 venues. Started 14 years ago by the Exit Theatre, the San Francisco Fringe Festival, opening Wednesday, is only one of the many Fringes around the world (Edinburgh being the most well-known). Some are juried, but San Francisco is an anything goes kind of town, so the Exit prides itself on not screening any of......

Not going to Burning Man? Neither are we. Let's check out these shows....

roundup of the Bay Area weeklies...

The SF Fringe is underway: 45 plays, 200-something performances, all short and $8 or less a ticket. Run, don't walk!...