We're going to say something that may not be so controversial , but we hope no one takes this wrong way: Every so often San Francisco theater really needs an injection of energy from New York. We can get a little becalmed and lazy here, what with no cohesive "downtown" scene, no network of cutting-edge off-Broadway theaters etc. We have the talent here — San Francisco would be a very different place without emigrés from New York and L.A., escaped here to find a better and easier life but bringing with them a few innovations, fresh talent, new viewpoints. What got us thinking like this was Taylor Mac's witty and audacious new play The Lily's Revenge, playing for a month at the Magic Theater and starring a crew of amazing Bay Area performers. Taylor Mac is a born performer we were already familiar with from the Tingel Tangel Club circuit, which has made a couple of trips to S.F. in recent years, and he's a writer, singer, Vaudevillian and drag performer of a school that fits well with the edgy, rag-tag drag scene here, born of the Cockettes as much as it was from the East Village in the 80s. more ›

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The acclaimed French-trained Guinean contemporary circus troupe Circus Baobab makes its US debut as part of the SF Int'l Arts Festival, performing , a fable about globalization and family, complete with acrobatics, stilt-walking, and African music. 5:30 p.m., $30, Project Artaud Theater (450 Alabama, x Mariposa). They're here through Sunday, and you may find it intriguing to learn that tomorrow's performance is in French. That's them on the YouTube above. more ›

Star theater reviewer SFist Karen is too modest to tell you about this herself, so it falls to untutored us to pass along the following production by Karen's own troupe, Black Box Theatre, whose mission is to bring theater to the Internet. more ›