{"id":465241,"date":"2026-09-16T05:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T05:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/465241\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T05:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T05:04:10","slug":"best-of-the-bay-2026-editors-pick-golden-thread-productions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/465241\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of the Bay 2026 Editors\u2019 Pick:\u00a0Golden Thread Productions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Polls are open for our 2026 Best of the Bay!\u00a0Vote here now<\/a>, and enjoy our\u00a0Editors\u2019 Picks<\/a>\u00a0of our favorite Bay Area things, which we\u2019ll be posting throughout the month and beyond.<\/p>\n

Stop me if this sounds familiar: the US military machine begins a poorly-thought-out operation in the Middle East. POTUS hubristically declares that the skirmish with be over shortly, yet all negotiation deadlines breeze by, and there\u2019s no clear end to the conflict in sight. Both the White House and mainstream US media fall back on demonizing MENA (Middle Eastern\/North African) people, in a manner reminiscent of Goebbels-style propaganda.<\/p>\n

The members of Golden Thread Productions<\/a> know the story well. <\/p>\n

Amid preparations for the SF theatre company\u2019s 30th season of telling complex MENA stories this year, real life threw in a plot twist<\/a>. Several of its performers and artists (including outgoing artistic director Sahar Assaf) found themselves unable to return to the United States for the premiere of the work they\u2019d spent countless hours creating due to a wartime ramp-up in draconian immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

\"\"Deb\u00f3rah Eliezer and Maya Nazzal in Golden Thread\u2019s \u2018The Tutor.\u2019 Photo by Lois Tema<\/p>\n

Other companies would have cancelled their season, or adjusted it to minimize the impact of such distressing real-life parallels. Instead, Golden Thread (with new AD Nabra Nelson) did what it has done for three decades straight: pushed ahead, telling complex stories that added a much-needed perspective<\/a> that was often missing from media narratives.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s what the company did after 9\/11; it\u2019s what it did after October 7; it\u2019s what it does each and every year. Being the only company to consistently speak out in favor of Palestine isn\u2019t winning them a lot of funding, but it puts their souls at ease.<\/p>\n

As Nelson herself says, \u201cIt\u2019s really despicable for people in arts organizations to be afraid to speak out when you compare that fear to what people are actually facing. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a specific thing an arts organization must do when there\u2019s a war or genocide, but to not have that in the forefront of your mind, and make steps to listen to your community, doesn\u2019t make sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grab your tickets to an upcoming Golden Thread production\u2014like those in the October 9-November 1 ReOrient Festival\u2014here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here<\/a>. We also invite you to join the conversation on our Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n