Trav S.D.

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Trav S.D.
Born
Donald Travis Stewart

1965
Occupation(s)Stage actor, director, journalist, author

Donald Travis Stewart (born 1965), known professionally as Trav S.D., is an American author, journalist, playwright and stage performer. He has been called a leading figure[1] in the New Vaudeville and Indie Theater movements.

Career

Originally from Rhode Island, Trav S.D. started out as a stand-up comedian[2] and studied at Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence before moving to New York City in 1988 to self-produce and perform in his own plays. In 1990 he worked as a personal and administrative assistant to the singer Tony Bennett.[3] Following two years in the development office of the Big Apple Circus in 1995, he founded his company Mountebanks, a platform for producing original theatre pieces and vaudeville shows through his American Vaudeville Theatre.[4] He first began to attract notice in 1998[5][6] as one of a number of Lower East Side “performance comedians” colloquially known as Art Stars, working at alternative night clubs and theatres such as Surf Reality, Collective Unconscious, and The Present Company. In 2001, he was featured in an Adam Gopnik article for The New Yorker[7] about New Burlesque[1]. which led to his first book.

Arts Journalist

In 2008 Trav S.D. launched the arts and culture blog Travalanche, which features thousands of biographies of vaudeville, burlesque, circus, sideshow, cinema, and radio performers and other show business professionals, as well as related news, reviews, and commentary, endorsed as a resource by Dana Stevens on Slate.com.[8]

Author

Trav S.D.'s first book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, was released by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2005[9] and praised by Bette Midler in People Magazine,[10] followed by Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, published by Bear Manor Media in 2013[11] which was later cited by Jason Zinoman in The New York Times[12], and Rose's Royal Midgets and Other Little People of Vaudeville by Vaudevisuals Press in 2020.[13] His most recent book The Marx Brothers Miscellany: A Subjective Appreciation of the World's Greatest Comedy Team was published by Bear Manor in 2024.[14]

Theatre

In 2014, Trav S.D. directed and produced the first-ever revival of the Marx Brothers' musical I'll Say She Is, in the New York International Fringe Festival. As a stage actor Trav S.D. has appeared in numerous productions with Untitled Theatre Company #61, including the 2006 American premiere of Vaclav Havel's Guardian Angel, Edward Einhorn's 2010 adaptation of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and the titular role in 2018's The Resistible Rise of J.R. Brinkley.[15] In 2019, he played the role of David Ferrie in Jason Trachtenburg's off-Broadway play Me and Lee, an original musical about the Kennedy Assassination.[16]

Personal

Trav S.D. has been married twice. From 1992 to 2008 he was married to Susan Monagan, an arts administrator and daughter of former U.S. Representative John S. Monagan. In 2016, he married illustrator Carolyn Raship.

References

  1. ↑ Cullen, Frank (2006). Vaudeville Old and New. United Kingdom: Routledge. p. 1125. ISBN 0415938538.
  2. ↑ Cullen, Frank (2006). Vaudeville Old and New. United Kingdom: Routledge. p. 1125. ISBN 0415938538.
  3. ↑ "On Tony Bennett". Travalanche. 3 August 2013.
  4. ↑ travsd (2011-05-06). "American Vaudeville Theatre". (Travalanche). Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  5. ↑ THEATER REVIEW; Sometimes Delightful, Never Easy: It's Fringe
  6. ↑ SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 1998: THEATER; No Chickens Will Be Harmed
  7. ↑ "Edition 2001-07-23". The New Yorker.
  8. ↑ Turner, Stephen; Metcalf, Dana; Stevens, Julia (2017-04-26). "The Culture Gabfest, Live From Washington". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2021-06-12.
  9. ↑ "No Applause--Just Throw Money | Trav S.D. | Macmillan". US Macmillan. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  10. ↑ travsd (2014-03-31). "I Made People Magazine This Week (Thanks to Bette Midler)!". (Travalanche). Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  11. ↑ Trav S. D. (March 2013). Chain of fools : silent comedy and its legacies from nickelodeons to YouTube. ISBN 978-1-59393-240-4. OCLC 834977009.
  12. ↑ Zinoman, Jason (2018-06-01). "Imagining the Unhappy Life of Stan Laurel". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  13. ↑ Press, Vaudevisuals. "Rose's Royal Midgets and Other Little People in Vaudeville ~ Paperback". Vaudevisuals Press. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  14. ↑ "The Marx Brothers Miscellany - A Subjective Appreciation of the World'". BearManor Media. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  15. ↑ "The Resistible Rise of JR Brinkley | Untitled Theater Company #61". www.untitledtheater.com. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  16. ↑ "Me and Lee - The Musical". Dixon Place. Retrieved 2024-10-08.

External links

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