travsd

My June Appearances Begin This Week

Intrepidly trudging to my next appointment with a squirrel, a vole, or a meadowlark (actually I thought I was adjusting my music volume and inadvertently took this candid from the POV of a sprite)

 

As Ward Cleaver said to Fred Rutherford, “June is busting out all over!” We have much hopping of a theatrical nature this month, and we thrill to report it below. Coming up:

 

 

Come hear me speak about Alla Nazimova live and in person on Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at HERE Arts Center, following the performance of Romy Nordlinger’s new biographical show Places. Info and tickets here. 

On Monday, June 17, 8 p.m., I’ll be performing once again in Necromancers of the Public Domain , the terrific monthly series produced by Theatre of the Apes. This month we will be interpreting the 101 year old book The Greatest of These by the great actress Laurette Taylor. I’m particularly excited to be on the bill with Emily Frembgen, with whom I’ve been appearing in Jason Trachtenburg’s play Me and Lee. It’s all at The Tank, 312 West 36th Street (btwn 8th and 9th). To sample the strangeness, go here. 

Saturday, June 29. I am pleased to report the return of the American Vaudeville Theatre Classic, coming to Under St. Marks . What do I mean by “classic”? Well, something along the lines of my favorite edition of my long running show as I produced it at Surf Reality and other places roughly 1998-2001. After the release of “No Applause” (2006) I sought to “professionalize” — to do LARGE shows, with a set script, with longer runs, and some of the more conventional bells and whistles. Anyone who’s worked with me on of some of these shows can tell you how miserable working that way makes me. The Frigid edition will be a regular series of intimate, informal, seat-of-the-pants semi-improvised revues mixing elements ranging from the old Bowery saloons to Dada Cabaret, to radio comedy, featuring lots more of my OWN sketches, monologues and songs than I normally get to squeeze into the bigger shows, plus wonderful line-ups of my favorite variety, music and comedy acts — usually wonderfully unique people of all sorts. This month we’ll have Koo Koo the Bird Girl (all the way from Australia), whip-cracking tap dancer Maven Peck Peck (Karen Cormier, whom I havent presented in about 20 years) , funny lady Jennifer Glick, clown duo Jeff Seal and Buttons (Chris Manley) and hopefully the actual WEBER AND FIELDS! and more TBA! Above all, good strange fun! More details to follow but I just heard the date was confirmed and I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. Out-of-towners, dont ye fret, we’ll try to share some video and audio through this medium.

 

Published by travsd

Writer and performer Trav S.D. (www.travsd.com) is best known for his books "No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous" (2005) and "Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube" (2013). He has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager and numerous other publications. Trav has been in the vanguard of New York’s vaudeville and burlesque scenes since 1995 when he launched his company Mountebanks, presenting hundreds of acts ranging from Todd Robbins to Dirty Martini to Tammy Faye Starlite to the Flying Karamazov Brothers. He has directed his own plays, revues and solo pieces at such venues as Joe’s Pub, La Mama, HERE, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, the Ohio Theatre, the Brick, and 6 separate shows in the NY International Fringe Festival. In 2014 he produced and directed the smash-hit "I’ll Say She Is", the first ever revival of the Marx Brothers hit 1924 Broadway show in the NY International Fringe Festival.